Morningside Heights, Manhattan - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Morningside Heights is a neighborhood of the 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...

in New York City

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...

and is chiefly known as the home of institutions such as Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, Teachers College

Teachers College, Columbia University

Teachers College, Columbia University is a graduate school of education located in New York City, New York...

, Barnard College

Barnard College

Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...

, the Manhattan School of Music

Manhattan School of Music

The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...

, Bank Street College of Education

Bank Street College of Education

Bank Street College of Education is located in Manhattan, New York City.-History:Bank Street was founded in 1916 by Lucy Sprague Mitchell as the "Bureau of Educational Experiments"....

, the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine

Cathedral of Saint John the Divine

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, officially the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in the City and Diocese of New York, is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York...

, the Riverside Church

Riverside Church

The Riverside Church in the City of New York is an interdenominational church in New York City, famous for its elaborate Neo-Gothic architecture—which includes the world's largest tuned carillon bell...

, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a preeminent independent graduate school of theology, located in Manhattan between Claremont Avenue and Broadway, 120th to 122nd Streets. The seminary was founded in 1836 under the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with nearby Columbia...

, Jewish Theological Seminary of America

Jewish Theological Seminary of America

The Jewish Theological Seminary of America is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism, and a major center for academic scholarship in Jewish studies.JTS operates five schools: Albert A...

, Interchurch Center

Interchurch Center

The Interchurch Center is a 19-story granite-clad office building located at 475 Riverside Drive and West 120th Street in New York City. Besides renting to many secular non-profits, it is the headquarters for the National Council of Churches USA and its sister humanitarian organization Church...

and St. Luke's Hospital

St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center

St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, an academic affiliate of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, is a 1,076-bed, full-service community and tertiary care hospital serving New York City’s Midtown West, Upper West Side and parts of Harlem....

.

Many consider Morningside Heights to be part of the Upper West Side

Upper West Side

The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...

. However, it has been described as part of "Greater Harlem", And many sources have the Upper West Side going no farther north than 110th street. Morningside Heights is bounded by Morningside Park to the east, Harlem

Harlem

Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...

to the north, and 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...

to the west. The streets that form its boundaries are 110th Street

110th Street (Manhattan)

110th Street is a street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is commonly known as the boundary between Harlem and Central Park, along which it is known as Central Park North. In the west, it is also known as Cathedral Parkway....

on the south, Riverside Drive

Riverside Drive (Manhattan)

Riverside Drive is a scenic north-south thoroughfare in the Manhattan borough of New York City. The boulevard runs on the west side of Manhattan, generally parallel to the Hudson River from 72nd Street to near the George Washington Bridge at 181st Street...

on the west, 125th Street

125th Street (Manhattan)

125th Street is a two-way street that runs east-west in the New York City borough of Manhattan, considered the "Main Street" of Harlem; It is also called Martin Luther King, Jr...

on the north, and Morningside Drive to the east. The main thoroughfare is Broadway. With the recent gentrification of Bloomingdale

Bloomingdale District

Bloomingdale is a part of Manhattan's Upper West Side between 96th and 110th Streets and bounded on the east by Amsterdam Avenue and on the west by Riverside Drive, Riverside Park and the Hudson River.-History:...

, the neighborhood immediately to the south of Morningside Heights, the southern boundary of this region is sometimes stretched to 106th Street and at times even 96th Street.

The neighborhood has also been referred to as a "college town

College town

A college town or university town is a community which is dominated by its university population...

" within New York City, the "Academic Acropolis", the "Acropolis of New York", and "Bloomingdale Village".

History

In the 17th century, the land that is now Morningside Heights was known as Vandewater's Heights, named for the landowner.

On September 16, 1776, the Battle of Harlem Heights

Battle of Harlem Heights

The Battle of Harlem Heights was fought during the New York and New Jersey campaign of the American Revolutionary War. The action took place in what is now the Morningside Heights and west Harlem neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City on September 16, 1776....

was fought in Morningside Heights, with the most intense fighting occurring in a sloping wheat field that is now the location of Barnard College

Barnard College

. A plaque by the Columbia University gate on 117th Street and Broadway commemorates this battle.

Use of the name "Morningside Heights" for the neighborhood arose in the 1890s when development of the area commenced. Although the name "Bloomingdale" was used for the area about the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum

Bloomingdale Insane Asylum

The Bloomingdale Insane Asylum was a private hospital for the care of the mentally ill founded by New York Hospital. It occupied the land in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan where Columbia University is now located....

(located at the present location of the main campus of Columbia University

Columbia University

), other names such as "Morningside Hill" and "Riverside Heights" were used for the area and no single name was commonly used for the neighborhood as projects began to construct the university campus, and also the nearby Teachers College

Teachers College, Columbia University

Teachers College, Columbia University is a graduate school of education located in New York City, New York...

, the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine

Cathedral of Saint John the Divine

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, officially the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in the City and Diocese of New York, is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York...

and St. Luke's Hospital

St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center

. In time two names gained the most use; "Morningside Heights" was preferred by the two colleges while "Cathedral Heights" was preferred by St. John's and St. Luke's. After about 1898, Morningside Heights became the most generally accepted, although the diocese at St. John's continued to call the neighborhood Cathedral Heights well into the 20th century. The term "Morningside" came from the park on the east flank of the plateau, which was lit up by the rising sun and which was called "Morning Side Park" in 1870 when the city parks commissioner recommended a survey of the land.

Many apartment buildings and rowhouses, amongst the first to use elevators in residential buildings, were built for New York's prosperous middle class in the first two decades of the twentieth century and most of these buildings are still extant. By the mid-20th century the increasing prevalence of Single Room Occupancy

Single Room Occupancy

A single room occupancy is a multiple-tenant building that houses one or two people in individual rooms , or to the single room dwelling itself...

(S.R.O.) hotels led to attendant socioeconomic problems and a decline in the neighborhood. Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs, was an American-Canadian writer and activist with primary interest in communities and urban planning and decay. She is best known for The Death and Life of Great American Cities , a powerful critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s in the United States...

The Death and Life of Great American Cities
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs, is a greatly influential book on the subject of urban planning in the 20th century...

presented the neighborhood as a key example of the failure of the urban planning

Urban planning

Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....

techniques of the era.

In 1947 David Rockefeller

David Rockefeller

David Rockefeller, Sr. is the current patriarch of the Rockefeller family. He is the youngest and only surviving child of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and the only surviving grandchild of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil. His five siblings were...

became involved in a major middle-income housing development when he was elected as chairman of Morningside Heights Inc. by fourteen major institutions that were based in the area, including Columbia University. In 1951 the organization developed Morningside Gardens, a six-building apartment complex to house middle-income families from all ethnic backgrounds.

The social problems in the area prompted Columbia to purchase much of the neighborhood's real estate, leading to accusations of forced eviction and 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...

. This process reached its nadir in 1968, when protests

Columbia University protests of 1968

The Columbia University protests of 1968 were among the many student demonstrations that occurred around the world in that year. The Columbia protests erupted over the spring of that year after students discovered links between the university and the institutional apparatus supporting the United...

erupted in both the neighborhood and on Columbia's campus over the university's proposal to build a gym in Morningside Park. Residents alleged that the park's proposed separate entrance for Harlem residents on the lower level of the park was segregated, and that public park space was being annexed by a wealthy private institution. The university was eventually forced to abandon the plan, though it has still expanded its presence in the neighborhood markedly over the last few decades, and gentrification and urban renewal have proceeded apace. In January 2008 the university received approval from the City Council to expand significantly in nearby Manhattanville

Manhattanville

Manhattanville is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan bordered on the south by Morningside Heights on the west by the Hudson River, on the east by Harlem and on the north by Hamilton Heights. Its borders straddle West 125th Street, roughly from 122nd Street to 135th Street and...

.

As the city grows and residents move in and out, neighborhood names change as well. Newcomers may consider Morningside Heights as an extension of the Upper West Side

Upper West Side

The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...

, though others hold onto the old name. In the last decade, some businesses in the area have started using the name SoHa (or "South of Harlem") to refer to the neighborhood. Examples of this include Max's SoHa restaurant and the former SoHa nightclub.

The neighborhood is part of the Fifteenth Congressional District of New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, which includes all of Upper Manhattan

Upper Manhattan

Upper Manhattan denotes the more northerly region of the New York City Borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary may be defined anywhere between 59th Street and 155th Street. Between these two extremes lies the most common definitions of Upper Manhattan as Manhattan above 96th Street...

. Traditionally, Morningside Heights has been heavily Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

.

The neighborhood's ZIP code

ZIP Code

ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...

s are 10025, 10026, and 10027.

Academic Acropolis

The label Academic Acropolis has been used to describe the area, since it sits on one of the highest natural points in Manhattan and contains numerous academic institutions. Much of the neighborhood is the campus of Columbia University

Columbia University

, and the university also owns a large amount of the non-campus real estate. Other educational institutions in the neighborhood include Barnard College

Barnard College

, Union Theological Seminary

Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

, New York Theological Seminary

New York Theological Seminary

The New York Theological Seminary was established as a non-denominational institution in 1900 with the founding of the Bible Teachers’ College in Montclair, New Jersey by Wilbert Webster White. President White moved the school to New York City in 1902, when it was renamed the Bible Teachers’...

, Jewish Theological Seminary of America

Jewish Theological Seminary of America

, Manhattan School of Music

Manhattan School of Music

, Teachers College

Teachers College, Columbia University

Teachers College, Columbia University is a graduate school of education located in New York City, New York...

, Bank Street College of Education

Bank Street College of Education

Bank Street College of Education is located in Manhattan, New York City.-History:Bank Street was founded in 1916 by Lucy Sprague Mitchell as the "Bureau of Educational Experiments"....

, St. Hilda's & St. Hugh's School

St. Hilda's & St. Hugh's School

St. Hilda's & St. Hugh's School is an independent, Episcopal day school in New York City. It is located in Morningside Heights on the Upper West Side of Manhattan...

, The School at Columbia University

The School at Columbia University

The School at Columbia University is located at 110th Street and Broadway in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The school is an independent K-8 school affiliated with Columbia University for children drawn equally from the Morningside Heights, Manhattan/Upper West Side/Harlem community and...

, Bank Street School for Children

Bank Street College of Education

Bank Street College of Education is located in Manhattan, New York City.-History:Bank Street was founded in 1916 by Lucy Sprague Mitchell as the "Bureau of Educational Experiments"....

, The Cathedral School, New York

The Cathedral School, New York

The Cathedral School of St. John the Divine is a co-educational Episcopal school for children in New York City. Founded in 1901, the school is located on the premises of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Morningside Heights in New York City....

, and for the younger residents, Columbia Greenhouse nursery school.

NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

's Goddard Institute for Space Studies

Goddard Institute for Space Studies

The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies , at Columbia University in New York City, is a component laboratory of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Earth-Sun Exploration Division and a unit of The Earth Institute at Columbia University...

is also located in the neighborhood, directly above Tom's Restaurant

Tom's Restaurant (Manhattan)

Tom's Restaurant is a diner located at 2880 Broadway on the corner of 112th Street in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City...

(see below) in a building owned by Columbia University.

Sights

Non-academic landmarks in Morningside Heights include the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, Grant's Tomb

Grant's Tomb

General Grant National Memorial , better known as Grant's Tomb, is a mausoleum containing the bodies of Ulysses S. Grant , American Civil War General and 18th President of the United States, and his wife, Julia Dent Grant...

, Riverside Church

Riverside Church

, Interchurch Center

Interchurch Center

, Corpus Christi Church (New York), where Thomas Merton

Thomas Merton

Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O. was a 20th century Anglo-American Catholic writer and mystic. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist, and student of comparative religion...

was baptized, International House

International House of New York

International House New York, also known as I-House, is an unaffiliated and non-profit residence hall for graduate students, scholars engaging in research, trainees and interns...

, and St. Luke's Hospital

St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center

Restaurants

A famous restaurant in Morningside Heights is Tom's Restaurant

Tom's Restaurant (Manhattan)

Tom's Restaurant is a diner located at 2880 Broadway on the corner of 112th Street in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City...

, on Broadway

Broadway (New York City)

Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...

at W. 112th St. It was featured in a 1990s song, "Tom's Diner

Tom's Diner

"Tom's Diner" is an a cappella pop song written in 1981 by American singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega. It was first released as a track on the January 1984 issue of Fast Folk Musical Magazine. When first featured on one of her own studio albums, it appeared as the first track of her Solitude Standing...

", by Suzanne Vega

Suzanne Vega

Suzanne Nadine Vega is an American songwriter and singer known for her eclectic folk-inspired music.Two of Vega's songs reached the top 10 of various international chart listings: "Luka" and "Tom's Diner"...

(an alumna of Barnard College

Barnard College

). Later, exterior shots were used on the television sitcom Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...

as a stand-in for the daily hangout of the show's principal characters.

Community Food and Juice

Clinton St. Baking Company & Restaurant

Clinton St. Baking Company & Restaurant is an American bakery and restaurant. It is located at 4 Clinton Street , on the Lower East Side in New York City....

, an eco-conscious restaurant that serves American food and uses only cage-free eggs, organic flour, wild fish, and grass-fed beef is located at 2893 Broadway between West 112th and 113th Streets.

The West End Bar

West End Bar

The West End, also known as the "West End Gate", was located on Broadway near 114th Street in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of the Borough of Manhattan in New York City. From its establishment in 1911, the bar served as a popular gathering place for Columbia University undergraduates...

was another famous local restaurant. It served especially as a meeting place for writers of the Beat Generation

Beat generation

The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...

in the 1940s and 1950s, as well as one for student activists prior, during, and after the Columbia University protests of 1968

Columbia University protests of 1968

. The bar also included the Jazz at The West End jazz room, which was run by jazz historian and DJ Phil Schaap

Phil Schaap

Phil Schaap is an American jazz disc jockey, historian, archivist and producer. He hosts a daily morning radio program on 89.9 FM New York, WKCR, the radio station of Columbia University, his alma mater, in New York City. The show, called Bird Flight, is broadcast from 8:20 am–9:30 am on weekdays...

for 17 years. In the late 2000s, it was absorbed into a Cuban restaurant chain, Havana Central, and became known as "Havana Central at the West End".

Notable residents

George Gershwin

George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...

began composing his Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue is a musical composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band written in 1924, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects....

while living at 501 West 110th Street in Morningside Heights. Film director Cecil B. De Mille lived on 114th Street. F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...

lived at 200 Claremont Ave. while working in advertising and writing This Side of Paradise

This Side of Paradise

This Side of Paradise is the debut novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Published in 1920, and taking its title from a line of the Rupert Brooke poem Tiare Tahiti, the book examines the lives and morality of post-World War I youth. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is an attractive Princeton University...

.

Comedian

Comedian

A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

George Carlin

George Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums....

grew up on 121st Street. In the comedy piece "White Harlem", which appears on his Occupation: Foole
Occupation: Foole
Occupation: Foole is the fourth album released by United States comedian George Carlin. It was recorded on March 2 and 3, 1973 at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California, and released in October of that year...

album, he said that younger residents would refer to the neighborhood as "White Harlem" as that name would likely be considered an intimidating locale by outsiders and give inhabitants thereof greater respect from outsiders.

Kathy Boudin

Kathy Boudin

Kathy Boudin is a former American radical who was convicted in 1984 of felony murder for her participation in an armed robbery that resulted in the killing of three people. She later became a public health expert while in prison...

of the Weather Underground lived on Morningside Drive until she was arrested by the FBI.

Longtime Morningside resident and neighborhood guide Jacob Appel

Jacob M. Appel

Jacob M. Appel is an American author, bioethicist and social critic. He is best known for his short stories, his work as a playwright, and his writing in the fields of reproductive ethics, organ donation, neuroethics and euthanasia....

has set many of his stories, including The Magic Laundry, in Morningside Heights.

Morningside Gardens residents

Several famous neighborhood residents have lived in Morningside Gardens

Morningside Gardens

Morningside Gardens refers to a private housing cooperative in the borough of Manhattan, New York City. It is composed of six apartment buildings of 21 stories each, for a total of 980 apartments. Some spaces that would otherwise be apartments are used by affiliated groups such as the pre-school...

, an experimental co-op

Housing cooperative

A housing cooperative is a legal entity—usually a corporation—that owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings. Each shareholder in the legal entity is granted the right to occupy one housing unit, sometimes subject to an occupancy agreement, which is similar to a lease. ...

project built in 1957 between 123rd and LaSalle Streets, and Broadway and Amsterdam Avenues. Many professional African-Americans moved to Morningside Gardens to maintain roots with the black community of Harlem and to enjoy the benefits of a safe and integrated community. Among those were Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991...

, first black justice named to the Supreme Court. Singer/songwriter Fiona Apple

Fiona Apple

Fiona Apple McAfee Maggart is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. Apple met international acclaim for her 1996 debut album, Tidal, which was a critical and commercial success...

and science fiction writer Samuel R. Delany

Samuel R. Delany

Samuel Ray Delany, Jr., also known as "Chip" is an American author, professor and literary critic. His work includes a number of novels, many in the science fiction genre, as well as memoir, criticism, and essays on sexuality and society.His science fiction novels include Babel-17, The Einstein...

also lived in the complex as youths.

Students

Many notable people have resided in the area while attending or teaching at Columbia University

Columbia University

. Several, however, have had significant engagements with the neighborhood itself. While writing a master's thesis on William Blake

William Blake

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...

at Columbia University

Columbia University

, Thomas Merton

Thomas Merton

attended Corpus Christi Church on West 121st St., where he formally converted to Catholicism. Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

lived in a modest rented apartment at 142 West 109th St.

142 West 109th St.

142 West 109th St. is a modest, five story apartment building on West 109th Street in New York City between Amsterdam Avenue and Columbus Avenue, known for being a former residence of now-President Barack Obama....

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.