Historic districts proposed for Central Harlem, NYCHA properties
A portion of Central Harlem and two New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) properties have been nominated for designation as historic districts.
The Central Harlem North Historic District, the Bronx’s Edenwald Houses, and the Manhattanville Houses, together with 33 other properties, have been nominated by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation to be added to the state’s and nation’s official list of historic places.
It could be months before we find out if these locations will be designated as historic, but being named for that possibility already puts a new focus on these everyday spaces that New Yorkers sometimes don’t recognize as having storied legacies.
A press release from Gov. Kathy Hochul described the nominated districts as follows.
- “The Central Harlem North Historic District is an urban residential district approximately ten city blocks in size in Manhattan’s Central Harlem neighborhood, featuring late nineteenth and early twentieth-century brick and stone row houses, tenement houses, and apartment houses, as well as churches, playgrounds, retail and restaurants, library, and a school. The period of significance dates from ca. 1893, the date of the earliest known construction within the district, to 1952. The district illustrates the historic development patterns of Harlem as a Black working-class residential neighborhood, which was heavily tied to the growth of New York City’s public transportation systems and the real estate efforts of Philip Payton Jr.’s Afro-American Realty Company. In addition, the district comprises an excellent, intact grouping of late nineteenth century single-family row houses and new … tenements. Long-standing community anchors include the West 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library (now known as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture), Mother AME Zion Church (designed by George W. Foster Jr., one of America’s first African American architects), and the West 135th Street YMCA (an integral center of New York’s Black community and one of the most important locations of the Harlem Renaissance). The district also includes the house of one of the Harlem Renaissance’s and early twentieth century’s most important civil rights leaders: writer, lawyer, and diplomat James Weldon Johnson. Johnson was national executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and was co-author of what has become the Black National Anthem, ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing.’
- “The Edenwald Houses, a mid-century public housing complex in the Bronx, represents a unique period of housing development in New York’s history. Following World War II, there was an unprecedented need for housing throughout New York City, especially for veterans and working families. The Edenwald Houses project was developed by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) in 1953 as part of a citywide attempt to solve this housing shortage. This marked a pronounced shift in government involvement in the community planning process, although it did not fully address the ongoing issue of housing inequity. The Edenwald campus includes 40 residential structures designed to house families of all sizes within an airy and open greenspace. These brick-clad buildings include three- and fourteen-story units [that] have been in continuous use as residences since their construction and embody the simplified, functional design favored by the NYCHA during this period. These housing units were intended to preserve open spaces, providing light and air for residences as well as open green spaces for recreation. This design is unique to the Edenwald Houses, as they were one of the only NYCHA projects built on already vacant property. Edenwald is also home to a Community Center that was designed to serve as a social hub for those who lived in these apartments. The Community Center provided, and continues to provide, programming for children and seniors, classes, meeting spaces, and recreation opportunities.
- “The Manhattanville Houses, located in the Manhattanville neighborhood of New York City, were built as a public housing project by the New York City Housing Authority between 1958 and 1961. These buildings and the superblock on which they are located are representative of mid-century public housing projects, which included the demolition of multiple blocks of earlier tenement-style housing and the reconfiguration of roads and walkways. Unlike other New York City Housing Authority housing projects, the Manhattanville Houses was intended as housing for middle-income families and did not rely on federal funding support. Built in a true modernist design, these six red brick-clad buildings are shaped like a Y and are 20 stories tall. Each building is centered around a communal balcony space clad in blue brick, with colorful metal panels to add visual interest. These spaces were designed as spaces in which residents could engage in outside activities, and to let fresh and light into the housing units. An important part of the housing project’s design was its landscape, which community development specialists believed would create attractive and functional greenspace for residents to use. The site is also home to an active Community Center and Children’s Center [that] serves residents of the Manhattanville Houses.”
“The general rule of thumb is––because there’s research and determining if there’s eligibility, writing the nomination, editing, taking it before our review board, and then eventually going to Washington to the National Park Service––for a historic district, we generally say it could take a year, but sometimes less for nominations to be approved by the commissioner,” said Kathy Howe, director of Community Preservation Services Bureau in the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, & Historic Preservation. “It depends, though: It’s not just filling out a form and checking some boxes.”
The State Board for Historic Preservation, which has representatives from various state agencies, will look at the nominations to see if they are worthy of a historic listing. District property owners are notified about their area’s nomination at least 60 days before the state review board meeting. Howe said the notification is to help owners understand the pros and cons of having a property on the National Register.
“It’s largely honorific,” she said. “If you are a property owner and you’re using your own private funds, and you’re not tapping into any state or federal funds or going for any grants or tax credits, we have absolutely no jurisdiction over what the private property owner does to his property.”
One of the benefits for owners of having properties listed on the National Register is the potential to tap into funding to maintain their properties through either grants or tax credits. If a property does get on the National Register and the owner is not using any government funding to maintain it and suddenly wants to tear the house down, they can—that’s their right.
If the New York state review board says the nominations of the Central Harlem North Historic District, the Bronx’s Edenwald Houses, and the Manhattanville Houses are eligible to be listed, it will be signed onto by the Deputy State Historic Preservation Commissioner and sent to Washington, D.C., where reviewers at the National Register have up to 45 days to review and accept or reject the designation.
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