REMEMBER: A THANKSGIVING IN HARLEM CIRCA 1874

Archival sketches from 1874 shows a Thanksgiving celebration at the Colored Orphan Asylum within the institution's new Harlem location in what is today's Hamilton Heights.  Originally founded by charitable Quakers, the organization would eventually be headed up by one of the first African American doctors in the 19th century but became more famous in history because of the Draft Riots of 1863.  President Lincoln had just past the draft law which greatly affected the poorer residents of the city and a white mob burned down the orphanage located then at Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street.  Luckily the 233 or so children were saved from the incident but the orphanage was also now in a position in which it needed a new home.

At this point in time Harlem would have been the clear choice even though it was a rural area of Manhattan sparsely populated by small villages and country estates.  Downtown's congested corridors would have had higher cost because of the more central location but Harlem's more affordable countryside qualities would eventually lure quite a few asylums uptown.

So five years after the notorious riots happened further down on the island, the Colored Orphan Asylum moved into their new home at what is today 143rd Street between Amsterdam and Broadway and would remain there until 1907 when a move to the Bronx appeared to be more viable.  The area of the asylum's land would then be transformed into the city blocks that everyone knows today.  From what we can gather, the sprawling estate would have basically been at what is now Hamilton Place within the block this popular new tavern is located on: LINK


Photos courtesy the digital collection at NYPL