Neighborhood History
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Welcome to Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill and West Harlem. Historically and architecturally,
it is one of New York City's richest and most diverse neighborhoods. The
development of the area from West 135th to West 155th Street, Edgecombe Avenue
to the Hudson, spans a period of over 350 years and is an exciting and evolving
chapter of the settlement of Manhattan Island and the development of New
York City. The first non-native settlers of the area were farmers of diverse
origins (eleven Frenchmen, four Walloons, four Danes, three Swedes, three
Germans, and seven Dutchmen) who were offered land grants by the Dutch West
India Company after founding Nieuw Amsterdam at the foot of Manhattan in
1625.
In 1658, Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant established the Village of New Harlem,
which includes the area now known as Hamilton Heights. During the Revolutionary
War, temporary fortifications were built throughout Harlem Heights as far north
as 160th Street. In late October 1776, several skirmishes occurred between what
is now West 130th Street and West 145th Streets. Following the defeat of the
Continental Army at the Battle of Brooklyn in the previous August, these encounters
were the first demonstration of the ability of the Continental Army to match
at least the better-trained and equipped British forces.
In 1791, the Bloomingdale Road was extended to meet the Kingsbridge Road at
present day West 147th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue giving easier access
to the area and attracting residents who often created grand estates and country
retreats, enticed by the cool breezes, panoramic views, and inexpensive land
with rich soil. The last remaining great house of this period is The Grange
(1801-2), the twelve-room country home of Alexander Hamilton, the nation's
first Secretary of the Treasury. The Federal-style house, designed by John
McComb Jr., a co-designer or City Hall, is now a museum operated by the National
Park Service, open to visitors daily. Hamilton's thirty-two acre property extended
from present day Hamilton Place on the west, to Hamilton Terrace on the east,
and from West 140th to West 147th Streets.
With the construction of the New York State-financed Croton Water Aqueduct in
1842, the area began to lose its rural character. The aqueduct ran along present
day Amsterdam Avenue, bringing water to the city through iron pipes placed inside
masonry channels. The partially buried and covered over aqueduct created a ten-foot
high roadway that impeded drainage and obstructed views from the surrounding
grand estates.
The growth of New York City intruded upon the bucolic calm of Hamilton Heights.
New transportation links (the elevated railroad on 8th Avenue with stations
at 135th and 145th Streets opened in 1879 and the IRT subway line in 1904)
spurred rapid urbanization. The large country estates were sold and divided
into building lots for speculative development. William H. De Forest, one of
the early developers, along with his son, William De Forest, Jr., developed
much of the land south of 145th Street. In the 1870s and 1880s, De Forest purchased
The Grange and surrounding property in several transactions. He later donated
the house to St. Luke's Church and arranged to have it moved to accommodate
his development plans. The De Forests laid out streets and planned single-family
houses. An 1886 article in the Real Estate Record and Builders Guide noted
that the development "will certainly have a strong distinctive character
of its own, though bearing more resemblance to the suburbs of London than to
anything in the vicinity of New York." St. Nicholas Avenue attracted freestanding
mansions including one in a Romanesque Revival style still standing at 10 St.Nicholas
Place, the grand home of James A. Bailey, the circus king and partner of Phineas
T. Barnum.
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