Madison Avenue on the East side of Mount Morris Park back in the day had these charming brownstones that also inspired this post card in the early 20th century. Some nondescript buildings stand on this side of today's Marcus Garvey Park but we found an old photo from 1980 that shows what this block look liked over 20 years ago. And yes the townhouses were still there.
Basically these beautiful bay-front homes were in a state of decay by the 80s but it appears that some of the brownstones were occupied. The population of Harlem was diminishing rapidly by this time and the government probably had more of an incentive to have the land be built over with newer buildings than to restore what was there. One can see the residential construction that replaced the corner by 122nd Street at the lower photo as it stands today. This is the only side of the park that does not have brownstones lining some of the blocks today since the aforementioned homes have since been demolished.
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