Mount Morris Park Historic District

Mount Morris Park Historic District is a 26-acre residential area in Harlem, Manhattan, running from Mount Morris Park west to Lenox Avenue and from 119th to 123rd Streets. Speculative building began in 1878 and continued into the early 20th century, producing rows of townhouses, a few apartment houses and several churches. Architects included Arnold W. Brunner, George F. Pelham, William A. Potter and James E. Ware. The buildings show Romanesque Revival, neo-Grec, Queen Anne and Classical or Renaissance styles. St. Martin's Episcopal Church is described as the finest surviving Romanesque Revival example of its kind in Manhattan. Deed restrictions placed on the former Benson farm lots kept the area residential. In 1903 a newspaper compared the houses along Mount Morris Park West with Fifth Avenue mansions. After the Depression the neighborhood became predominantly Black, and its churches hosted speakers such as Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey. The survival of an almost unbroken row of residences facing a park is described as rare in Manhattan.