Historic Harlem in New York City
Lying between the East River and the Hudson River, the New York neighborhood of Harlem is adjacent to Washington Heights and Central Park, and is made up of numerous smaller neighborhoods such as Hamilton Heights, Sugar Hill, Manhattanville, and Spanish Harlem, the latter of which is the best known.
Although it became world famous in the twentieth century as the Mecca for African-American arts, when Harlem was founded it was a Dutch village, named after the Old World city Haarlem in the Netherlands. When annexed by New York in 1873, Harlem was but an area of declining farm lands, but the extension of the elevated railroads in the late 1880s, and later the subway system, brought rapid urban development to the neighborhood. Within 40 years, Harlem burgeoned with apartment buildings and brownstone townhomes; sports teams such as the New York Giants called Harlem “home”; and Harlem had become the scene of the African-American literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.
The decades of the 1920s and ‘30s defined Harlem as a literary center. Writers such as Ralph Ellison and Langston Hughes gave voice to the African-American experience as not only a distinct literary genre, but as an important platform for the Civil Rights Movement of the 50s and 60s.
The most famous Harlem landmark of the Golden Age of Jazz was the Cotton Club, where jazz greats such as Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday performed regularly. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, beat poets gathered in local venues to perform their latest creations. Today, a tour through the streets of Harlem takes one past some of the most significant music and literary historic landmarks in the country. Today, the historic Apollo Theater continues Harlem’s legacy as a Mecca for African-American music.
There are a number of tours you can take to see historic Harlem. Contact our customer service ambassadors, and they will help you plan your visit.
