The Ancient and Honorable Village of Harlem

+ Harlem Bling

Author

The Harlem Neighborhood Block Association
July 08, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

In 1893, The Harlem Monthly Magazine wrote:

"It is evident to the most superficial observer that the centre of fashion, wealth, culture, and intelligence, must, in the near future, be found in the ancient and honorable village of Harlem."

ABOVE: 5th Avenue between 116th and 117th Streets in East Harlem during the late 19th Century       

ABOVE: Park Avenue looking north (with a train coming south).  Note the rise of land in the distance above the train - Mount Morris Park.

This "ancient and honorable village" was also described by Gilbert Osofsky in (historically) less glowing terms:

"During the previous half-century it had been an isolated, poor, rural village inhabited largely by squatters who lived in cottages pieced together with any material that could be found - bits of wood, twigs, barrel staves, old pipes, tin cans hammered flat.  The community was now, however, being transformed into an upper - and upper-middle-class suburb - New York's first suburb."

Note in the photo below (from 118th Street, looking up 5th Avenue) you can just see the fire watchtower in the distance on the top of the Marcus Garvey acropolis:

Harlem Bling

An over-the-top watch is for sale on Ebay, with the promise that the Harlem Bling timepiece, “Passes Diamond Tester.”

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