Sugar Hill, Manhattan

Last updated
Sugar Hill Historic District
718-730 St. Nicholas Avenue.jpg
row houses at 718-730 St. Nicholas Avenue (2014)
Sugar Hill, Manhattan
LocationRoughly bounded by W. 155th St., 145th St., Edgecombe Ave. and Amsterdam Ave.
Manhattan, New York
Coordinates 40°49′38″N73°56′36″W / 40.82722°N 73.94333°W / 40.82722; -73.94333
Area75 acres (30 ha)
Built1883-1930 [1]
Architect Richard S. Rosenstock, Arthur Bates Jennings, Frederick P. Dinkelberg, Henri Fouchaux, Theodore Minot Clark, Neville & Bagge, Schwartz & Gross, George F. Pelham, Horace Ginsbern, C. P. H. Gilbert, Clarence True, John P. Leo, Samuel B. Reed, William Grinnell, William Schickel et al. [1]
Architectural style Queen Anne, Romanesque Revival, Renaissance Revival, Beaux-Arts, Neoclassical, Colonial Revival, Gothic Revival, neo-Grec, etc. [1]
NRHP reference No. 02000360 [2]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPApril 11, 2002
Designated NYCLHamilton Heights/Sugar Hill HD: June 27, 2000
extension: October 3, 2001
Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill Northeast HD: October 23, 2001
Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill Northwest HD: June 18, 2002

Sugar Hill is a National Historic District in the Harlem and Hamilton Heights [3] neighborhoods of Manhattan, New York City, [4] bounded by West 155th Street to the north, West 145th Street to the south, Edgecombe Avenue to the east, and Amsterdam Avenue to the west. [5] The equivalent New York City Historic Districts are:

Contents

The Federal district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. [2] The Federal district has 414 contributing buildings, two contributing sites, three contributing structures, and one contributing object. [7]

History

Sugar Hill got its name in the 1920s when the neighborhood became a popular place for wealthy African Americans to live during the Harlem Renaissance. Reflective of the "sweet life" there, Sugar Hill featured rowhouses in which lived such prominent African Americans as W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Walter Francis White, Roy Wilkins, Sonny Rollins and Afro-Puerto Rican Arturo Schomburg. [8]

Langston Hughes wrote about the relative affluence of the neighborhood in his essay "Down Under in Harlem" published in The New Republic in 1944:

Don't take it for granted that all Harlem is a slum. It isn't. There are big apartment houses up on the hill, Sugar Hill, and up by City College – nice high-rent-houses with elevators and doormen, where Canada Lee lives, and W. C. Handy, and the George S. Schuylers, and the Walter Whites, where colored families send their babies to private kindergartens and their youngsters to Ethical Culture School. [9]

Terry Mulligan's 2012 memoir Sugar Hill, Where the Sun Rose Over Harlemr [10] [11] is a chronicle of the writer's experiences growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in the neighborhood, where her neighbors included future United States Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, early rock n' roll legend Frankie Lymon, and New York baseball great Willie Mays.

Notable buildings

Among the many notable buildings in the Sugar Hill area are: [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harlem</span> Neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City

Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Harlem area encompasses several other neighborhoods and extends west and north to 155th Street, east to the East River, and south to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Central Park, and East 96th Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Washington Heights, Manhattan</span> Neighborhood in New York City

Washington Heights is a neighborhood in the northern part of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest natural point on Manhattan by Continental Army troops to defend the area from the British forces during the American Revolutionary War. Washington Heights is bordered by Inwood to the north along Dyckman Street, by Harlem to the south along 155th Street, by the Harlem River and Coogan's Bluff to the east, and by the Hudson River to the west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coogan's Bluff</span> Promontory in Manhattan, New York

Coogan's Bluff is a promontory near the western shore of the Harlem River in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. Its boundaries extend approximately from 155th Street and the Macombs Dam Bridge viaduct to 160th Street, between Edgecombe Avenue and the river. A deep escarpment descends 175 feet (53 m) from Edgecombe Avenue to the river, creating a sheltered area between the bluff and river known as Coogan's Hollow. From 1890 to 1964, the hollow was home to the Polo Grounds sports stadium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upper Manhattan</span> Northern part of Manhattan, New York City

Upper Manhattan is the most northern region of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary has been variously defined, but some of the most common usages are 96th Street, 110th Street, 125th Street, or 155th Street. The term Uptown can refer to Upper Manhattan, but is often used more generally for neighborhoods above 59th Street; in the broader definition, Uptown encompasses Upper Manhattan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manhattan Community Board 9</span> Community District in New York, United States

The Manhattan Community Board 9 is a New York City community board encompassing the neighborhoods of Hamilton Heights, Manhattanville, and Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan. It is delimited by Edgecombe Avenue, Bradhurst Avenue, Saint Nicholas Avenue, the 123rd Street and Morningside Avenue on the east, Cathedral Parkway on the south, the Hudson River on the west and 155th Street on the north.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamilton Heights, Manhattan</span> Neighborhood in New York City

Hamilton Heights is a neighborhood in the northern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is the northernmost part of the West Harlem area, along with Manhattanville and Morningside Heights to its south, and it contains the sub-neighborhood and historic district of Sugar Hill. Washington Heights lies to Hamilton Heights' north, and to its east is Central Harlem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamilton Grange National Memorial</span> Historic house in Manhattan, New York

Hamilton Grange National Memorial is a historic house museum within St. Nicholas Park in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, United States. Operated by the National Park Service (NPS), the structure was the only home ever owned by Alexander Hamilton, a U.S. founding father. The house contains exhibits for visitors, as well as various rooms with restored 19th-century interiors. Originally located near present-day 143rd Street, the house was moved in 1889 to 287 Convent Avenue before being relocated again in 2008 to St. Nicholas Park. The structure is a New York City designated landmark and a United States national memorial, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Nicholas Avenue</span> Avenue in Manhattan, New York

St. Nicholas Avenue is a major street that runs obliquely north-south through several blocks between 111th and 193rd Streets in the New York City borough of Manhattan. St. Nicholas Avenue serves as a border between the West Side of Harlem and Central Harlem. The route, which follows a course that is much older than the grid pattern of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, passes through the neighborhoods of Harlem, Hamilton Heights, and Washington Heights. It is believed to follow the course of an old Indian trail that became an important road in the 17th century between the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam and the British New England Colonies. In the post colonial era, it became the western end of the Boston Post Road. The road became a street when row housing was being built in Harlem during its rapid urban expansion following the end of the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Nicholas Park</span> Public park in Manhattan, New York

St. Nicholas Park is a public park in Manhattan, New York City, between the neighborhoods of Harlem, Hamilton Heights and Manhattanville. The nearly 23-acre (93,000 m2) park is contained by 141st Street to the north, 128th Street to the south, St. Nicholas Terrace to the west, and St. Nicholas Avenue to the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">555 Edgecombe Avenue</span> Residential building in Manhattan, New York

555 Edgecombe Avenue is an apartment building at the southwest corner of Edgecombe Avenue and 160th Street in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, United States. Built between 1914 and 1916, it was originally known as the Roger Morris Apartments after the retired British Army officer who built the nearby Morris–Jumel Mansion, and was designed by Schwartz & Gross, who specialized in apartment buildings. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark under the name Paul Robeson Residence in 1976, and it became a New York City designated landmark in 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">155th Street (Manhattan)</span> West-east street in Manhattan, New York

155th Street is a crosstown street separating the Harlem and Washington Heights neighborhoods, in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the northernmost of the 155 crosstown streets mapped out in the Commissioner's Plan of 1811 that established the numbered street grid in Manhattan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">145th Street (Manhattan)</span> West-east street in Manhattan, New York

145th Street is a major crosstown street in the Harlem neighborhood, in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is one of the 15 crosstown streets mapped out in the Commissioner's Plan of 1811 that established the numbered street grid in Manhattan. It forms the southern border of the Sugar Hill neighborhood within Harlem.

John E. Scharsmith was an American architect of Swiss extraction with a practice in New York City. Having served with a New York regiment in the American Civil War, by the turn of the 20th century, with offices at 1 Madison Avenue, he was responsible for several landmarked apartment blocks in Beaux-Arts style, such as The Hohenzollern, West End Avenue and 84th Street (1902), and The Chatsworth Apartments, 344 West 72nd Street,, and for the eight-storey apartment block, 425 West End Avenue, at 72nd Street (1905). He designed the neo-Gothic Swiss House, 37 West 67th Street (1906–07), built for the Swiss Benevolent Society as a home for aged Swiss, one among a group of artists' studio buildings on that block being constructed at the time by various firms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Presbyterian Church (Manhattan)</span> Church in Manhattan, New York

The congregation of North Presbyterian Church, at 525 West 155th Street in Manhattan, New York City, is a combination of three former congregations: North Presbyterian Church, Washington Heights Presbyterian Church, and St. Nicholas Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Carolyn Wade Cassady Kent was an American historical preservationist and activist who lived most of her life in New York City on Riverside Drive, one block west of her alma mater Columbia University. As founder of Manhattan Community Board 9's Parks and Landmarks Committee and co-founder of the Morningside Heights Historic District Committee she worked to advocate for the architectures and communities of Morningside Heights, Manhattanville and Hamilton Heights in close collaboration with community, city and state organizations and agencies, to effect landmark designations, restorations and interventions that have preserved and protected buildings and entire neighborhoods. In 2007, she was given the first Preservation Angel Award. In addition, Kent served as Secretary of the Renaissance English Text Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jackie Robinson Park</span> Public park in Manhattan, New York

Jackie Robinson Park is a public park in the Hamilton Heights and Harlem neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. The approximately 12.77-acre (5.17 ha) park is bounded by Bradhurst Avenue to the east, 155th Street to the north, Edgecombe Avenue to the west, and 145th Street to the south. The park has baseball fields, basketball courts, restrooms, and a bandshell, which are arranged around the park's steep terrain. It also includes the Jackie Robinson Play Center, which consists of a recreation center and a pool. Jackie Robinson Park is maintained by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

The following is an alphabetical list of articles related to New York City. New York City is a city in the United States state of New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neville & Bagge</span> American architectural firm

Neville & Bagge was a major residential architecture and construction firm in New York City between 1892 and 1917. Its first office was in Harlem at 217 West 125th Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Garrison Apartments, 435 Convent Avenue</span> Residential building in Manhattan, New York City

435 Convent Avenue is a six-story granite, brick, and terra cotta cooperative apartment building called The Garrison Apartments, Inc. It stands at the southeast corner of Convent Avenue and West 149th Street on Sugar Hill in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood in West Harlem in Manhattan in New York City. The building has 29 apartments individually owned by the shareholders in the corporation, a superintendent's apartment in the basement, and a common-area garden in the back.

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Dolkart, Andrew S.; Postal, Matthew A. (2009). Postal, Matthew A. (ed.). Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 189–208. ISBN   978-0-470-28963-1.
  2. 1 2 "National Register Information System  (#02000360)". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  3. James, Davida Siwisa (2024). Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill: Alexander Hamilton's Old Harlem Neigborhood Through the Centuries (1st ed.). Fordham University Press. ISBN   978-1-5315-0614-8.
  4. "Harlem - New York City Neighborhood - NYC". nymag.com. New York (magazine). 2003-03-10. Retrieved 2009-01-04.
  5. "Harlem, Hamilton Heights, El Barrio, New York City". ny.com. Retrieved 2009-01-04.
  6. Siegal, Nina (2000-06-15). "Landmark Status For Harlem Buildings; District Holds Hub of Black Culture". The New York Times . Retrieved 2009-01-04.
  7. Howe, Kathleen A. (January 2002). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Sugar Hill Historic District". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation . Retrieved 2011-03-25.See also: "Accompanying 69 photos".
  8. 1 2 White, Norval; Willensky, Elliot; Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 546. ISBN   978-0-19538-386-7.
  9. Hughes, Langston. "Down Under in Harlem". The New Republic (March 27, 1944): 404-5
  10. Terry Baker Mulligan website
  11. Henderson, Jane (6 May 2012). "Penned in St. Louis: Terry Baker Mulligan". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  12. 1 2 Taborn, Karen Faye (2018-05-21). Walking Harlem : the ultimate guide to the cultural capital of black America. New Brunswick, New Jersey. ISBN   978-0-8135-9458-3. OCLC   1038016815.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  13. Elaine Woo, "Marvel Cooke; Pioneering Black Journalist, Political Activist", Los Angeles Times, December 6, 2000.
  14. "United States Census, 1930". Ancestry.com. April 4, 1930. Retrieved July 25, 2024.
  15. "The Leslie Uggams Show", Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation. Accessed February 15, 2024. "A major feature of the show was a continuing segment called 'Sugar Hill' about a working-class black family. Uggams played the wife of a construction worker in the sketch."
  16. Smith, Cecil. "Leslie Uggams Show Bows Sunday on CBS", The Los Angeles Times , September 27, 1969. Accessed February 15, 2024, via Newspapers.com. "Perhaps the most choice item on Sunday's premiere hour is 'Sugar Hill,' the weekly adventures of a black family in a Harlem flat."
  17. Perrone, Pierre (2011-10-04). "Sylvia Robinson: Hitmaker who co-founded Sugar Hill Records and became known as 'the mother of hip-hop' - Obituaries - News" . The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-25. Retrieved 2013-09-15.
  18. "Claudine (1974) - Filming & Production - IMDb". imdb.com. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  19. O'Connor, John J. "TV: Harlem Setting for Cinderella", The New York Times , March 24, 1978. Accessed December 28, 2022. "With the story's setting switched to Harlem during World War II, Cinderella is transformed into an ebullient, naive country girl brought to the big city by her father.... She finally gets to go to the famous Sugar Hill Ball only with the help of Michael, who lives on a fire escape of the tenement next door."