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Post-Harlem Rennaisance
+ A Beautiful SRO
The Harlem Neighborhood Block Association
May 24, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes
After the flourishing of the Harlem Renaissance, the devastation of the Great Depression, and then WWII, many of the cultural greats of Harlem had scattered.
As Gilbert Osofsky writes:
"In the years after World War II, Harlem had become a community in decline. "Many old residents, now successfully able to afford a better community, moved to Westchester, Long Island or Connecticut. The community leaders that had made Harlem the cultural center of Black America had either died or moved away. Only one black writer of note, Langston Hughes, and two musicians, Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton still lived in Harlem."
Duke Ellington lived both in a townhouse on 333 Riverside Dr. and 106th Street for several years and owned two other houses on the block where his sister Ruth Ellington Boatwright, and his son, Mercer, lived. He also lived at 935 St. Nicholas Avenue in Manhattan, New York City. Apartment 4A (where he lived) was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark in 1976.
Lionel Hampton lived at 574 St. Nicholas Avenue before moving downtown near Lincoln Center.
Langston Hughes, of course, made his home on East 127th Street.
A Beautiful SRO
This freestanding home, with a driveway and parking, is on West 129th Street and has been chopped up into SRO units.
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