Harlem (New York City)

Harlem (New York City), residential, business, and cultural district, Manhattan, New York City. It occupies much of the northern part of the borough of Manhattan. Black residents (see African Americans) constitute the largest population group, and Hispanics (especially Puerto Ricans) are the second largest. The principal business thoroughfare, 125th Street, runs east to west across the district.

Harlem is home to a number of museums. The Studio Museum in Harlem is dedicated to African American art and culture. El Museo del Barrio organizes exhibitions and educational programs on the art and culture of the Caribbean and Latin America. The Jazz Museum of Harlem sponsors concerts and other events. One of Harlem’s best-known attractions is the Apollo Theater on 125th Street. Founded in 1914, the Apollo continues to draw well-known performers to Harlem. Winners of the Apollo’s amateur talent competition have included many future stars such as jazz singers Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. The Dance Theatre of Harlem, founded by Arthur Mitchell in 1969, performs at its home on 152nd Street and tours internationally.

The village of Nieuw Haarlem (named for Haarlem, the Netherlands) was established in 1658 by the Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant. In 1776, during the American Revolution, the Battle of Harlem Heights was fought in the vicinity. The community grew as a suburb of New York City from about 1830 and by the 1880s was a fashionable residential area. From about 1900 through World War I (1914-1918) it developed as a black population center. By the 1920s it had become the center of a black literary and intellectual movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.

By the end of World War II (1939-1945) housing conditions had deteriorated; today the community contains extensive slum areas as well as newer housing developments, a large state office building, and blocks of renovated brownstone houses. An economic revival in Harlem began during the 1990s, spurred by federal funding. New businesses opened and affluent, middle-class residents flocked to the neighborhood. As the city’s real estate market boomed, Harlem’s historic brownstones became highly desirable. After leaving the White House in 2001, President Bill Clinton opened an office in Harlem.