Marble Hill is a small, intriguing neighborhood just above the northern tip of Manhattan, where the neighborhood of Inwood is located. While it is officially a part of the Borough of Manhattan, it seems decidedly Bronx in both feel and aesthetic. It is quickly becoming a commercial hub with one commercial development built in 2004 that houses a Target, a Starbucks, and a Marshalls on 225th Street and Broadway and another commercial development underway around 227th St and Broadway.
With a population of 9,481 and an area of 0.145 square miles, it is considered a densely populated neighborhood at 65,410 people per square mile when compared with the average population density of the Bronx, 31,709 people per square mile. Yet when you compare the population density of Marble Hill with that of Manhattan, 70,629 people per square mile, it is slightly below average. These comparisons speak to something greater about Marble Hill, how it is not quite Manhattan or not quite the Bronx, it is its own entity and has an identity altogether separate than that of either Borough.
To begin, a brief history is in order. Marble Hill has been occupied since the Dutch Colonial period. On August 18, 1646, Governor Willem Kieft, the Dutch director-general of New Netherland, signed a land grant to Mattius Jansen van Keulan and Huyck Aertsen that now comprises the neighborhood of Marble Hill. At this point in Marble Hill’s history, it was still a part of Manhattan with the Harlem River (Spuytent Duyvel Creek is the name of the portion around Marble Hill) weaving around it as shown by the map below:
1885 map of Northern Manhattan
When hostilities broke out at the start of the Revolutionary War, the Continental Army constructed a fort on Marble Hill. By November 1776, the fort had been taken over by Hessian Forces. In 1817 Curtis and John Bolton purchased land in the area and built a mill where the Metro North station is now situated. In 1891, Darius C. Crosby conceived the name of Marble Hill from the local deposits of Dolomite marble, a relatively soft rock that overlay the Marble Hill and Inwood communities. In 1895, the Harlem River Canal was constructed in response to an increase in commercial shipping traffic thus severing Marble Hill from mainland Manhattan. Marble Hill remained its own island until 1914 when Spuyten Duyvil Creek was landfilled:
Map of Marble Hill from 1900
Saint Stephen’s Methodist Church, a fixture of the Marble Hill community, was built in 1898 on Marble Hill Avenue and 228th Street. It is one of the oldest religious institutions in the area. By the roaring twenties Marble Hill had acquired its current street layout.
In 1901, the 1 Train (formerly IRT Train) was extended from 145th Street to 242nd Street with a stop at 225th Street right in the middle of Marble Hill. This development sparked interest land speculators and six-story apartments were quickly constructed. By the late 1950s, urban renewal came to the are and the Marble Hill Houses were constructed between Exterior Street, 225 Street, and Broadway. John F. Kennedy High School, 99 Terrace View Avenue, opened in 1972 and overlooks the Harlem River.
Marble Hill was formerly a bastion for the Jewish and Irish, but now has become around 33 percent Black and 75 percent Hispanic. Whites only make up 8 percent of the population, and in recent years the neighborhood has seen and influx of both Asian and Hispanic immigrants. When speaking with some of the residents, I found out that the Hispanic immigrants come primarily from three countries, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. While more and more immigrants poor in from Puerto Rico and Mexico, the Dominican population has begun to dwindle in what was formerly a popular Dominican neighborhood. Marble Hill is now 36.4 percent foreign born compared with the New York City average of 22.2 percent.
Of the population of Marble Hill, 3,903 are males and 5,577 are females. Of the households, 49.1 percent are family households, 23.9 percent contain married couples, 10 percent contain married couples with children, and 26.5 percent contain single mothers with children. The median age of males in Marble Hill is 33.1 years old for males and 41.0 years old for females.
Of the 9,481 reported residents, 3,433 live in the Marble Hill Houses, a project in the center of the neighborhood. The project is composed of eleven buildings, fourteen to fifteen stories high. There are approximately 1,682 apartments throughout the 16.64 acre complex. Like most other projects, its appearance was a bit grim and dystopian with its dull-brown bricks, dilapidated windows, and menacing size relative to the other buildings in the neighborhood. While heading north on the 1 Train, it appears on your right, east of Broadway. It is bordered by two shopping centers, one finished and another in progress. It is at the foot of what I assume the Hill that Marble Hill is named after. On the western edge of Broadway lie both storefronts and residential apartments.
After exploring east Marble Hill and Broadway I was severely underwhelmed by the neighborhood. Perhaps there was nothing unique about the neighborhood I had anticipated to be enthralling as I began to head west. I was thoroughly disappointed as I walked a long 225th Street, looking out onto the Hudson River. It was at this point that I looked to my right and discovered a shabby-looking art-deco apartment building. Although the apartment was in a state of decay, it had a dusted beauty that offered hope and redemption for the neighborhood in my eyes. I turned onto Marble Hill Avenue, hopeful once again, and was greeted by a magnificent sight. The winding street snaked its way through a series of gorgeous twentieth-century homes that each glowed with a different, magnificent aura. I made my way down the street, each home appearing more impressive than the next. Trees accented the sidewalk, and each house had its own separate lawn garnished with beautiful landscaping and gardens. This was the Marble Hill I had been searching for. Marble Hill suddenly became the place where you could own a lawn in Manhattan.
I walked back to Broadway and approached some residents with questions on the neighborhood. Most of my interviewees were either reluctant to talk or had nothing to talk about. I asked a young, Middle Eastern man behind the cash register in a deli what he thought of the neighborhood. He gave me a succinct answer, “It’s fine,” he said. I inquired about what he did in his free time in the neighborhood and he said that he played soccer and that the majority of younger people living in the neighborhood either played soccer or basketball in their free time. I then approached an elderly Black woman exiting the Marble Hill Houses and asked her what she thought of the neighborhood. She said that she thought it was fine as well, and that she enjoyed going to church. What church she was talking about, she never specified. She continued by saying that a lot of the older people in the neighborhood went to church and that was where they interacted. So, I began to form an image of Marble Hill as a community of reserved people that went about their business the day without much interaction before returning to their homes.
I then approached two Black street-vendors, a man and woman named Edward and Tanya. I asked them what they thought of the neighborhood, where they lived, etc. Edward’s eyes lit up, it was as if he had been waiting for someone to ask. “It’s ok,” he said and then he looked up at me, “People mind their own business, there isn’t a lot of crime, it’s home you know?” I inquired further about Marble Hill and asked if there was any sense of community. He said, “Like I said before people mind their own business, people wake up, go to work then come home, and stay in their apartment.” He immediately validated the image of Marble Hill I had had in my mind. Edward lived in the Marble Hill Houses and he said that as far as projects go, the Marble Hill Houses were pretty good. He said that Marble Hill was not in gang territory so crime was not much of an issue, he then continued and said, “I’ve been stuck up,” he paused for a moment, “and I’ve returned the favor.” He laughed casually and then got up from his seat and helped a browsing customer. He returned and I asked him who lived in Marble Hill to which he replied, “mostly Blacks and Hispanics.” I then asked if people gor a long for the most part and he said, “of course, people just mind their own business.” Edward then mentioned how a lot of people in Marble Hill were now moving to the Pocono Mountains for cheap homes. I asked him if there was any other explanation for the migration to the Poconos but he did not have one.
The sense I got talking to Edward was that Marble Hill, apart from the occasional robbery or shooting, was not crime ridden or ripe with racial tensions. It was a relatively peaceful neighborhood with cheap rent and good business. One of the only issues it faces is its school, John F. Kennedy High School, which has suffered from over-crowding, poor leadership, and abrasive restructuring for a while now. Aside from the school and purely looking at the statistics it seems that families do not really exist in the traditional sense in Marble Hill. It has a high percentage of single mothers, which is a common issue but a poignant one nonetheless. Marble Hill also lacks the pride and sense of community that other NYC neighborhoods have in abundance. However, no neighborhood is without some problems.
John F. Kennedy High School
In conclusion, Marble Hill is a wonderful little neighborhood just above the northern tip of Manhattan. What it lacks in community it makes up for in architecture. Perhaps the most striking thing about the neighborhood is its diversity in everything, people, houses, streets, etc. While it may feel like the Bronx at first it does not have the isolation and urban decay typical of many Bronx neighborhoods. Its identity remains hard to pin point, not quite the Bronx and not quite Manhattan, it is simply Marble Hill.
