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Okay, it's been awhile since my last post, but now we're back with some very cool, very old buildings from the area in West Harlem where I live.In 1658, the village of Nieuw Haarlem was founded by Dutch settlers on the island of Manhattan. The name was anglicized to Harlem when the English took control of the New Netherland colony. It began as a small agricultural town and remained a rural area consisting mostly of upscale country estates well into the 19th century, including the one belonging to James Roosevelt, great-great-grandfather of Franklin Delano, before that branch of the family moved north to Hyde Park. In 1873, as the quality of the soil began to deteriorate and the fancy homes were auctioned off, Harlem was incorporated into the City of New York. In 1880 elevated train service was extended into the neighborhood, and the area experienced an urban renewal.
At the beginning of the 20th century, West Harlem was a Jewish neighborhood and East Harlem was an Italian neighborhood. The Jewish population reached its peak in 1917 with 150,000 European Jews living in the area. Today the Old Broadway Synagogue, located on Old Broadway just above 125th Street, is the only living relic of Jewish Harlem. In place of the Jews, the area saw a mass migration of African Americans, who moved north from other Manhattan neighborhoods like San Juan Hill (where Lincoln Center is today) and Hell's Kitchen during the first two decades of the 20th century. West Harlem remains a predominately black neighborhood to this day, while East ("Spanish") Harlem is mostly Hispanic. In the 1920s and 30s the neighborhood went through the "Harlem Renaissance," during which African American arts and culture bloomed and the great careers of Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes and many others were launched.
The photos on the left and right show some beautiful examples of Harlem brownstones, which line the side streets in the West 120's. Unfortunately I don't know much about these buildings specifically. My guess is that they were built sometime between 1880 and 1920, when Harlem was first transitioning from country to city, and 
when its demographics were changing rapidly. In high school I had a history teacher who was in her 80s, and she told me that her grandparents were wealthy Jews who lived in a brownstone in Harlem because Jews at that time were restricted from living on the Upper East Side, where affluent gentiles lived. I like to think about the incredible variety of people who have lived in these houses over the years. Perhaps more than any other New York City neighborhood, Harlem is a symbol for the many cultures and identities and personalities that make up the culture, identity and personality of New York.
Below are some lovely architectural details from other cool old Harlem buildings:
I've lived in Harlem for a year and haven't even almost seen it all yet. I definitely have some exploring to do, and there will be more cool old buildings from Harlem in the not-too-distant future. Keep reading!
When I was a kid I used to go up to Dartmouth now and then with my mother (she transferred there as a sophomore the first year it went co-ed), and because it's the first college I ever became familiar with it's in my head as sort of the gold standard in college campuses. It's beautiful, it's old, it's self-contained, it's green in summer and very very cold in winter, and it's located in Hanover, the quaintest little college town you ever did see. I ended up going to Bard, which is in the middle of the woods instead of a town and is more architecturally eclectic, but otherwise fits the Dartmouth template (campuswise, that is; the students are a little different...). 
A little historical background: Dartmouth was founded in 1769 by Reverand Eleazar Wheelock for the purposes of educating, according to the charter granted by King George III to the Royal Province of New Hampshire, the "Youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land ... and also of English Youth and any others." To this day the college actively recruits Native American students and seeks to educate them in issues specific to their tribes and communities. According to the Dartmouth website, over 700 Native Americans have graduated from the college since 1970, more than from all other Ivy League schools combined.
The building pictured above (I happen to really like this picture; the sky broke open about 30 seconds after it was taken) is called Dartmouth Hall. It was the first -- and for forty years, the only -- building of the college. The original Dartmouth Hall was built in 1784, but it burned down and was rebuilt twice before the present version was completed in 1906. This one is made of brick, not wood (odd that it took more than one fire to affect that change), and two of its windows and the exterior hardware are originals from the
first Dartmouth Hall. Today it houses the French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and German departments.
The building on the left is Wilson Hall. It went up in 1885 and functioned as the college library until 1928, when the Baker Library (see below) was built. The eponymous Wilson was George F. Wilson of Providence, who also donated a Wilson Hall to Brown University. Its distinctive towers served as book stacks and reading rooms, and in the eaves above the stacks contained the Picture Gallery. Today, Wilson is used as the headquarters for the Dartmouth Film Society, administrative offices of the Hopkins Center (the student center, located a few paces away) and the Film and Television Studies Department.
The Fisher Ames Baker Library was financed by George Baker, founder of what became Citibank (which means he's rolling in his grave right about now), and named for his uncle. Baker was closed for the Fourth of July while I was there, which is unfortunate because I desperately wanted to go in and see the Orozco Murals inside, which are massive beautiful expressionist masterpieces. And now that I'm reading about it I'm learning that there's something inside called the Treasure Room. THE TREASURE ROOM. I don't know what's in it (other than treasures). I wish I could have gone to the Treasure Room.
Well, that's all for today. Keep reading/start reading. Next I'll have some cool old buildings from Harlem.
NOTE: I've learned that the Hopkins Center is actually the performing arts center, not the student center. Apologies to all, and thank you to Peter Smith for the correction!
I got back last night from a delightful Fourth of July weekend in New Hampshire. Yes, it rained on and off throughout the Fourth, but that didn't stop us from enjoying a little rain kayaking and the sound of fireworks (not the sight of them, though; the woods are pretty dense in those parts). Furthermore, it didn't stop me from FINALLY TAKING MY VERY OWN PICTURES OF COOL OLD BUILDINGS!
We stayed in a log cabin that's part of an inn called Loch Lyme Lodge in the town of Lyme. Above is a picture of the lodge itself, a beautiful farm house built in 1784, which is where we had breakfast every morning and where you can order sandwiches to be served to you by the lake at lunchtime. I can't get over the way those two big pine trees curl around the front porch like that. It looks so precarious to me, but clearly those trees have stood right there about as long as the house itself. To me this image is about trusting in nature.
The church on the left is the Lyme Congregational Church. It's located on the town green in the center of Lyme. It looks to me like the quintessential New England church: white, simple, old, beautiful. The sign on the front says it was built in 1812 but according to the LCC's website the congregation has existed since 1771. The night I took this picture (actually I think my boyfriend Jay might have taken this particular one -- thanks, Jay!) was so lovely. It had been raining for about six weeks straight (just like in New York) and everyone in the neighborhood was out taking in the beautiful evening. We went to a great barbecue at the home of my family friends who live on the other side of the town green from the church. Jay and I agreed that we love the city while we're there but as soon as we go out into the country we don't want to leave.
There are a lot of other cool old buildings in Lyme. Like any small town in New England, there are ancient houses and barns everywhere you look. I also highly recommend Loch Lyme Lodge as a place to go for a low-key outdoorsy inexpensive vacation.
The next post will expand upon my trip to New Hampshire with the cool old buildings of Dartmouth College. Stay tuned!
It wasn't until this morning that I got my camera back into working condition, so I have yet to take a single picture of a single cool old building. But I don't want to keep my adoring public waiting any longer so I figured I might as well put up a picture that I didn't take of an incredibly cool old building.This is the Dakota, an apartment building at 72nd St. and Central Park West. It is beautiful and creepy and dripping with historic and cultural significance. I get a little chill every time I get out of the subway at 72nd St. and find myself in front of this haunting, looming castle.
Here are some reasons the Dakota is significant:
1. Perhaps most notably, this is where John Lennon was murdered in 1980. He and Yoko moved there in 1973 and she lives there still. If you cross the street and walk into Central Park you'll arrive pretty quickly at an area of the park called Strawberry Fields, designated as a memorial for Lennon. Once I walked through there on what I didn't realize would have been his 64th birthday. A big group of people were standing around the "Imagine" mosaic, holding lit candles and singing Beatles songs.
2. The movie Rosemary's Baby, which is one of my all-time favorites, was filmed here. If you haven't seen the movie, stop whatever you're doing and see it right now. Mia Farrow plays Rosemary, but I think the real star is the Dakota.
3. Time and Again is a really really excellent book. It's about time travel but without any sci-fi or fantasy involved: the main character goes back in time using only the power of his mind. He uses the Dakota as the place where he goes to sever all the ties that bind him to the present (well, 1970) so he can slip back into 1880s New York.
I've always heard that the Dakota is so named because back when it was built in 1884 it was so far uptown that people felt it might as well have been in the Dakota Territory, but according to Wikipedia this is probably not true and it's more likely because the building's owner was into Western and Native American names. I like the other story better. But which ever one's true, this picture on the right shows you just how unrecognizable the city was barely over a hundred years ago.
Anyway. The Dakota: a cool old building if there ever was one.
The photos on the left and right show some beautiful examples of Harlem brownstones, which line the side streets in the West 120's. Unfortunately I don't know much about these buildings specifically. My guess is that they were built sometime between 1880 and 1920, when Harlem was first transitioning from country to city, and 
when its demographics were changing rapidly. In high school I had a history teacher who was in her 80s, and she told me that her grandparents were wealthy Jews who lived in a brownstone in Harlem because Jews at that time were restricted from living on the Upper East Side, where affluent gentiles lived. I like to think about the incredible variety of people who have lived in these houses over the years. Perhaps more than any other New York City neighborhood, Harlem is a symbol for the many cultures and identities and personalities that make up the culture, identity and personality of New York.
I've lived in Harlem for a year and haven't even almost seen it all yet. I definitely have some exploring to do, and there will be more cool old buildings from Harlem in the not-too-distant future. Keep reading!
