Harlem
Probably the biggest surprise yet in New York is discovering that Harlem is not the ghetto as depicted in years past. Sprucing up campaigns have left streets spotlessly clean…little old men with brooms like those ubiquitous to China and other Asian countries…sweeping up on every block.
We followed the walking tour recomended in the Lonely Planet guidebook which, from the 135th St. subway station, took us past Columbia University in the distance to Striver’s Row between Frederick Douglas Blvd and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. These two blocks of 1890’s architecturally interesting townhouses got their nickname in the 1920’s when aspiring African Americans first moved here. We passed the Abyssinian Baptist Church which had its origins from 1808 when a Lower Manhattan church was formed in response to segregated services. It moved here in 1920. Previous pastor and namesake of the nearby boulevard, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., became the first African American congressman. On the other side of the block we saw the Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (also originally in lower Manhattan) which played an important role establishing the underground railroad in the mid 1800’s. (Acres of African-American graves were covered over by skyscrapers in lower Manhattan that used to be populated by thousands of black slaves…a small area has been left open there as a memorial.)
On the NW corner of Adam Claton Powell Jr, Blvd and W 135th St. is the site of the Big Apple Jazz Club sometimes credited for how New York got its nickname. On another corner was the site of Ed Small’s Paradise, a hip spot in Harlem in the past and where management once fired a young waiter here named Malcolm Little, aka Malcom X. It’s now an office building. Nearby, the Harlem YMCA provided rooms for those denied a room in segregated hotels. Notable guests include James Baldwin, Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens and Malcolm Little.
We headed south to Marcus Garvey Park, named for the unique Jamaica-born founder of the Back to Africa movement who lived in Harlem from 1916 to 1927. The park was filled with older black gentlemen playing chess.
We headed to 125th St, the main hub of Harlem activity where Bill Clinton has his offices. West on 125th we passed signs of Harlem’s “new renaissance” department stores and chains that are very controversial in Harlem today. Unfortunately the street as become another commercial mall–undistinguished and not much different than Lancaster Dr. in Salem, Oregon. The famed street peddlers are a thing of the past.
A giant white building at the corner of 125th and Adam Clayton Blvd was once the Hotel Theresa sometimes known as the “Black Waldorf-Astoria.” Entertainers playing the nearby Apollo stayed here. Fidel Castro insisted on staying here in 1960 because he thought he was being spied upon in lower Manhatten (suspect he was under equal scrutiny here).
We stopped at the famed Apollo Theater which usually has amateur nights on Wednesdays but this night was preempted by a play about Dorothy Height…a national figure I was familiar with when I volunteered for the Salem YWCA in the early 70’s. We were hungry and tired by this time so we skipped the Apollo and found a packed Amy Ruth’s Restaurant on W 116th St. where we thoroughly enjoyed soul food: gravy smothered pork chops, corn bread, fried catfish, collard greens– topping it all off with sweet potato pie. Then home via the subway.
Tags: Excursions, New York City, USA
Zoe