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    East Harlem Revisited
    East Harlem Revisited
    East Harlem Revisited
    Ebook201 pages42 minutes

    East Harlem Revisited

    By Christopher Bell

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    About this ebook

    East Harlem Revisited presents a fresh look at this historic neighborhood through rare photographic images. Photographs taken from tenement rooftops, at family gatherings, and of sports and events celebrate a bygone era and the neighborhood's diversity. A neighborhood of many ethnicities and languages, at one time a section of East Harlem made up the largest Little Italy in the country. The landmarks that have been preserved throughout the years detail the importance and impact of architectural development on East Harlem's history. Photographs of the neighborhood's tenements and public housing depict East Harlem's changing landscape, while images of famous residents celebrate the many talented individuals who have called East Harlem home.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439623978
    East Harlem Revisited
    Author

    Christopher Bell

    Christopher Bell was born in Leicestershire England and has studied military history for most of his adult life, a member of the Royal Tigers Association he has worked closely with several veterans associations raising the awareness to the role and importance of line infantry in the British Army. Christopher spends his time between Leicestershire UK and Alberta Canada.

    Read more from Christopher Bell

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      Book preview

      East Harlem Revisited - Christopher Bell

      collection.

      INTRODUCTION

      East Harlem Revisited continues documenting the neighborhood’s history through photographic images. Heartfelt thanks goes to Arcadia for publishing Images of America: East Harlem and for the many readers who bought the book. Seven years have passed since the publication of the first East Harlem book, and within that short period, the neighborhood has again grown in housing and population. The first chapter, called Rooftop Portraits, shows East Harlemites posing on the neighborhood’s tenement rooftops. From 1890 to the 1950s, many neighborhood tenements lined East Harlem’s streets, and East Harlemites ascended to the tenement’s rooftops, which produced wonderful memories. For example, during the summer, East Harlemites and other city denizens slept, held cookouts, and flew kites, while other residents would take a blanket or bed sheet and spread it over the black tar roof. A plastic coating was applied to each tenement roof, and residents would sunbathe as if they were on the beach, hence the term tar beach. In short, these rooftop portraits became part of their family heirloom.

      The second chapter, Diversity, profiles the many ethnic groups in East Harlem. At one time, East Harlem’s population stood over 200,000 strong, with 35 different ethnicities and 27 different languages. Chapter three is called Neighborhood Landmarks/Neighborhood Name Change. The demolition of the old Pennsylvania Railroad Station in the early to mid-1960s led to the establishment of the New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1965. This commission is empowered to find and designate certain buildings and edifices throughout the city as landmarks for posterity. Since then, many buildings, churches, apartments, and banks have been saved from demolition long after they closed or stopped serving the public. However, parts of the neighborhood have been called something other than East Harlem. Some believe this choice is to embellish a certain part of the neighborhood while others believe it is done to separate itself from East Harlem’s status as a working-class neighborhood. The fourth chapter, Reflections on Italian East Harlem, looks back at part of the neighborhood’s history. From 1880 to 1950, thousands of Italian East Harlemites lived in the neighborhood and its unofficial boundary lines were 104–120th Streets and Third Avenue to the East River. At one time, East Harlem held one of the largest Italian communities in the country as an estimated 80,000 to 88,000 Italians lived in the neighborhood. Italian East Harlem declined after the anti-immigration statues of the early 1920s and declined even further during the Depression and post–World War II era. In 1950, Italian East Harlem stood at 50,000. The massive construction of public housing projects during the 1950s drastically reduced Italian East Harlem. By the late 1960s, only 10,000 to 12,000 Italians remained. Today an estimated 600 Italians live in East Harlem. Italian East Harlem is gone, but former Italian East Harlemites have maintained the traditions that took place in Italy or East Harlem like the Dancing of the Giglio and the Mount Carmel festival and today the father and son stickball league.

      The fifth chapter, Famous People and Places, acknowledges the achievements of East Harlemites and the neighborhood’s important places. The sixth chapter, Changing Scenes, looks back at several locations throughout East Harlem that have changed or remained the same and takes a deeper look at the tenements before they were demolished and replaced by public housing. The final chapter, Street Scenes, depicts the lives of everyday East Harlemites.

      One

      ROOFTOP PORTRAITS

      Calliope (Calageros) Gravanis reclines on a rooftop on 117th Street between First and Second Avenues in the 1950s. (Courtesy of Dimitrios Gatanas.)

      Jesus Papoleto Melendez poses with his brother and sister on their tenement rooftop on 109th Street and Third Avenue in the early 1950s. The water tank rising above the tenements was a common site in East Harlem before the construction of the public housing projects. (Courtesy of Jesus Papoleto Melendez.)

      Anna Johnson, at far right, poses with friends and relatives on the 101st Street rooftop between Lexington and Third Avenues during the 1940s. (Courtesy of Leo Bailey.)

      During the 1940s, an African American couple poses on an adjacent rooftop one block north on 102nd Street. (Courtesy of Leo Bailey.)

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