History
Hamilton Heights was named after one of our founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton, who lived in the same area. When this area was first settled, it was used as farmland and then developed into residences.
This area was developed towards the end of the 19th century when the subway started to become more widespread. This neighborhood stretches from 135th street to 153rd streets and overlaps with Sugar Hill, suburb that has been home to many celebrities. Like many parts of the city (Harlem is a great example), Hamilton Heights was designated as a middle class neighborhood when it was first formed.
There is no modesty or any corners cut in the blueprint of the neighborhood, making it quite apparent this area was intended with the wealthy in mind.
The buildings pictured above reveal the careful planning and design that was taken into account while developing the neighborhood. The buildings seem are all spaced evenly, with magnificent stone steps and beautiful brownstone exteriors. A major asset when observing the residential buildings was the windows. All the buildings have many large windows facing out of the bowing structure, allowing large amounts of light into the building, and a wider perspective down the street for the people within the buildings. This is not a cheap feature to have, especially when designing so many buildings similarly.
Originally, the Hamilton Heights area was designed with wealthy white residents in mind. This was the case at first, however in the 1920s and 30’s, the Harlem Renaissance caused a large migration of blacks living in the city or near it, to move to Harlem. Shortly after, the process known as “white flight” took place, and affluent blacks became a majority in the area. As of today, the opposite seems to be occurring, there are more whites moving into Hamilton Heights and the minorities are moving out. At the same time, the median and mean income for the area is increasing as a whole.
