← All Of It with Alison Stewart
All Of It with Alison Stewart
A Harlem Renaissance Walking Tour
00:21:13
A Harlem Renaissance walking tour and your calls, continuing our Black History Month series learning more about both famous and overlooked Black New Yorkers.
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Listener support WNYC Studios this is all.
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Of it from wnyc. I'm Tiffany Hansen filling in for Alison Stewart. Earlier in the show we talked about a new exhibition at the Met exploring the Harlem Renaissance. Now we're turning our attention to some important sites for from that era. Harlem's streets are filled with history and if they could talk, they'd tell you about Strivers Row, the Apollo Theater, the Cotton Club. In 2004, New York City resident Carolyn Johnson founded welcome to Harlem, a boutique tour company focusing on the rich history and cultural diversity of Harlem. Some of the stops include historic ballrooms, theaters like the Apollo, poet Langston Hughes's burial site, local pubs, jazz clubs. And throughout all of these tours, she incorporates activities like brunch. That sounds good. Visiting a popular black gospel service. Carolyn Johnson joins us now to talk about some of these sites. She co leads the live performance series as well Harlem's Jazz Box and is the creator of the Monopoly spinoff board game Harlemopoly, which we will talk about featuring historical sites and figures of the Renaissance era. Carolyn, welcome to all of it.
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Thank you for having me, listeners.
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We would love to hear from you. Do you live in Harlem? Are you from Harlem current residence? So tell us about a historical fact you learned while living in the area that has stayed with you. You can call us, you can text us. 2124-3396-9221-2433-WNYC. And of course you can always reach out to us on the socials. We are at all of it. WNYC. Okay. Carolyn, you started welcome to Harlem in 2004. So let's talk about that. Are you from Harlem? Is this how you got into this?
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Yes, I was born and raised in Harlem actually, and I moved down to the area that I live in right now in the Mount Morris park area in about 30 years ago. And being there, seeing the neighborhood starting to change and stuff like that, one of my mentors and best friend had gotten a grant to teach people how to be tour guides. So I took the six week class up at City College. I loved it and that what sprung me into creating welcome to Harlem, a walking tour company.
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Excellent. A lot of people I think that aren't from Harlem or that don't live in Harlem have preconceived notions about what it is. So what do people get right and what do people get wrong?
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Well, a lot of it is the wrong because they see it on the TV and movies a lot. So they just think it's just the African American Community. They think about the crime, the grit and all of that stuff. But they fail to realize that Harlem is a beautiful community and it has been multicultural from day one. It just not have ever just been an African American community. And I think that's one of the things that make this so nice as a neighborhood, the diversity that is within the community and stuff. They do get the part right about gospel and jazz and soul food. So yes, they get that part right. Yes.
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So what do you think? If I'm on a tour and I already have some preconceived notion about what I think Harlem is, what do you think? When you see the look on people's faces, what are they most surprised about?
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I think how beautiful the neighbor looks, the neighborhood looks. I think that's very surprising to them because I always encourage people to get off 125th street and just wind through the neighborhood and then you see these beautiful rows of brownstones, these beautiful churches, the parks, the cultural institutions and stuff like that. So I think once they just get off of that beat, they're just pleasantly surprised about how beautiful the neighborhood is.
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Listeners, do you live in Harlem? Are you. Do you consider yourself sort of a quasi expert on the history of Harlem? What have you learned about living there, about the history of it? What significance does it hold for you? Call us 212-433-9692 or you can text us 212-433-WNYC. A lot of neighborhoods make up Harlem. Not, I mean, we're talking Sugar Hill. So let's run down a little bit about. You don't have to do all of.
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Them, but you know, okay, so Harlem is three distinct neighborhoods. Central Harlem, East Harlem and West Harlem. West Harlem is broken up into Morningside Heights. Yes. Columbia University is in Harlem, Manhattanville, and then Sugar Hill, Hamilton Heights, which is named after Alexander Hamilton. Then you have Central Harlem and then you have East Harlem. And if you put all three of those neighborhoods together, we are 6.2 miles. We are one fifth of the island of Manhattan. People don't realize how large we are. We probably one of the few self contained neighborhoods in New York City. When it comes down to culture, food, entertainment and all of that stuff, we don't have to leave our neighborhood to really enjoy New York City, which is really nice.
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As a resident, I agree with that statement wholeheartedly. So each neighborhood, however, has its own personality, correct? Sugar Hill. Let's talk about Sugar Hill because I'm closest to Sugar Hill. So let's talk about that. It got its name back in the 20s, it was primarily in the Harlem Renaissance era. We've been talking earlier in the show about the Harlem Renaissance. It was primarily a place for wealthy African Americans. So give us a little bit of history just of the Sugar Hill area.
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So that was called, like, the Sweet Life when you lived on Sugar Hill, because you were living at the top and you were looking down into the valley, Central Harlem and East Harlem and stuff like that. So you had a lot of jazz musicians that lived up there, writers and entertainers and stuff, because they had these beautiful brownstones and these magnificent homes. A lot of them lived on Convent Avenue, St Nicholas and Edgecombe Avenue. But Sugar Hill is also home to the home of James Bailey from Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. His beautiful home is up there when back in the day when we had these freestanding mansions and stuff like that. But, yeah, that was the place where it was called the Suite Life. And it had a lot of jazz clubs up there, speakeasies and stuff like that.
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You mentioned freestanding mansions. Is the Jumel House actually in Sugar Hill?
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No, the Jumel House is in Washington Heights.
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Yes. Okay, so tell us about that.
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So Washington Heights used to be known as Harlem Heights, but then they changed the name to Washington Heights. That's the next neighborhood up. So you have Washington Heights and Inwood that goes up through Manhattan and then goes to Marble Hill and stuff. And it's a small little enclave. And you have Jamel Morris Mansion there. You have also these beautiful row of homes that sit on the wood on the cobble street. Then you have 555 Edgecombe Avenue that sits up there, Paul Robeson at a home up there and stuff like that. So that was a nice little enclave that sat right above Sugar Hill, Hamiltonite area.
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You mentioned a couple of times the brownstones. It's pretty much a hallmark of Harlem, these brownstones. So tell us the history about that. And I'm most curious to get your opinion about the brownstones and their front porches, because, I don't know, I'm sort of intuiting that there's something there to that about community building.
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And, okay, so brownstones in Harlem, our oldest ones would be inside of East Harlem, because since that was the first area to be developed, actually they go into East Harlem. Now, in Central Harlem, we have a lot of brownstones, but you have the particular ones known as Stryver's Row. Strivers Row does not have backyards like most typical brownstones. They were built between 1891, 1893, about 140 homes.
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So give us a cross street here.
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Where we're talking about about 137th, 138th Street, 7th Avenue and 8th Avenue. That's driver's Row. And what set these homes apart is they had no backyards, but they had cut throughs on the avenues and on the street. Walk your horse. And people would walk their horses to the backside of the house and they would put their trash back there. So today these people have garages and stuff like that, but they don't have typical brownstones. Then you have Astor Row, right on my list. It was built by William Wool, the Astor family. And they have front yards.
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And that's a West like 1:30, right? 38.
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And they have front yards. And that's not typical in Manhattan. Brooklyn usually had the front yards. So. And that's what makes those different. And they have the beautiful wooden porches that attach to them and stuff like that. And then other than that, you have all the other typical brownstones that you see where we have the backyards and stuff. So you have three different types of brownstones inside of Harlem, basically.
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All right, Carolyn, I want to bring in our listeners here. Gregory from Harlem. Hi, Gregory. Welcome to all of it.
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Hi, thank you for taking my call. I am so pleased to speak to this woman because A, I grew up on 135th Street, 137th Street. My family was there. And B, I went to music and art high school. A lot of people don't know that they school downtown, which they call the music school, originally was on 137th street and St Nicholas Terrace above the park there. And we called it the Castle on the Hill. And that was the original music and art high school was there for decades. And I have a question about. There's this building on 121st Street. It's a triangular building that was the intersection of St Nicholas and Frederick Douglass right there. And it's a triangular building. It's a beautiful building. And it's been standing there empty for like five years now. And I wonder what that used to be. Was it a church?
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Carolyn, you're nodding your head.
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Well, I know the building because I live a couple of blocks from it. And we do call it the triangle building. And it's not empty. Organization does own the building because they used to take yoga classes inside of there and stuff like that. But I don't know what it originally was, but I do remember when they renovated it and this organization did get it. And it's, it is used. It's not empty. They're not there as much as we would like them to be there. But it is a beautiful building that sits at the intersection where St Nicholas is cutting across the avenue and stuff like that. Right on 121st Street. Yeah.
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We can't talk about architecture in Harlem without talking about churches in the neighborhood. So run us down a little bit of a highlights reel for some of.
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The churches that I would. Mother Zion AME Church, that's the oldest African American church in New York.
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And that's at.
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Right down, right around the corner from Abyssinian. So about 136th Street. Abyssinian is right around the corner from that Abyssinian Baptist church. Then you have St. Phillips on 1 34th street then you have some place like First Corinthian Baptist Church, which was actually a movie theater house, but converted to a church so that it's also beautiful on the interior and stuff like that. These are the big churches inside of Harlem and stuff like that that still have that beauty to it. The history of the community is involved in it and stuff like that. But I would most definitely, if I can get into Mother Zion Church, you would be pleasantly surprised when you go into the interior of that church about how beautiful it is.
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In what way?
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It's just the architecture of it. It's so, so unassuming from the street. When you look at it, you just think, oh, it might look so. So. But once you go inside, it's the beautiful red, the stained glass windows, it's arched like a shoe horse. It's not like a regular church, like a box and stuff like that. Thanks to Madam C.J. walker. She had requested them the funds to help them build that church. But like I said, it's the oldest African American church in New York State, and it goes back to the Underground Railroad. People like Harriet Tubman, Sigourna Truth, and all these people were associated with it. Paul Robeson and stuff like that.
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Yeah, we got a text. Loving this segment on Harlem history. I've been a resident of central Harlem for nine years now, and I love it. Such a wonderful sense of community, rich cultural and musical history. I'm buying Harlemopoly right now. All right, listeners, if you live in Harlem and want to join in, call us 212-433-9692. Or you can text us at 212-433, WNYC and find us on social media pretty much anywhere at all of it. Wnyc. So we talk about these historical landmarks, churches, and otherwise. How are preservation efforts? How have they been going traditionally in the neighborhood and how do you view them going forward?
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Well, you have several organizations, like Save Harlem now that are into making sure that these spaces are not being torn down. Unfortunately, a lot of our buildings are not landmarked in Harlem, and especially some of the older churches and stuff like that. And they are being sold and torn down or either gutted on the interior and being made into performing spaces in schools and stuff like that. And it's a hard sell because a. It costs a lot of money to preserve these properties. And I think that's one of the main problems that a lot of people are having, especially the religious institutions in regards to keeping the doors open and stuff like that. So they need to start thinking outside the box. It's not just about this is a religious space. They need to, I think, open them more up to the community. So this way, more people would be engaged in this space, and then they might get more funding for this space to help, you know, maintain it and keep it up and stuff like that. But like I said, Harlem has a lot of beautiful spaces that are not landmarked. And that has been one of our caveats in our neighborhood, really. Unfortunately, we have lost some beautiful spaces because of that.
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We've been talking about the history in terms of churches, in terms of architecture, in terms of, you know, the community building around, like the brownstones, etc. And I'm imagining that all of. And we haven't even touched on literature, music, et cetera, just to think about those themes. I would imagine you break up your tours by themes.
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Correct.
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So that if I come and I want to say, I want to see. I want to go on a musical tour, I'm assuming that's primarily jazz, right?
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Well, jazz. And we have a gospel and brunch tour. If people want to hear gospel, they can do a gospel and brunch tour. That could be either a Saturday or a Sunday, you know, April through December. We can do it on a Saturday because we have a live gospel concert every Saturday from 11 to 12, and then we hitch the tour to that. And we also have brunch included.
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So. Yeah, go ahead.
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Or they can do the Sunday, the traditional one, where they go to a church service and they partake in the service. So it just depends on what they want and stuff like that.
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Well, since most people sort of default to thinking about jazz when they think about Harlem. Let's talk about that. So what are the highlights of your. Of a jazz walking tour that we would.
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So usually once we do a jazz tour, we walk first. We'll walk 120 fish feet. And depending if we go uptown or downtown. So last night I did a jazz tour, and we went to Mittens. We walked to 118th street, and we went down there. And then after the. After being admittance, for about an hour and a half, we made our way back up to 125th street and walked across 125th Street. And just to talk about more of the historical buildings and the history of 125th street that were, you know, that I didn't do earlier. But if I walk uptown, I might go to the American Legion Post, go up there, I might make my way up to Patrick. It just depends on which way we walk and stuff like that.
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So give us a little history of that 125th street area.
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Yeah, so 125th street has. I mean, it takes us almost like an hour to get from 8th Avenue to Lenox Avenue. That's how much history is on that, on that block and stuff. Like, on those two blocks and stuff. You have the world's famous Apollo Theater that you have there. Then you have the New Victoria, the hotel that just recently opened up. Then across the street from that, you have Blumstein's, which was a famous department store where Martin Luther King was almost assassinated in 1958, you know, when a young lady stabbed him in the chest with a letter opener. You have Hotel Theresa on 125th Street. You have Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building. So you have to talk about that. You have the Studio Museum in Harlem. You have the Civil Rights Museum that's coming. And we haven't even gotten to Lenox Avenue yet. So it's a real long story, slow walk. Talking about historical sites, things that have happened on that block. Then I like to show them the beautiful gates that were painted by Franco the Great and stuff like that. So it's a slow walk. Yeah.
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You mentioned the Apollo Theater. We've been talking about the Harlem Renaissance, as I mentioned earlier in the program. So talk to us a little bit about the importance of the Apollo Theater as it relates to the Harlem Renaissance period.
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Well, that was the. When it opened up in 1934, that became a place where African Americans were able to showcase their talents. And this is one of the first integrated theaters in New York City, so blacks and whites could sit in the audience together at the same time. But this is a place where we could show our talents, that we can sing, we can dance, we can act, we can do all of those things inside of the Apollo Theater. And I think by giving Us, that space, space that opened up the world to us. Because now people were coming from all over to see these people as they were performing inside of this space and stuff like that. Other than that, they were relegated to bars and clubs and other things like that. But this became the black Carnegie hall. As far as I was concerned. The best of the best wanted to go there and perform. And even today, it still holds true. Give us some names that perform there. You have people like Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Jackie Moms Mabley. You have somebody. It's beautiful. As Celia Cruz and Tito Puente also performed there. Buddy Holly was the first person to first white performer by accident. Buddy Holly and the crickets in 1958. So, yeah, you.
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How did that happen? Talk to me about that.
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When they were booking the acts, they would just, you know, okay, yeah, the music sounds good. I want these guys, Buddy Holly and the Crickets. And they show up and they're looking at him, he's like, yeah, we're Buddy Holly and the Crickets. Be like, okay, but you all are white. He was like, yeah, but we are Buddy Holly and the Crickets. And we have six days to be here. They did the whole six day performance and they were rocking and rolling with them. So it's open to everybody. And that's the beauty about it and stuff. If you got talent and you can make it on that stage, they will let you know. And if you don't have talent, they will let you know also. So it's like, take your chances.
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You mentioned also Hotel Teresa. That's what, 120, 25th Street?
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Yep.
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Yeah. Okay. And we're talking Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard between 124, 125.
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Correct.
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Okay, so tell us a little bit about the reputation of that.
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So that was built in 1913. It's a beautiful 13 story structure built out of a white limestone. And the gentleman that built it, which is even crazier, all three of his wives were named Theresa. Go figure. When the doors first opened up, it was for whites only. African Americans did not get access until 1940. The second black manager was a gentleman by the name of William Brown. William Brown's son was Ron Brown.
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What year is this?
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We're talking 1940.
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1940. Okay.
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The second black manager. And that's when we got access to stay there. But William Brown was Ron Brown's father. Bill Clinton, Secretary of Commerce. That's where he grew up, inside of the Teresa.
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Interesting.
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And Charlie Rangel was a bellhop there. You had Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Louis after they'd win their fights. They would have these lavish parties in the Skyline Ballroom. You had people like Fidel O. Castro came and stayed there in 1960.
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Yeah, we can't just let that slide under the radar.
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He came by Fidel Castro in 1960. You know, when he was turned away from his hotel, Malcolm X extended an invitation to him for him to come stay at the Teresa Hotel. And Malcolm X greeted him and stuff like that. Malcolm X had his office space in there. After he separated from the nation, you had somebody like a Philip Randolph, who also had office space inside of the Teresa. He worked with Adam Clayton Powell Jr. To create the first black union for the sleeping car porters and stuff. It took him 10 years to achieve this, but this is one of. One of his main goals that he did and stuff like that. But you had anybody that was somebody. The entertainers, when they wanted to come to New York City and they were black, that's where they wanted to stay. Because that was the premier hotel back then called the Waldorf of Harlem. Yes.
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Yeah. And did I read this wrong? Jfk, he actually campaigned there?
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Yes.
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Wow. All right, well, could you just tell us the website where we can find your tours again, one more time?
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So the website is welcometoharlem.com youm'll find all our tours there, our jazz and gospel programs as well. And Harlem Jazz Box, you'll find our jazz and gospel programs there. Then we have Harlem Opera.
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Say it one more time.
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Harlem Jazz Box with a double X.
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All right, sounds great, Carolyn. Thank you so, so much for joining us. Carolyn Johnson founded Welcome to Harlem.
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Thank you.
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