From time to time, I hear Harlemites refer to 125th Street as the “real” midtown. Looking at the map though, it’s 110 Street that is the actual halfway point on the 220-street grid that makes up Manhattan. 125th Street, however, has most of the major highway connections. Traveling east leads to the Harlem River Drive on the East River and going west, there’s access to the Henry Hudson Parkway on the Hudson River.
Continue reading “Historic Harlem – 125th Street”
Of all the places I’ve lived, Harlem is the only one that makes me constantly aware of history.
On my block, for example, the famous Great Day in Harlem photo of black and white jazz musicians was shot in 1958. From time to time, as I’ve looked out my window to see various groups recreating that iconic photo.
And sometimes when I walk down 125th Street, I try to imagine what it must have been like in the early 1920s when Jamaican born Pan-Africanist, Marcus Garvey, decked out in his military regalia complete with plumed hat, and members of his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), the first black nationalist organization, would parade down the streets. Or when in the 1960s Malcolm X would stand on the corner of 7th Avenue and 125th and preach black self-determination. Continue reading “Historic Harlem – 125th Street & Adam Clayton Powell Jr Blvd”
