A photo from 1902 by photographer Joseph Byron shows an anniversary wedding party of Mr. and Mrs. Guttenberg at a Mount Morris Park neighborhood address. Information on the image has the estate at 118 West 120th Street which is today part of the historic district's proposed extension. In contrast to James Van Der Zee's wedding party photo taken in 1926, this turn of the century image would represent an the previously population of Harlem which was slightly over 90 percent white at the time. Check out the Van Der Zee portrait from the roaring 20s in our past post:
LINK
Archival photo courtesy of the Museum of The City of New York
you have a great site!
ReplyDeleteand lets not forget a large portion of the population was Jewish.
ReplyDeleteThe Guttenbergs appear to be very prosperous German Jews (speculating...)
Many of the active churches in Harlem were built as synagagues. I believe the old Temple Emanuel is on 7th avenue near Mount Morris Park. They later relocated to 5th and 66th street.
Often you can tell as the present day Church does not have steeples. So, by re-using the buildings, we can thank many of the black churches for maintaining that part of Jewish Harlem's history.