Founded in the 17th century as a Dutch outpost, Harlem has undergone many transformations and continues to change even to this day. In the 1870s-80s, construction of new houses increased in Harlem because people feared that new housing regulations would be implemented in the 1900’s due to the building of the Lexington Avenue subway lines. But with a delay in subway construction and the excess housing, real estate prices fell, attracting immigrants to the area. Eastern European Jews and Italians moved into Harlem in great numbers, particularly East Harlem. However by the 1930s, only 5,000 Jews remained in Harlem and the empty apartments were filled by Puerto Ricans, who were already arriving in large numbers by 1913. The Italian Harlem lived longer, surviving until the 1970s.
By the 1900s, tens of thousands of blacks lived in Harlem. Another real estate crash and the leadership of black real estate entrepreneurs caused the migration, starting in 1904. Since property owners could not find white renters, entrepreneurs like Philip Payton found blacks who wanted to move in. Blacks moved to New York to escape from the Jim Crow Laws of the South and to find better opportunities for their children. By 1920, central Harlem was 32.43% black and the 1930 census showed that 70.18% of central Harlem’s residents were black. Between 1920 and 1930, as the black population rose, the white population in Harlem plummeted.
Philip Payton “Father of Harlem”
Photo Credit toWikipedia
At the end of World War I, Harlem became the center of a cultural movement (now known as the Harlem Renaissance). The Harlem Renaissance brought new poetry, novels, theater, and arts to the area. Blacks wanted to transform the image of the “negro” as the arts and culture flourished during this time. But once the Great Depression struck, there were huge job losses and the neighborhood was hit hard. In the early 1930s, 25% of the population in Harlem was out of work and employment remained bad for decades. Riots also broke out over crime and policing, which caused damages to stores and left many people dead or injured. Riots, such as those in 1935 and 1943, showed the conflict between residents and police officers and exposed race tensions in the area.
Harlem Race Riot 1935
Photo Credit to Bettmann, Corbis
In the 1950s and 1960s, Harlem was the neighborhood of rent strikes and protests that were fighting for better schools, jobs, and housing. Civil rights movements also broke out in the area, influenced by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. The biggest public works in Harlem in these years were housing projects, such at the Harlem River Houses, which intended to provide a safer and more pleasant place to live away from private landlords. Underperforming schools and riots would also plague this time period.
In the 1970s, Harlem hit rock bottom. Education and the quality of housing were grim; drug addiction was on the rise; and housing income was low. Harlem had one of the highest crime rates in the city. In the 1980s, the city provided one large construction project, the North River Water Pollution Control Plant. While this was unfavored by residents, the plant was built with the compromise that the city would also build a state park, Riverbank State Park. The city also decided to auction off plots of Harlem properties to the public in 1985 in an attempt to place property into the hands of people who would maintain it. But this was often plagued with scandal, leading to many defaults on mortgages and a bad real estate market in Harlem for years to come. But the city also removed long-unused trolley tracks, laid new water mains and sewers, installed new sidewalks, planted trees, and put in new streetlights. Stores began to open in the area and 125th street was revived. The area now, and in recent years, has began to be gentrified as new stores open up and more whites are moving into the area. While some support this change, others are against it, feeling that the increase in rent prices are forcing the people that have been living in Harlem out of the area.
