Harlem

Harlem is bounded s. by 96th St., n. by 155th, w. by the Hudson River and e. by the Harlem River. Peter Stuyvesant established the village of Harlem in 1658. By the 1870s, open farmland and large country estates had given way to residential neighborhoods studded with row houses, multifamily dwellings and luxury apartments. Overbuilding led to a housing glut and the eventual collapse of the real estate market. Property abandoned during this decline was later transformed into affordable rental housing that attracted middle-class African Americans to the area.

In the 1920s resident writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes and Ralph Ellison fueled Harlem’s literary renaissance, bringing worldwide attention to the district. Today, Harlem is regarded as a center for African American culture.