Harlem

Not to be confused with Haarlem.
This article is about the neighborhood in Manhattan. For other uses, see Harlem (disambiguation).

Harlem
Neighborhood
Brick townhouse along a street, which is lined with trees.
Apartment buildings next to Morningside Park in Harlem
Nickname(s): 
"Heaven", "Black mecca"
Map
Location of Harlem in New York City
Coordinates: 40°48′32″N 73°56′54″W / 40.80889°N 73.94833°W / 40.80889; -73.94833
Country United States
State New York
CityNew York City
BoroughManhattan
Community DistrictManhattan 10[1]
Founded1660[2]
Founded byPeter Stuyvesant
Named forHaarlem, Netherlands
Area
[1]
 • Total1.400 sq mi (3.63 km2)
Population
[3]: 2 
 • Total197,052
Economics
[4]
 • Median income$52,708
Time zoneUTC−5 (Eastern)
 • Summer (DST)UTC−4 (EDT)
ZIP Codes
10026, 10027, 10030, 10031, 10035, 10037, 10039
Area code212, 332, 646, and 917

Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Harlem area encompasses several other neighborhoods and extends west and north to 155th Street, east to the East River, and south to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Central Park, and East 96th Street.

Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658,[5] it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. Harlem's history has been defined by a series of economic boom-and-bust cycles, with significant population shifts accompanying each cycle.[6] Harlem was predominantly occupied by Jewish and Italian Americans in the late 19th century, while African-American residents began to arrive in large numbers during the Great Migration in the early 20th century. In the 1920s and 1930s, Central and West Harlem were the center of the Harlem Renaissance, a major African-American cultural movement. With job losses during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the deindustrialization of New York City after World War II, rates of crime and poverty increased significantly.[7] In the 21st century, crime rates decreased significantly, and Harlem started to gentrify.

The area is served by the New York City Subway and local bus routes. It contains several public elementary, middle, and high schools, and is close to several colleges, including Columbia University, Manhattan School of Music, and the City College of New York. Central Harlem is part of Manhattan Community District 10.[1] It is patrolled by the 28th and 32nd Precincts of the New York City Police Department. The greater Harlem area also includes Manhattan Community Districts 9 and 11 and several police precincts, while fire services are provided by four New York City Fire Department companies.

  1. ^ a b c "NYC Planning | Community Profiles". communityprofiles.planning.nyc.gov. New York City Department of City Planning. Archived from the original on March 21, 2019. Retrieved March 18, 2019.
  2. ^ Gill 2011, p. 33
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference CHP2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference CB10PUMA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Pierce, Carl Horton, et al. New Harlem Past and Present: the Story of an Amazing Civic Wrong, Now at Last to be Righted. New York: New Harlem Pub. Co., 1903.
  6. ^ "Harlem History |". Harlemworldmag.com. January 26, 1934. Archived from the original on December 13, 2012. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
  7. ^ Roberts, Sam (January 5, 2010). "No Longer Majority Black, Harlem Is in Transition". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 2, 2016. Retrieved October 2, 2016.