Apparently a large historic district has been under consideration in Central Harlem for some time now but nothing seems to have been confirmed as of yet. The area between West 130th and West 133rd Street, from Lenox to FDB/8th Avenue has many side streets with almost complete rows of Renaissance Revival brownstones. There are a few open lots and several boarded up shells but one can still get a sense of the original neighborhoods as they once stood 100 years ago while walking these blocks. The top photo shows the only recognizable building formerly associated with the district's namesake Lafayette Theater which in the past couple of decades has been renovated into a modern church:
LINK. We don't have much else to report other than the source information that we found on the NYC Architecture site:
LINK. Seeing that this area was the core of most of the nightlife during the Harlem Renaissance, it would make the most sense to protect it. Does anyone know where this designation currently stands?
These are beautiful blocks, I remember these years back and there is an amazing improvement over the last decade, much credit should go to the individual brownstoners who pioneered these blocks turning the tide against decades of neglect and abuse towards these wonderful buildings. Good to know this may be designated a historic district and deservedly so.
ReplyDeleteThe building near the gate in the first photo is where Scott Joplin use to live.
ReplyDeleteI went through every pdf on the Landmark commision's website and could find no mention of this as a proposed historic district. St. Aloysius is landmarked but that is it. As a resident of this area Im hoping this could actually happen.
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