the past

Of course, change in Harlem is not new. Growing from Dutch “Nieuw Haarlem” of 1658, the early 1800s saw Harlem as a magnet for affluent New Yorkers who built large estates. With the construction of reliable rail service in the 1880’s, middle-class families settled here, seeking relief from crowded conditions downtown. A speculative boom at the turn of the century led to overbuilding and an ensuing bust, encouraging blacks from Manhattan’s Tenderloin and San Juan Hill sections to move uptown in large numbers–lured by landlords anxious to fill their buildings. Whites protested and many fled. Beginning in 1916, Harlem saw an influx of migrants from the South that created the largest urban community of African Americans in the US. This concentration yielded the cultural flowering of Harlem’s famed “Renaissance” in the 1920s, but soon felt full the blow of the Great Depression.

Riots in the 1930s, 40s, and 60s, while reflecting a community’s desire for recognition and equal rights, exacerbated Harlem’s economic problems. After WWII,“redlining” and other forms of institutionalized racism in new suburban housing encouraged whites and the middle class to leave, while trapping the poor and minorities in urban neighborhoods with limited financial resources. As a new migration from the South, Puerto Rico and elsewhere in the Caribbean brought low-skilled workers to New York just as its manufacturing base was declining, urban renewal tore vast swaths from the fabric of the community. These conditions left Harlem ill-equipped for the energy shortages and financial collapse that hit the city in the 1970s, accelerating housing abandonment and destruction to a crisis point in the 1980s. Echoes of earlier struggles and resilience are found in Harlem’s street names. “After the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the names of many of Harlem’s streets were changed to honor prominent African Americans. Eighth Avenue became Frederick Douglass Boulevard; Seventh Avenue was renamed Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Boulevard; and Sixth Avenue, originally named Lenox Avenue, became Malcolm X Boulevard, while 125th Street was renamed after Martin Luther King, Jr.” (The Big Onion Guide to New York City, NYU Press, 2002). For consistency, this exhibit employs the usage of names that surfaced most regularly in our research: Frederick Douglass Boulevard; Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard; Lenox Avenue; 125th Street. Incidentally, St. Nicholas Avenue was named for the patron saint of New Amsterdam.

the present

• A spirit of cooperation among city agencies–City Planning, Transportation, Economic Development–and recent administrations in partnering with Harlem’s civic leaders and residents to establish priorities based on environmental justice, community participation and equity in planning for the community’s stabilization and revitalization.
• An ongoing, dramatic push from city government in response to the community to provide housing across a broad spectrum of income levels, starting with those most in need and reaching middle- and upper-income residents who now see Harlem as a viable option; reflecting this trend, new apartments and townhouses and substantially rehabilitated buildings dot the landscape–on some blocks looking alien, while others appear spruced-up but familiar.
• A demand for greater access to usable parks and recreation, as well as a higher quality of design and detail in the creation and maintenance of public space in general; this translates into cleaning-up and restoring Harlem’s varied and historic landscapes, whether within the bounds of its naturalistic parks, along its boulevards or on its waterfronts.
• The expansion of retail services and commercial office space, answering a demand for recognition of the community’s buying power and offering employment opportunities–though perhaps fewer than might be desired; development is bringing name-brand stores and attracting shoppers from outside Harlem, while keeping more of the community’s purchasing power locally.
• The maturing of existing cultural, educational, and social service institutions within Harlem, requiring space to expand for the future, while new institutions and others from outside the community seek to establish a foothold here.