Hamilton Heights, Manhattan
Encyclopedia
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
borough
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. It lies between Manhattanville to the south and Washington Heights
Washington Heights, Manhattan
Washington Heights is a New York City neighborhood in the northern reaches of the borough of Manhattan. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest point on Manhattan island by Continental Army troops during the American Revolutionary War, to defend the area from the...
to the north. It contains the neighborhood of Sugar Hill
Sugar Hill, Manhattan
Sugar Hill is a neighborhood in the northern part of Hamilton Heights, which itself is a sub-neighborhood of Harlem, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is defined by 155th Street to the north, 145th Street to the south, Edgecombe Avenue to the east, and...
.
Hamilton Heights is bounded by 135th Street to the south, the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
to the west, 155th Street
155th Street (Manhattan)
155th Street is a major crosstown street in the Harlem neighborhood, in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the northernmost of the 155 crosstown streets mapped out in the Commissioner's Plan of 1811 that established the numbered street grid in Manhattan.155th Street starts on the West...
to the north, and Edgecombe Avenue to the east. The community derives its name from Founding Father Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton was a Founding Father, soldier, economist, political philosopher, one of America's first constitutional lawyers and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury...
, who lived the last two years of his life in the area when it was still largely farmland; specifically, he lived in what is now known as Hamilton Grange National Monument. It is located within Manhattan Community Board 9
Manhattan Community Board 9
The Manhattan Community Board 9 is a local government unit of New York City, encompassing all of WestSide Harlem neighborhoods of Hamilton Heights, Manhattanville, and Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan...
.
Housing and demographics
Most of the housing dates from the extension of the elevated and subway lines at the end of the 19th and the start of the 20th Century. This fairly elegant housing became less desirable to white residents in the 1930s and 1940s as the population changed from white to black, even though the black residents were just as affluent as the white residents. There are spacious apartment buildings, brownstoneBrownstone
Brownstone is a brown Triassic or Jurassic sandstone which was once a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States to refer to a terraced house clad in this material.-Types:-Apostle Island brownstone:...
s and other row houses prominently lining the leafy eastern streets of Hamilton Heights, an area traditionally home to a substantial black professional class. The brownstone revival of the 1960s and 1970s led to a new movement of middle-class blacks in the area. Latinos arrived in large numbers in the 1980s, with Dominicans making up the majority. Today the local population is changing again, with Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
s constituting a majority of the population followed by African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s, West Indians and remainders of earlier times' ethnic whites. Gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
since 2005 has dramatically increased the proportion of non-Hispanic whites. Many actors, artists, teachers, and other professionals now reside in Hamilton Heights.
Notable sites
Hamilton Heights is the home of City College of New YorkCity College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
(CCNY), Dance Theatre of Harlem
Dance Theatre of Harlem
Dance Theatre of Harlem is a ballet company and school of the allied arts founded in Harlem, New York City, USA in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook...
, The Harlem School of the Arts
The Harlem School of the Arts
The Harlem School of the Arts is a school in Harlem, New York. It was founded in 1964 by the soprano Dorothy Maynor, and offers its programs to students of all ages. Mezzo-soprano Betty Allen succeeded Maynor as director in 1979. Other directors include Camille Akeju, Kakuna Karina and DeeDee...
and Aaron Davis Hall.
The neighborhood offers several parks, including the recently built Riverbank State Park
Riverbank State Park
Riverbank State Park is a park built on the top of a sewage treatment facility on the Hudson River, in the New York City borough of Manhattan....
, embedded in Riverside Park
Riverside Park (Manhattan)
Riverside Park is a scenic waterfront public park on the Upper West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, operated and maintained by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The park consists of a narrow four-mile strip of land between the Hudson River and the gently...
which runs along the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
the length of Hamilton Heights.
Historic Hamilton Heights comprises the Hamilton Heights Historic District
Hamilton Heights Historic District
Hamilton Heights Historic District is a national historic district in Hamilton Heights, New York, New York. It consists of 192 contributing residential rowhouses, apartment buildings, and churches built between about 1886 and 1931. Most are three and four story brick rowhouses set behind raised...
and the Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill
Sugar Hill, Manhattan
Sugar Hill is a neighborhood in the northern part of Hamilton Heights, which itself is a sub-neighborhood of Harlem, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is defined by 155th Street to the north, 145th Street to the south, Edgecombe Avenue to the east, and...
Historic District Extension, both designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The Commission was created in April 1965 by Mayor Robert F. Wagner following the destruction of Pennsylvania Station the previous year to make way for...
. One of the highest hills in Hamilton Heights slopes up from the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
at 155th Street, and contains the Trinity Church Cemetery
Trinity Church Cemetery
Trinity Church Cemetery consists of three separate burial grounds associated with Trinity Church in Manhattan, New York, USA. The first was established in the Churchyard located at 74 Trinity Place at Wall Street and Broadway...
. Many individual buildings in the district are also landmarked, including Sheppard Hall on the CCNY campus, and the building that once housed The High School of Music & Art
The High School of Music & Art
The High School of Music & Art, informally known as "Music & Art", was a public alternative high school at 443-465 West 135th Street, New York, New York, USA that existed from 1936 through 1984, and then merged into the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing...
.
Transportation
The IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line stops in Hamilton Heights at the 137th Street – City College and 145th Street stations ( train). The IND Eighth Avenue LineIND Eighth Avenue Line
The Eighth Avenue Line is a rapid transit line in New York City, United States, and is part of the B Division of the New York City Subway...
runs under St. Nicholas Avenue, providing service at 135th Street
135th Street (IND Eighth Avenue Line)
135th Street is a local station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 135th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue in Manhattan, it is served by the C train at all times except late nights, B train during weekdays, and A train during late nights.This is...
( trains), 145th Street
145th Street (IND Eighth Avenue Line)
145th Street is a two level express station on the IND Eighth Avenue and Concourse Lines of the New York City Subway, located at the intersection of 145th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue in the New York City borough of Manhattan...
( trains) and 155th Street
155th Street (IND Eighth Avenue Line)
155th Street is a local station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at 155th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, it is served by the C train at all times except late nights, when it is replaced by the A train.This station has two...
( trains). The IND Concourse Line
IND Concourse Line
The Concourse Line is an IND subway branch line of the New York City Subway system. It runs from Norwood – 205th Street in Norwood, Bronx to 145th Street in Harlem, Manhattan. It is the only "B" Division and only fully underground line in the Bronx....
branches off north of the 145th Street station under Frederick Douglass Boulevard to serve 155th Street
155th Street (IND Concourse Line)
155th Street is a local station on the IND Concourse Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 155th Street and Eighth Avenue, it is served by the D train at all times except rush hours in peak direction and the B during rush hours only.This underground station, opened on...
( trains).
The New York City Transit M4 and M5 buses serve Broadway; M100 and M101 buses run on Amsterdam Avenue; M11 bus on 135th Street; Bx19 bus on 145th Street
145th Street (Manhattan)
145th Street is a major crosstown street in the Harlem neighborhood, in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is one of the 15 crosstown streets mapped out in the Commissioner's Plan of 1811 that established the numbered street grid in Manhattan...
; Bx6 bus on 155th Street
155th Street (Manhattan)
155th Street is a major crosstown street in the Harlem neighborhood, in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the northernmost of the 155 crosstown streets mapped out in the Commissioner's Plan of 1811 that established the numbered street grid in Manhattan.155th Street starts on the West...
and the M3 bus on St. Nicholas Avenue
Saint Nicholas Avenue (Manhattan)
Saint Nicholas Avenue is a major New York City street. It runs north-south between 193rd Street and 111th Streets in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It goes through the neighborhoods of Washington Heights, Harlem, Hamilton Heights, and Inwood...
.