Central Harlem, 126th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Lenox Avenue

I need to wrap this up tonight; I've been on it over 4 weeks, for god's sake. No wait a minute, one week of that was inactive due to vacation. Well, even three weeks is too long. Anyway, yesterday, I went on a new walk, in a new area for this blog: the meatpacking district! To visit the brand new High Line.

But in the excitement of the new, I cannot neglect the old. Below are two from the last block on 126th Street, and then I'll show you where I finally found dinner.



Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge




Mary Sargent © 2009 …… click to enlarge




You may remember I was looking for a place to have dinner and not having any luck.


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But here, what's this up ahead? Lenox Avenue and restaurants, primary among them, Sylvia's, the old-time famous Harlem soul food place. I haven't been there since the 80s when I went with a black man and we were treated a tad frostily. Twenty-four years later, maybe it's time to give it another chance. I enter. I see many large groups of white folks. In fact it looks like Sylvia's is the Harlem restaurant for white people. Not that there weren't any black people, but they were definitely outnumbered. I was very graciously shown to a table, alone in my singleness.

It is time for a drink, I think, looking over the cocktail list. Cocktails seemed safer than wine. I order a strawberry daiquiri, it seems like a good match for soul food.



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Omigod, here it comes; it's topped with whipped cream and a cherry! I am mortified. Luckily, no one is paying any attention to me. I order a fried pork chop, candied yams and pickled beets. Whyyyy didn't I order collard greens, blackeyed peas, mashed potatoes, anything, but candied yams? The candied yams were triple sweet with some sort of non-yam taste to them. Pickled beets are pretty much pickled beets. The pork chop, however, makes everything worthwhile. I almost never eat pork anymore since it's gotten so lean and dry and tasteless, but I had a feeling Sylvia might know where to get some unevolved pork. She did. It was great. I would go back there just for that pork chop.


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Central Harlem, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard at 126th Street

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The building across the street is the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building which we've seen before from the front.

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Central Harlem, 126th Street Between Frederick Douglas and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevards

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I can never resist a shot with color coordinated clothes. I mean, of course, coordinated with their surroundings.

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Central Harlem, 126th Street Between Frederick Douglas and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevards

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Central Harlem, Frederick Douglas Boulevard at 126th Street

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Would you have guessed that bright blue and white building was a funeral home? Their website asserts that, contrary to rumors, Unity Funeral Chapels Inc. is NOT owned by a white funeral home chain. Rather, it is owned by five African-American entrepreneurs. Check it out.

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Central Harlem, 126th Street at Frederick Douglas Boulevard

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This is what gets me about this project. I posted this photo because I liked the long shadows, the dilapidated building, the dynamics of the people all going in different directions. (Please enlarge it.) And then there's the House of Seafood. I was going to say something like, I've been looking for a place to eat and this is the first one I've seen so far, but I don't think I'll be dining there tonight. Ha ha. Dismissing it. But just in case there was something to know about it, I googled it. Here's what I found: The Village Voice: "The unprepossessing storefront—a hovel, really—offers no clue that its fish sandwiches are thrilling, a quartet of whiting filets caught locally, fried to perfection, and plunked down on whole-wheat bread with tartar and Tabasco." Thrilling. This opinion is echoed by a reviewer on Yelp: "You'd never guess that this place makes ridiculously good whiting sandwiches, on par with Famous over on 145th St." (Note to self: remember Famous when I'm on 145th Street.)

The problem, you may have noticed, is that House of Seafood is closed. Here's an article from the New York Post in October 2007 that tells why. Redevelopment.

I do like a good fish sandwich, and the best one I ever had was a whitefish sandwich in upper Michigan. But even that wasn't thrilling. And now it looks like I'll never have a thrilling fish sandwich.

But what I mean about what gets me about this project is that it seems everywhere I look there's more there than I think. It's so rich. There's so much. This is why I go ever slower and slower.



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Central Harlem, 126th Street Between St. Nicholas Avenue and Frederick Douglas Boulevard

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Stark. Yet not.

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Central Harlem, 126th Street Between St. Nicholas Avenue and Frederick Douglas Boulevard

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As I was shooting the house with the bower of roses (see two posts back), these two boys came ambling down the street. An instant later, they looked up and saw me. Did you take my picture? one of them asked. Yes, I said. Take a picture of this! they cried as they began performing.



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Take a picture of this! Take a picture of this!




Mary Sargent © 2009 ………. click to enlarge

Take a picture of this!

I wonder when they're middle-aged, will they shake their heads and say uhn, uhn.





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Just as I was about to wrap it up and ask them their names, these girls came along. What, are you modeling? one of them asked. I didn't hear the rest. Next thing I know, they've taken off back the way they came and the girls are walking off in the opposite direction.


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Central Harlem, 126th Street Between St. Nicholas Avenue and Frederick Douglas Boulevard

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Sorry to be a day late, but I was spending the night at the airport in Baltimore (don't ask). U. S. Air did it to me. Yes, I'm naming names! That'll teach em to mess with a blogger. They cancelled the 5:00 and 7:00 p.m. flights to New York because of weather and wouldn't reschedule. 6:00 a.m. was the next flight. And told me blandly, since it was weather, we can't do anything for you. It was hard to be zenlike. Well, impossible. But of course, if you get tired enough, you lose your punch.

On to happier things. Like, great vacation!, great to be home! Now, I have to go to bed.

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Central Harlem, 126th Street Between St. Nicholas Avenue and Frederick Douglas Boulevard

VACATION TIME

I'll be back next Thursday. Don't forget!



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Meantime here's a pretty summertime photo. Note: we've passed into Central Harlem.

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Manhattanville, 126th Street Between Morningside and St. Nicholas Avenues

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This is the last block in Manhattanville and it's a short one, so I'll take care of it in one posting. I couldn't seem to resist white buildings against blue skies today. Here's another.





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Just down the block is this imposing building with no clue as to what it is. I played a guessing game until I got to the corner and saw the front of it.




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PS 157! An elementary school, at that. That is, it was. It closed in 1975 and then gradually deteriorated until it was rebuilt as apartments in 1989. Don't you just wish you could live in something other than a boring old apartment building? This school looks like a good bet, with its 15' ceilings and beautiful windows. I don't know if it's still true, but in 2000 this was called the gay building because so many gays had moved in.

Streetscapes had a good article on this school in 1989. It seems that prior to the 1890s, schools were built in a factory style as befitted the idea of "the school life of a child as a grinding, manufacturing process . . . ." A new school architect, Charles B. J. Snyder, was appointed in 1891 and began building schools that would have an uplifting effect on the city's poor and working class sections, this being one of them.

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Manhattanville, 126th Street Between Amsterdam and Morningside Avenues

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Reminiscent of an Italian village?

This building is at the break in 126th Street where it angled off (see where the sidewalk curves?). From now on, going west, it'll be a normal numbered street – horizontal.


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Manhattanville, 126th Street Between Amsterdam and Morningside Avenues

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This is where 127th Street, just doing as it should, going straight ahead, is abruptly cut off by 126th Street as it angles off the horizontal. And it was so close to the end! But this did create a spot for a nice narrow triangle building. See map.

Meanwhile, on the south side . . .



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Manhattanville, Amsterdam Avenue at 126th Street

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According to Kevin Walsh at forgotten-ny.com, this building was originally the Bernheimer and Schwartz Pilsner Brewing Company, built in 1905. Now known as the Mink Building (presumably because it was a fur storage center for 50 years), it's mixed use, office and retail space. It is on the north side of 126th Street.


And on the south side?




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A live poultry store! Yes! Below La Granja in very faint lettering, it says Live Poulty. See below.



Mary Sargent © 2009 ….............................…….. click to enlarge

The Mink Building is reflected in whatever is between us and the chickens.

The New York Times recently had an article about slaughter houses in New York City. Interestingly, they're on the increase. There are now about 90 live poultry markets in the metropolitan area and that is double what it was in the mid-90s. This is because of increasing demands from immigrants who want to check out their food before they select it. Far from being incongruous to have these places in New York, we have "probably the country’s highest concentration of live-animal markets." It's a big city kind of thing, I guess.


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Manhattanville, 126th Street Between Old Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue

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Same block. South side. I love this building. That doesn't mean I want to live there.



Mary Sargent © 2009 ……… click to enlarge

North side. I would not have posted this photo if I hadn't found out it's an historic church. Because I don't like it as a photo is why. But I thought it over and decided I couldn't deny you the opportunity to improve your minds.

This is St. Mary's Episcopal Church, founded in 1823. It is Harlem's oldest church still in its original location. Its congregation included the widow and children of Alexander Hamilton, African-American abolitionists (yes, it was racially integrated), and Daniel Tiemann, Mayor of New York in 1858-59. There is a street named after Tiemann in Manhattanville which I haven't walked yet. It became New York's first "free pew" Episcopal Church in 1831. Before that you had to pay for your pew. I looked on the web for more information about this pew thing and look what I found: freepews.com. Yes, church pews, free for the taking. They won't ship them. Unfortunately for us New Yorkers, there are none in New York City just now. Maybe tomorrow. But if you want to go to Elmira Heights, NY, you can have your choice of or all of 10', 12' and 16' pews, complete with book racks. Uh oh, I seem to have worked myself into a fit of pew desire. Luckily, I can't do anything about it.

Back to serious matters. You should read this NY Times article from 1866. Note that you have to scroll down to catch the beginning.


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Manhattanville, 126th Street Between Old Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue

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Back to 126th Street and noticing how different the north and south sides of the street are. Here's the south side of the street. And now the reason for the angle parked cars becomes clear. It seems that the police have to break the law in order to enforce the law. Something like that.





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And here's the north side. This is The Sheltering Arms Playground, named for the Sheltering Arms asylum for children which was once located here. The Parks Department has a nice article about the playground, the asylum, and Manhattanville.

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Manhattanville, Old Broadway Between 126th and 125th Streets

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Mary Sargent © 2009 …….. click to enlarge

Old Broadway used to be a bend in Bloomingdale Road and after Bloomingdale Road became Broadway and Broadway was straightened, it was lopped off. Thus Old (bendy) Broadway. Then in 1961, the Manhattanville Houses were built (we saw one of the buildings last night), and cut the street into two pieces. Two blocks on this side and two more from 131st to 133rd Streets. This is one of those streets that I get curious about just seeing them on the map.

So this is what we have: a pretty little synagogue, the Old Broadway Synagogue, recently renovated. Notice the turquoise car which matches the stained glass.

And a white wall with blue awning looking like New Mexico today.

Check out the map. It shows Old Broadway on the other side of 126th Street as just a little nub before it runs into 129th Street. Mainly the grounds of the Manhattanville Houses. And it shows, better than words can tell, why we go from 126th to 129th Street at this point.

Manhattanville, 126th Street Between Broadway and Old Broadway

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As I walked along 126th Street, I noticed that the north and south sides of the street were very different, at least on the first few blocks. This is the south side.

And below is the north side.



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We saw this building from Broadway back in February.

This day in May was brilliant. The sky was that blue and the trees were that green. There was an expansive lawn around the tall building, but no people were taking advantage of it. On the south side, however, men sat around in chairs on the sidewalk. They wouldn't let me take pictures. Uhn, uhn, they said, shaking their heads.


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Manhattanville, Broadway Between 125th and 126th Streets

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The last time I was here, I went home and read about Manhattanville and learned about Columbia University's expansion plans. Not surprisingly, there have been protests and lawsuits. Maggie Astor, of the Columbia Spectator, has been reporting this story and one of her articles concerned La Floridita, the tapas restaurant above, regarding negotiations with Columbia about a possible land swap deal. Ramon Diaz, the owner, was worried about the impact a change in location would have and said, regarding that location, “It’s the Champs Elysées [of New York]—I’m on two of the most famous streets in the world." Hmm. Well, maybe if the Champs Elysées had a rusty old viaduct running down the middle of it.

I hadn't taken a usable photograph of La Floridita, so I couldn't use any of that material. Today I had my second chance.

See the green striped awning at the right of the photo? It's the edge of Floridita, a much more casual eatery, shown below.



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Diaz said his uncle came from Cuba and opened La Floridita in 1965, and at one time had 7 of them. Was this the original one? If you know, please let me know.


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Manhattanville, 135th Street at Broadway

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This is now being used for storage; the sign on the front says Tuck-it-Away, one of many in Manhattanville.

But what was it when it was built? Oh, to go back in time.

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