Manhattan Avenue-West 120th-123rd Streets Historic District

Along four short blocks at the western edge of Central Harlem, 113 brownstone and brick row houses form an unbroken residential enclave beside Morningside Park. Each house rises three stories above a raised basement, and all were built between 1886 and 1896 by speculative builders during Harlem's building boom. The rows show a progression of fashionable styles: Neo-Grec houses with rectilinear incised detail on West 123rd Street and Manhattan Avenue, the more numerous Queen Anne houses with Romanesque ornament, brick, terra cotta and varied rooflines, and Renaissance Revival houses on West 120th Street with limestone upper floors, garlands and wreaths. Most designers were developers listed as both architect and builder, using catalogue-ordered mill-made detail. The streetscapes keep uniform height, setbacks, stoops and ornament, and they contrast with surrounding tenements and apartment buildings. The houses first held single families of English, German and Irish descent, and after World War I the area changed with Harlem's growing Black community. The district's integrity is its main claim to importance.