New York - Historic Harlem
Miles Davies, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday got their start here
One of New York's most interesting areas with grand 19th-century architecture, reminiscent of old New York. Plus Gospel choirs, soul food and the Apollo Theatre.
Visitors to Harlem often take guided tours, but the best way to see this still relatively un-touristy part of New York is on foot.
New York - Harlem - Listen to a Gospel Choir
Sunday is a good day to visit Harlem. The streets are quiet and you move along much quicker than on a week day. The Abyssian Baptist Church on 138th Street is famous for its Gospel choir and there is often a long queue of tourists waiting outside. But there are other churches where you don't have to queue. At the Metropolitan Baptist Church at 151 West 128th Street. The singing is wonderful, it began with a rousing hymn sung by a diminutive woman with a big voice. Two organs played lustily - a really big sound. Church here is a joyful place.
New York - Harlem - The Apollo
Singing gospel was the first step for some of America’s greatest jazz and blues singers, the second was the Apollo Theatre. The Apollo began its long life as a Jewish theatre around 1914 and eventually became the place that launched the careers of stars like Miles Davies, Bessie Smithand Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Michael Jackson (when he was a member of the Jackson Five) began their careers by winning an amateur night contest. Wednesday night is amateur night and the audience is still tough on those entertainers who they think are not good enough for the Apollo.
New York - Harlem - Soul Food
Another famous Harlem institution is Sylvia’s Soul Food Restaurant at 328 Lennox Avenue. Sylvia has been cooking her famous ‘smothered chicken’ and ‘bar-b-que beef ribs’ since the early 1960’s. If these don’t take your fancy, there’s pork chitterlings, stewed chicken with dumplings, black-eyed peas, candied yams, and much more.
New York - Harlem - Historic District
There are many attractive tree-lined streets of elegant houses in Harlem which were built in the 1890’s. Some of the best examples of early Harlem architecture is found in the St. Nicholas Historic District on 139th Street. Particularly elegant is Striver’s Row which is just across from the Abyssinian Baptist Church at 138th Street. At the turn of the century this was the place for ambitious professional black people to reside - hence the name ‘striver’ - someone who tries very hard to succeed.
There’s a lot to see in Harlem. Get yourself a map and wander around. There's a delightful small oasis of green called Marcus Garvey Park and, in complete contrast, the huge, beautiful Cathedral Church of St. John Divine near the northern tip of Central Park, where Harlem begins.
In recent times thousands of Puerto Rican, African, West Indian, Cuban and Haitian immigrants have settled in Harlem and it is once again becoming a place for ‘strivers’. The signs are that it will succeed
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