Neighborhood Sites and Landmarks

Harlem Courthouse

Corner of East 121st Street and Sylvan Place
Architect: Thom and Wilson, 1891-1893

The Harlem Courthouse was built between 1891 and 1893, for use by the Municipal and Magistrate's Courts. Its original function as a court ended in 1961 when the Courts reorganized. It was said to be one of the City's earliest County Seats.

This vibrant Romanesque Revival style courthouse has elements of the Victorian Gothic, most notably in its pinnacles, multiple steep gables and polychromy. Romanesque Revival characteristics include the blocky massing, and typical round arched door and window openings. The four-story masonry structure has a granite base with a red brick facade trimmed with bluestone and terra cotta. The five-story corner tower is topped by eight small gables with two clocks below. Click here for images inside the Courthouse.

Site of Harlem Reformed Church & African burial ground

East 127th Street, near FDR

East Harlem buses now park in this spot on East 127th Street, west of First Avenue, but it was once the home of the Harlem Reformed Church, established in 1660, and later an African burial ground. The number of people buried here is unknown, although they probably number no more than a few dozen, given the general size of churchyards at the time. The burial ground probably antedates the one in Lower Manhattan, discovered during excavation for a federal building in 1990, for which the first known historical reference was in 1712. ("Sites of Struggle Emerge from Obscurity," New York Times, February 13, 2000.)

East 104th Street Firehouse

Architect: Napoleon Le Brun & Sons, 1800s

The Firehouse was designed by Napoleon Le Brun & Sons, the official architects of the New York City Fire Department. Napoleon Le Brun designed firehouses and other buildings in New York City, including the Metropolitan Life Insurance Building. Le Brun also designed Saint Cecilia’s Parish on 106th Street between Lexington and Park Avenue.

In May of 1883, the New York City Fire Department purchased the lot on 104th Street for $5,500. On January 15, 1885, Engine 53 moved into the brand new building.

The basement was for coal storage and a workshop. The street level floor was roughed in squares to give the horses traction. The second floor front housed the Captain¹s office, and the rear and third floor were used as dormitories. On the third floor a handball court was built much later. There was an outhouse in the rear yard. The hose tower, which looks from the front as if it were another full floor, had a water tank for spare supply, hay and grain storage for the horses. It also had a wall shoot or well which served to dry the hoses, and to shovel down the hay and grain. In February, 1893, the building had hot water and an indoor toilet added. Horses were used as late as 1922, and at about that time a cement floors was poured at street level to accommodate the "horseless" carriages and pumpers.

In 1972, Engine 53 moved to Third Avenue and 102nd Street. El Museo del Barrio began renting the building in 1973 making gradual improvements to the building. In May of 1980, with a grant from Con Edison, El Museo del Barrio purchased the firehouse at public auction from the City of New York. The building was then used to produce art, theatre, and community performances, but was vacated in the late 1980s.

In 2007, Manhattan Neighborhood Network purchased the shuttered historic East Harlem facility to be developed as a state-of-the-art Community Media and Broadcast Center, while preserving key features of the landmark structure. Click here for information on MNN's Firehouse Media Center Project.

New York Public Library - 125th Street Branch

224 East 125th Street (near Third Avenue)
Architect: Designed by McKim, Mead and White, 1904

This impressive building sits on the eastern end of Harlem's famed 125th Street, between Second and Third Avenues. A visitor entering the library immediately perceives the distinctive first floor ceiling, which is divided into four vaulting, concave sections. This unique ceiling overlooks the first floor, which contains the library's collections for adults and teenagers. A recently renovated children's room is located on the second floor. Reflecting the cultural diversity of the neighborhood, the 125th Street Branch offers books and magazines in English and Spanish. In addition, the library boasts a strong African-American Heritage collection. A three-month "spruce up" was completed in 2000 giving the branch new furniture, telecommunications equipment, computers on the first and second floors, and a new children's story hour area.

Corn Exchange Bank

125th Street / Park Avenue
Architect: Charles Alonzo Rich; 1883

The six-story building was originally completed in 1883; and was once packed with ornamentation. Originally the Mount Morris Bank and Safety Deposit Vaults, the building was designed by Charles Alonzo Rich in 1883. In 1913 the Mound Morris Bank became part of the Corn Exchange Bank. Although vacant since the late 1970s, the building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The building is scheduled to be converted into a mixed-use site for the Harlem Culinary Institute and 12,600 square feet of commercial office space.

Pleasant Village

In East Harlem, N.Y., children play stickball alongside lines of row houses, tourists mill along Fifth Avenue on the way to nearby museums, and stray cats patrol the cobblestone streets. That's right: cobblestone streets, museums, and row houses in East Harlem.

This northeastern corner of Manhattan may be known for its urban ills, but it's a neighborhood full of history and historic buildings. The area called Pleasant Village, a modest grid of townhouses that runs from 114th Street to 120th Street and from First Avenue to the East River, is one of the last vestiges of historic property in East Harlem. Without landmark status, however, Pleasant Village has become vulnerable to demolition and development.

"East Harlem is not just an area with a history of poverty, crime, and drug addiction," says Raymond Plumey, architect and East Harlem resident for more than 20 years. "The neighborhood should be aware of their history, whether they choose to ignore it or not," Plumey says.

In some ways, East Harlem is more historic than its western neighbors. Developed a full century before West and Central Harlem, by 1800 the Dutch village of Nieuw Haarlem served as a bucolic getaway for lower Manhattan's wealthy elite, and then in the later in the century as a vibrant working-class neighborhood. By the 1930s, East Harlem was home to the largest Little Italy in America, housing such venerable residents as former New York City mayor Fiorella LaGuardia.

When Plumey nominated Pleasant Village to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999, his application was denied. "I contacted all the preservation groups in New York City and asked them for help, and I ran up against at brick wall," he says.

East Harlem's 118th Street

At that time, [plans were already underway] to tear down the six 1903 buildings of the Washburn Wire Factory in Pleasant Village, once the largest employer in Manhattan. The redevelopment plan calls for the construction of a million-square-foot commercial space for big-box stores like Home Depot and Costco, desired amenities in Manhattan, but stores that no neighborhood wants to accommodate due to the influx of traffic and pollution. Despite resistance from neighborhood groups like the Business and Resident Alliance of East Harlem and the East Harlem Historical Association, the factory was demolished in February of this year.

"Had that building been landmarked—and there are several factories and other buildings throughout the metropolitan area that have been landmarked—they would have built that store inside of that factory," Adams says.

"In order to build a preservation movement," Plumey says, you "need a diverse economic group. You have to have some moderate income folks so there are other issues besides survival." With only five percent of the population owning their homes, and the rest stuffed into Corbu-style housing projects, local preservations face and uphill battle and an uncertain future. "The only thing we know is that we lost the factory. It's gone," Plumey says. "What is built there will have an impact on whether or not we get this historic district. We're losing a lot of our history."

Duke Ellington Statue

Location: Fifth Avenue / 110th Street
Sculptor: Robert Graham

Located on the northeast corner of Central Park at Pioneers' Gate is a roundabout named Duke Ellington Circle after the statue of the famous composer that occupies its focal center. One of the truly contemporary statues in Central Park its base is a semicircular structure, which makes up the western piece of the whole bisected by Fifth Avenue.

This soaring monument of black patina bronze tableau features an eight-foot tall sculpture of Ellington standing next to an open grand piano. Three 10-foot tall pillars each crowned with three nude caryatid female figures representing the muses support it. The 25-foot-tall sculpture is the first monument in New York City dedicated to an African American and the first memorial in the United States to Ellington.

Public School 72
(Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center)

1674 Lexington Avenue, East 105th Street, Manhattan.
Built 1879-1882; Architect David I. Stagg
Redesigned by Raymond Plumey, 1993

Public School 72 was the work of David I. Stagg, whose career in public school architecture spanned more than half a century and who was Superintendent of Public School Buildings for the New York City Board of Education from 1872 to 1886. A rare and almost completely intact example of a late nineteenth century public school building in Manhattan, it was designed to meet the needs of a once densely populated immigrant neighborhood in East Harlem. The school, which displays the range of sharply articulated detailing and angular ornament characteristic of the neo Grec style, is an excellent example of that style as it was used in New York public school design during the late 1870s and 1880s. P.S. 72 is one of a few extant school buildings that represent a departure from the design vocabulary of the Italianate style which dominated school design from the late 1840s through the early 1870s. The building continued in use as a public school until 1975, when it was closed by the Board of Education. The building later housed classrooms for Touro College and offices for the East Harlem Council for Community Improvement. A recent complete renovation and restoration under the direction of the New York City Economic Development Corporation has insured the long term future of this building for community use. It is now the home of the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center.

St. Nicholas Cathedral (Russian Orthodox)

15 East 97 Street, between Fifth And Madison Aves.

Sunday, November 16, 2003 marked the 100th anniversary and rededication of St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral.

Built at the turn of the 20th century, St. Nicholas Cathedral was conceived by its holy founders as the most important centre of the Russian Church in the United States, as a place, where all people who cherish Russian liturgical and spiritual traditions, could find help and consolation.

Events that followed, such as the revolution of 1917 and the 'cold war', put a lot of obstacles to the implementation of the plans of St. Tikhon and Father Alexander Khotovitsky. Many years have passed since then, and many things have changed in the world. Through the prayerful intercession of St. Nicholas the Cathedral in New York has hold its ground and is embodying the implementation of the plans of its holy founders.

Islamic Cultural Center (Mosque)

201 East 96 Street, at Third Avenue
Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, 1989-1996.
Style: Late Modern (International Style III)

The Islamic Cultural Center was the first building erected as a mosque in New York City. It contains the two primary elements that traditionally compose an Islamic house of worship: a mosque and a minaret. Within the mosque, the mihrab, or alter niche, faces Mecca, dictating the mosque’s 29 degree angle from the Manhattan street grid. This alignment creates a traditional exterior court for worshipers to gather before services. The geometric form of the mosque, based on a recurring theme of square units, follows Islamic law, which prohibits the depiction of natural forms since they are made in the image of God. The result is a striking blend of ancient Islamic tradition and contemporary design and materials.

One of the most striking buildings in the City, the thin crescent Moon is the preeminent symbol of the Islamic faith and can be seen here atop the dome as well as the minaret. Ramadan—Islam’s holiest period—is the ninth month of the year, and its start is signaled by the first sighting of the young crescent Moon without the aid of a telescope. In the days preceding Ramadan, the Hayden Planetarium typically receives several hundred phone calls from worshipers asking for confirmation of the day they should expect to see the crescent Moon.

Like all mosques, this one was built to face Mecca, in Saudi Arabia. Easier said than done. If Earth were flat, all you would need to do is have the building face Mecca straight on. But Earth's curved surface presents a problem whose full solution requires the application of a branch of mathematics called spherical trigonometry.

The Heckscher Building

1230 Fifth Avenue (Bet. 103 & 104 Sts.)
Architect: Warren & Wetmore, 1920s
Maynicke & Franke, 1925

Built to house the Heckscher Foundation for Children and the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, this mammoth, block-filling neo-Georgian building has more recently served as home to a variety of Latino arts organizations.

El Taller Boricua/Puerto Rican Workshop had a long tenure during which it helped serve as an inspiration for the Nuyorican movement of the late 1960s. In 1977, El Museo del Barrio found a permanent home in the spacious, neo-classical building at 1230 Fifth Avenue. The Heckscher Building also houses the Raíces Latin Music Museum Collection of Harbor Conservatory and La Casa de la Herencia Cultural Puertorriqueña, dedicated to the history and culture of Puerto Rico, in addition to the Central Park Conservancy and the Urban Park Rangers.

Museum of the City of New York

1220-1227 Fifth Avenue (East 103rd & East 104th Sts.)
Architect: Joseph J. Freedlander, 1932
Style: neo-Federal. Construction: red brick, limestone.

The Museum of the City of New York is a private, not-for-profit, educational agency established in 1923 to collect, preserve and present original materials related to the history of New York City. Its previous home was Gracie Mansion before that charming house was taken over as a residence for the mayor of New York City. In 1932, the museum moved to this neo-Georgian leviathan that could easily be a taken for a suburban high school. It was built with funds raised by private subscription on land provided by the city. All this communal effort was well worthwhile, for it offers a delightful array of exhibits.

New York Academy Of Medicine

1216 Fifth Avenue, at East 103rd Street
Architects: York & Sawyer, 1926

The random light and dark stone work of this Byzantine-Romanesque palace give it a Pisan look. The architects are best known for their banks (Bowery Savings on 42nd Street, Federal Reserve, and many others), and yet they seem perfectly comfortable and somewhat stylish here.

In 1847, a group of leading physicians founded The New York Academy of Medicine as a voice for the medical profession in the metropolitan area. The Academy immediately became involved in reform of both medical practice and public health. A major accomplishment of the early Fellows was the establishment of the Metropolitan Board of Health -- the first modern municipal public health authority in the United States.

The Academy moved into its current home in 1926. For more than a hundred years, the Academy Library -- one of the three largest medical collections in the United States -- has been open not only to all physicians, but to anyone wishing to consult the professional medical literature. To this day, the Academy Library is the only medical library in the metropolitan area open to the general public. Its library unexpectedly also contains what is described as the world's largest collection of cook books, bequeathed by Dr. Margaret Barclay Wilson.

La Marqueta Internacional

Stretching from 111th to 116th Streets, La Marqueta was a source of tremendous pride for the predominately Puerto Rican population that came to dominate the area after World War II. After opening in 1936 under the LaGuardia Administration, La Marqueta was home to over 200 vendors selling fish, clothing, medicinal herbs, records, religious items, tropical fruits and vegetables. That vibrant and lively history of La Marqueta is now just a memory to the East Harlem community. According to a December 2001 special report on small business in Crain’s New York Business, the current La Marqueta is the least patronized municipal market in the City of New York. Today there are just eight vendors, and they occupy only 50 percent of one of the original five buildings.

Spanish United Methodist Church

Location: 111th Street / Lexington Avenue

The Spanish United Methodist Church is an evangelical church serving the Spanish-speaking population of East Harlem. On June 28, 1969, the Young Lords, a radical youth organization founded by Pablo Guzman and David Perez, took over the First Spanish United Methodist Church, renaming it "People's Church." From the church they ran a breakfast program, day care, health testing, and educational classes for the local community. The Young Lords sought to improve living conditions for Latino and African American residents of East Harlem (El Barrio). The First Spanish United Methodist Church remains a symbol of the NYC Latino empowerment movement. In 2004, the church held memorial services for Nuyorican Poet Pedro Pietri, who died of cancer.

Odd Fellow's Hall Bldg. / Metropolis Studios

1443 Park Avenue @ East 106th Street

Once an Odd Fellow's Hall, this prominent building featuring subtle Art Deco detailing now houses the only fully digitized independent television production studio in North America. Since 1994 Metropolis Studios has been the preferred studio production facility for many award winning shows and celebrities. Metropolis Studios has hosted productions with audiences of over 250 people for Black Entertainment Television and The Food Network.

The new and highly controversial Young Women's Leadership School is also housed there. TYWLS was established to nurture the intellectual curiosity and creativity of young women and to address their developmental needs. Students are encouraged to achieve their personal best in and out of the classroom. TYWLS strives to work with families and instill in the students a sense of community, responsibility and ethical principles of behavior - characteristics that will help make them leaders of their generation.

9/11 Memorial @ 116th Street FDR Exit

This patriotic mural is all that remains of the Washburn Wire Factory, which was demolished in 2004 to make way for a Home Depot mall currently under construction.

The mural was painted soon after the collapse of the World Trade Center to honor of the brave men and women whose lives were sacrificed during the evacuation process.

Although the rest of the lot has been demolished and carted away, developers have apparently decided to leave the mural in place. The portrait can best be seen by driving (or walking) along the FDR Drive.

We will revisit this spot in a year to see whether the mural has survived.

Raices Latin Music Museum Collection

2032 Fifth Avenue, 5th Floor

The Raices Latin Music Museum Collection is a comprehensive, multi-media collection describing and documenting the history and evolution of Latin Music in New York City boasting a collection of over 15,000 objects -- instruments, music, photographs, documents and more -- that follow the growth of Latin music and underscore its roots, or raices, in Afro-Caribbean rhythms and trends.

Raices works to research, preserve and promote the rich musical legacy of popular and folkloric Afro-Caribbean musical forms in New York City; concentrating on the contributions of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, the collection acknowledges African roots and European influences.

Through its extensive collection, educational programs, exhibitions, primary source materials and documents, establishment of an archive / research center, educational activities, performances and lecture / demonstrations, Raices helps to preserve and present an essential part of the city's musical heritage, educating diverse audiences about this rich musical tradition.

The Harbor is committed to finding a permanent home for the Raices Latin Music Museum Collection where research, exhibition and education on the subject of New York City's Latin Music Legacy can happen.

It is the Harbor's dream that this home will be located in East Harlem and include a permanent and rotating exhibition gallery, public access rooms, research library, archival and storage facilities for the collection, as well as a performance space.

The collection includes original manuscripts by major artists, rare photos, video, audio recordings, periodicals, oral histories, artifacts, instruments and a photo exhibition on the folkloric roots and history of salsa in New York City. Currently used by students and scholars, Raices served as a major research source for the feature film, "Mambo Kings," based on Oscar Hijuelosís Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

The Raices Latin Music Museum Collection is of historical significance, as it honors and preserves an art form, which is truly unique to New York City, and comprises objects and interviews that had never before been compiled in a comprehensive way.

Benjamin Franklin High School

Now H.S. 435 Manhattan Center for Math and Science
280 Pleasant Avenue / East 115th Street

When the time came for East Harlem to have its own high school the Board of Education concluded that a vocational school would be appropriate for the immigrant peoples. However, Leonard Covello (1887-1982) and other community leaders including Fiorello H. LaGuardia argued for an academic institution that resulted in Benjamin Franklin High School. Covello served as its principal -the first of his heritage to be named a high school principal in New York. Covello provided extraordinary leadership promoting a holistic educational philosophy that integrated community interests and school activities.

The large building housing Benjamin Franklin High School was first opened in 1941, with the hope that its location near the banks of the Harlem River would provide land-locked students in the neighborhood with an invigorating place to learn. More than a half-century later, the building, now occupied by the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics as well as two small schools -- the Isaac Newton Middle School and the River East Elementary School -- is still a breath of fresh air, not only for neighborhood teenagers, but for high school students from across the city. Like a lot of other older city school buildings, Manhattan Center has seen better days. A $25 million renovation, slated to start right away and last at least two years, comes just in time. The project will include exterior work, new windows and stairs, and a new boiler system. The facelift should enhance the many lovely components the school already possesses -- a large, airy foyer and an expansive and regal library. If the renovation succeeds in brightening up the dingy classrooms and common area in the basement, so much the better.

Fire Hook & Ladder Co. No. 14

East Harlem’s Engine Company 36 began as Fire Hook & Ladder Company No. 14. Architects Napoleon LeBrun & Sons designed the building in the Romanesque Revival Style. It went up in 1888-1889 and still stands at 120 East 125th Street in Manhattan. The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated it a “Landmark Site” in 1991.

Between 1880 and 1895, Napoleon LeBrun & Sons helped to define the New York Fire Department’s (FDNY) expression of civic architecture, both functionally and symbolically, in more than 40 buildings.

The building’s style reflects numerous mid-block firehouses, with its attention to materials, stylistic detail, plan and setting. Built on the site of an earlier volunteer fire company and then a professional suburban company, this firehouse represents nearly 150 years of FDNY history. It had been the home of Engine Company 36 since 1975, until it was closed by Mayor Bloomberg in 2004.

St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church

113 East 117th Street
Architect: Neville & Bagge, 1908

Built to serve East Harlem's thriving Irish population at the turn of the century, St. Paul's was East Harlem's first Roman Catholic Church, and it continues as a center for Catholics in East Harlem. The annual neighborhood-wide procession culminates with a mass at the Church.

"In 2002 , Cardinal Edward Michael Egan ordained Andris Alexis Moronta as one of God's representatives on earth. "A priest," the cardinal intoned, must act as "a mirror held up to divinity." Cardinal Egan, delivering his homily where fresh carnations masked cracking plaster, did not allude to problems in the priesthood.

"We are going through this terrible thing," said Carmen Perdomo, who was moved to tears when the new priest prostrated himself on the church floor as a symbol of his renunciation of worldly sin. "But you just have to take it out of your mind and pray that God will help them from straying."

"The career of Father Moronta, 28, illustrates the church's inability to recruit priests in the United States: He is a Dominican who was sent to an American parish as a missionary. Although raised in New York, he is a Dominican citizen who studied for the priesthood in Argentina. He is ministering to a Brooklyn parish as a missionary of his Argentine order. Well-wishers hugged him and nuns kissed his palms in a sign of respect. Moments later, Father Moronta said: "I am aware that this is a difficult time to be a priest. My testimony shows that there are young people who are willing to give up everything to bring people to God."

Lou Gehrig Memorial Plaque

1994 Second Avenue @ 103rd Street

Lou Gehrig, known as baseball's Iron Horse, comes closest to being the exemplar, a man of unrivaled dignity and perseverance.

Last May, a memorial plaque was unveiled at the site of his birthplace in East Harlem. The site is now occupied by Dimitri's Garden Center.

Remnants of Little Italy

East Harlem became a vibrant Italian immigrant community after management used Italian workers to break the Irish worker’s strike on the Fifth Avenue trolley line.  It was quickly settled by the Italian workers and their families soon followed.  Most of the workers came from Southern Italy and were unskilled and uneducated.  The neighborhood became another “Little Italy,” as Italian businesses accompanied the Italian residents.  Jews also settled in East Harlem, though to a lesser degree than the Italians.  Synagogues and Jewish prayer groups were established in the community begin to disappear with the Puerto Rican migration of the 1920s and 1930s.

From its inception, East Harlem has been a working class neighborhood with poor housing.  There has always been insufficient housing for the population of the community and the quality of the housing was far inferior to that of neighboring central Harlem.

As Italians and Jews moved up the socioeconomic ladder, they moved out of East Harlem in search of better housing. The second generation was better educated, had better opportunities and were able to assimilate into the greater culture. Many families migrated to the suburbs or other areas of the city.  This “white flight” cemented East Harlem’s status as an immigrant and working class neighborhood. 

St. Cecilia's Parish

112-120 East 106th Street
Architects: Napoleon LeBrun & Sons, 1883-87

On September 9, 1883, at four o'clock, the corner-stone of the new church was laid. The Right Reverend William Quinn performed the ceremonies and the sermon was delivered by Reverend Dr. Edward McGlynn.

Reverend Michael J. Phelan was then pastor at St. Cecilia's for thirty-eight years. These were years that reaped a rich spiritual harvest. Of primary importance was the completion of the upper church, an accomplishment brought to fruition in 1887. Using the plans of Napoleon Le Brun, the same architect who designed the Metropolitan Life Building, Father Phelan acted as general contractor, commissioning the services of carpenters, plasterers, tinsmiths, bricklayers, etc., who were mostly members of the parish, and thereby saved his parishioners almost fifty thousand dollars in contracting fees.

This is the second Roman Catholic Church in East Harlem, and it has always served a diverse parish. German and Irish congregations in the 19th Century became Spanish speaking in the 20th Century. Today, the church serves Latinos and African Americans. The Romanesque Revival building features its patron saint depicted in terra cotta playing an organ.

Icahn Stadium / Randall’s Island Park

Icahn Stadium, which opened in April 2005, is located along Randall’s Island Park’s northwestern shoreline, visible from the East Side of Manhattan and the FDR Drive. The $42 million facility – built through a 1:1 ratio of public and private funding, and with a final $10 million naming sponsorship by New York City financier Carl Icahn -- meets International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) specifications for accommodating local, national and international track and field events, including Olympic training and trials. It offers a standard 400-meter Mondo surface running track, flanked by covered spectator seating and overlooking the East River. It is illuminated by a pair of dramatic light towers, and partially sheltered by a cantilevered roof. Modern locker rooms, showers and meeting rooms have been constructed within the seating complex, along with fitness, exercise and meeting rooms geared toward RISF’s youth programs at the Park. In addition, a premier soccer field to the north of the Stadium is being outfitted with fencing, lighting and bleachers for spectator events.

Here the noted bank architects are in their neo-monastery mood, with a quadropartite building crowned by a round pavilion with burnt-tile roof.

Flower Hospital / Terence Cardinal Cooke

Location: Fifth Avenue and 106th Street
Architects: York & Sawyer, 1921

As a member of the Catholic Health Care System, the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center is committed to the belief that life is sacred and worthy of appropriate medical support and rehabilitative services.

The Center's tradition of providing compassionate medical treatment began in 1890 with its predecessor institution, Flower Free Surgical Hospital, then associated with New York Medical College.

In 1938, Flower Hospital and New York Medical College merged with Fifth Avenue Hospital at the Center's present site on Fifth Avenue and 106th Street.

When New York Medical College moved to Valhalla in 1978, Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital redirected its acute care mission to become a center of diversified healthcare under the auspices of the Archdiocese of New York.

The 729-bed continuing-care facility now provides a home and dignified lifestyle for those who live with chronic illnesses -- the elderly, severely disabled children, and people with AIDS, Alzheimer's, Huntington's Disease, or kidney failure.

In 1984, the hospital was renamed Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center in memory of New York's beloved Archbishop, whose vision continues as the Center's guiding light.

Public School 109

Location: 225 East 99th Street
Architect: Charles B. J. Snyder; NYC Board of Education

Designed by Charles B. J. Snyder, Public School 109, in a street-facing courtyard serves as an inviting, gracious entrance and a cupola functions as a beacon in East Harlem.

Snyder's schools were beautiful. Inside his schools were art -- murals, sculptural details and stained glass panels -- and fine woodwork, tile and even marble. These were people's palaces, not factories for learning. The old buildings are well planned, exceptionally sturdy and adaptable.

But Snyder was at his most ingenious on the tight sites where he developed an approach that other cities studied and emulated. Inspired by Parisian townhouses, he created a school plan in the shape of the letter ''H'' that not only provided classrooms with light and fresh air, but also allowed the city to build on relatively inexpensive and quiet mid-block sites, rather than corner lots. Under Snyder's direction, buildings adjacent to the schools were often purchased and pulled down to provide more light and air as well as room for fire stairs and outdoor play spaces. Snyder also introduced steel construction and specialized facilities, like laboratories, auditoriums and gymnasiums.

Greek Orthodox Community
of St. George & St. Demetrs

140 East 103rd Street / Lexington Avenue

This formerly Lutheran Church was purchased by the Greek congregation in the 1940s, when the immediate neighborhood was home to many Greek families and small businesses.

In the late 1960s, these families began moving to Astoria, Queens and other parts of New York City.

Today the church serves this same congregation, whose members travel to East Harlem for Sunday services and special ocassions.

28th Police Precinct Station House (Hope Community Hall)

177-179 East 104th Street, East Harlem, New York.
Built 1892-93; Nathaniel D. Bush, Architect to the NYC Police Dept.
Landmarks Preservation: Designated February 23, 1999; LP-2034

The 28th Police Precinct Station House was built in 1892-93 to the design of Nathaniel D. Bush. Appointed Architect to the New York City Police Department in 1862, Bush was responsible for the design of station houses in the city until 1895. This station house was based on a design that Bush had produced for the 25th Police Precinct (1886-87), 153-155 East 67th Street, which represented a significant departure from his earlier, simpler buildings. The Police Department employed this design as a general prototype for a number of later station houses. The mid-block 28th Police Precinct Station House, five stories high above a basement, is clad in red brick with gray granite detailing. The design combines elements of the Rundbogenstil and the Renaissance Revival and neo-Grec styles. The three-bay facade is articulated as a grid formed by continuous piers and intermediate cornices. This building ended its service as a police station in 1974, and has been used and owned since 1981 by Hope Community, Inc. Today, with its original exterior nearly intact, it is one of ten Bush-designed station houses in Manhattan known to survive, and remains one of the few significant municipal or institutional buildings from the era of East Harlem's rapid development in the late nineteenth century.

New York Public Library - Aguilar Branch

174 East 110th Street (Lexington/Third Aves.)
Architects: Herts and Tallant, 1886

One of the oldest branch libraries in New York, the Aguilar Library was founded in 1886 and is named after Grace Aguilar, a Sephardic Jewish author. In 1905, when it became part of The New York Public Library, Aguilar was serving large Jewish and Italian immigrant populations. After World War II, an influx of Puerto Rican and other Spanish-speaking newcomers led to the creation of an extensive collection of materials in Spanish. Designed by architects Herts and Tallant, Aguilar was built with funds donated by Andrew Carnegie. The interior of the building features a graceful hanging gallery with a cast-iron railing and a pressed-glass floor. Aguilar was renovated in 1996 as part of the Library's Adopt-A-Branch program and is fully accessible to persons using wheelchairs. The branch has a Language Learning Center for adults, a computer lab that provides instruction in English for speakers of other languages.

Conservatory Garden

The Gardens of Europe in Manhattan
Central Park @ Fifth Avenue & 105th Street

The six-acre Conservatory Garden is Central Park's only formal garden. It takes its name from the huge glass conservatory that once stood on this same spot, built in 1898. In 1934, when maintenance of the facility had become too costly, the conservatory was demolished and replaced with the present Garden, which opened to the public in 1937. The Conservatory Garden is in fact three gardens representing different landscape styles: Italian, French, and English.

To enter the six-acre Garden from Fifth Avenue and 105th Street, you must pass through the Vanderbilt Gate, which originally stood before the Vanderbilt Mansion at Fifth Avenue and 58th Street, the site of today's Bergdorf Goodman store. An Italian-style garden opens immediately before you. It is a restful oasis of formal green lawn and clipped hedges. It is bordered to the north and south by alleés of crabapple trees; their bloom times vary from mid-April through the first week of May, depending on the weather. On the west side is a wrought-iron wisteria pergola that sits atop a series of tiered yew and spiraea hedges. An elegant geyser fountain in front of the pergola provides a vertical contrast to the rows of hedges.

On the walkway under the pergola are medallions inscribed with the names of the original thirteen states. The park is open from 8:00 am to dusk. Bicycle riding prohibited. Wheelchair access at 106th St. gate inside Park.