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95-482: The lighthouse stands on Jeffrey's Hook, a small point of land that supports the base of the eastern pier of the bridge, which connects Washington Heights in Manhattan to Fort Lee, New Jersey . The first attempt to reduce Hudson River traffic accidents at Jeffrey's Hook was a red pole that was hung out over the river. A 10 candle-power light was added to the pole in 1889 to help alert the increasing river traffic to

190-572: A "transnational community", continually defined by its connection to the Dominican Republic . The majority of Dominican immigrants viewed their stay in the United States as purely economically motivated while they remained culturally attached to the D.R.; many also sent remittances home, imagining an eventual retirement to the island. During the 1970s, Washington Heights' School District 6 (including Inwood and Hamilton Heights)

285-450: A Teenage Drug Ring , many dealers from the pre- freebasing period put greater emphasis on knowing their customers and hid their operations more carefully from police, as opposed to dealers of the crack days who would deal openly and fight violently in the competition for the drug's high profits. Borough (New York City) The boroughs of New York City are the five major governmental districts that compose New York City . They are

380-583: A battery-powered lamp and a fog bell. It was operated by a part-time lighthouse keeper. Construction on the George Washington Bridge, immediately above the lighthouse, started in 1927. When George Washington Bridge was completed in 1931, the lighthouse navigational light was considered obsolete, so the Coast Guard decommissioned it, and put it out in 1948, with the intention of auctioning it off. The proposed dismantling of it resulted in

475-536: A borough is an independent level of government, as well as with borough forms used in other states and in Greater London . New York City is often referred to collectively as the five boroughs , which can unambiguously refer to the city proper as a whole, avoiding confusion with any particular borough or with the Greater New York metropolitan area . The term is also used by politicians to counter

570-585: A climax in 1957, with the assault of two teenagers of European ancestry, Michael Farmer and Roger McShane, members of the majority-Irish "Jesters" gang. The incident took place in the Highbridge Pool , a Works Progress Administration -funded pool built in 1936 which had no racial restrictions but was nonetheless an environment of racial hostility in the changing landscape of the neighborhood. The assault, which ended in Michael Farmer's death,

665-509: A county in themselves, or are completely separate and independent of any county. Each borough is represented by a borough president . Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island each have a Borough Hall with limited administrative functions. The Manhattan Borough President's office is situated in the Manhattan Municipal Building . The Bronx Borough President's office used to be in its own Bronx Borough Hall but has been in

760-556: A decrease in overall population but an increasing presence in the neighborhood's northwestern corner. By the 1970s, evidence of the exodus of the broader Jewish community was present in the changing landscape of the neighborhood, where kosher stores and Jewish bakeries were gradually replaced by new small businesses with signs in Spanish. While some Dominican immigrants had been arriving in Washington Heights throughout

855-430: A diverse group of people of European descent. In 1920, nearly half were Protestant , most of whom had parents born in the United States; the remainder was split between Jews and Catholics , typically immigrants or born to immigrant parents. The next wave of urbanization for Washington Heights came in the 1920s, coinciding with the construction boom occurring across the city. The population increased significantly in

950-423: A drastic decrease in crime that continued through the 21st century. From 1990 to 2023, reported motor vehicle thefts, murders, and burglaries have each fallen by over 85%, felony assaults, rapes, and robberies by over 65%, and grand larcenies by around 45%. The 30th and 32nd precincts to the south of Washington Heights, which cover most of Harlem north of 133rd Street, experienced just as drastic crime drops during

1045-477: A few modern castles. The first of these was Libbey Castle, built by Augustus Richards after he purchased the land from Lucius Chittenden in 1855. Located near Margaret Corbin Circle, this estate was once owned by William "Boss" Tweed but got its current name from William Libbey, who purchased it in 1880. Even more extravagant, Paterno Castle was situated on the estate of real estate developer Charles Paterno by

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1140-630: A frequent focus on Manhattan and thereby to place all five boroughs on equal footing. In the same vein, the term outer boroughs refers to all of the boroughs excluding Manhattan, even though the geographic center of the city is along the Brooklyn–Queens border. All five boroughs were created in 1898 during consolidation, when the city's modern boundaries were established. The Bronx originally included parts of New York County outside of Manhattan that had previously been ceded by neighboring Westchester County in two stages; in 1874 ( southern Yonkers , and

1235-529: A neighborhood of European Americans, the 1960s and 1970s featured full force demographic shifts. Washington Heights' upwardly mobile White residents began to leave in great numbers, and lower-income Latino population saw great increases. Apart from the allure of suburban homes and their economic capacity to buy them, White residents were spurred to leave by the demographic changes themselves, increasing negligence of residential buildings, and rising crime (having more than doubled between 1969 and 1982). Compared to

1330-637: A number of notable Black residents, such as Paul Robeson , Kenneth Clark , and Count Basie . The presence of middle-class Black people in 555 Edgecombe and other higher-class buildings in southeast Washington Heights led many to associate it with Sugar Hill , the Harlem sub-neighborhood spanning between Edgecombe Avenue and Amsterdam Avenue to its south. In addition to segregation, racism also manifested itself in gang culture, where youth often defined themselves by race or ethnicity and violently defended their respective territories. These tensions were brought to

1425-648: A public outcry, largely from children who were fans of the 1942 children's book, The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge . This led the Coast Guard to sign its deed to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation on July 23, 1951. The lighthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as "Jeffrey's Hook Lighthouse" in 1979, and was designated a New York City Landmark in 1991. In 2002, it

1520-432: A situation of extreme chaos. Located in a grand building with a Works Progress Administration mural by Lucienne Bloch , the school was relatively prestigious in the decades after its 1925 founding, graduating people such as Alan Greenspan , Henry Kissinger , and Murray Jarvik . Although George Washington remained racially mixed through the early 1970s, the school had a tracking system that saw White students leave

1615-461: A smaller group, Cuban immigrants in the Heights had an outsized role in business, according to a 1976 estimate owning the majority of Latino-owned stores. The neighborhood's Black population also increased, by 1980 numbering over 25,000 and residing in all areas of the neighborhood while remaining a plurality in the southeastern section. While the overall trend was of exodus among White residents,

1710-409: A strategic location. Washington Heights also had a high level of unemployment and poverty in the 1980s and 1990s, providing ample economic motivation for young people to enter the drug trade. The effects of the crack trade extended beyond physical danger to a breakdown in trust and widespread fear provoked by violence in public places as well as murders of people uninvolved in the drug business. It

1805-459: A violent riot, causing multiple fires, fifteen injuries, and one death. Then-mayor David Dinkins , who had met with the Garcia family following the killing, pleaded for an end to the rioting: "There is much anger in the community about the death of José Garcia and other incidents, [but] you do not build a better city by destroying it." During the mid to late 1990s, Washington Heights experienced

1900-558: Is very steep immediately north of the bridge, while the southern path is flat. There is also a very obscure pedestrian underpass at Riverside Drive parallel to 177th Street, just south of the George Washington Bridge. It empties out on the other side of the Henry Hudson Parkway and it's a dirt path down to the lighthouse. This YouTube video gives directions for getting to and using this obscure path. A neighborhood group (Friends of J. Hood Wright Park ) in partnership with

1995-456: The 1964 school boycott and the 1968 teachers' strike – perceived this as an attempt to subvert teachers' authority, leading them to start a local strike after the administration reached a compromise with parents over the table. By the end of 1970, the high school had seen the resignation of three principals and multiple incidents of violence against students, teachers, and security guards; while many safety improvements were made throughout

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2090-548: The British evacuation of New York in 1783, George Washington and his staff stood in front of the tavern as they watched the American troops march southward to retake the city. After changing ownership several times, the tavern moved to a new building in 1885, following the original structure's destruction for the widening of Broadway. In 1915, the tavern was demolished again to build the 3,500-seat Coliseum Theatre , which

2185-969: The Bronx County Courthouse for decades. Since the abolition of the Board of Estimate in 1990 (due to a 1989 ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court ), the borough presidents have minimal executive powers, and there is no legislative function within a borough. Executive functions in New York City are the responsibility of the Mayor of New York City , while legislative functions reside with the New York City Council . The borough presidents primarily act as spokesmen, advocates, and ceremonial leaders for their boroughs, have budgets from which they can allocate relatively modest sums of money to community organizations and projects, and appoint

2280-582: The Hudson Valley from Lower Manhattan all the way through Albany . On the plateau west of Broadway between 175th and 181st streets, the residents had been cultivating crops in a field known to Dutch colonists as the "Great Maize Field". Arriving in 1623, the Dutch initially worked as trade partners with the American Indians but became more and more hostile as time went on, with

2375-876: The Little Red Lighthouse , the High Bridge Water Tower , and the Cloisters respectively. Other points of interest include Audubon Terrace , the Morris–Jumel Mansion , the United Palace , the Audubon Ballroom , and the Fort Washington Avenue Armory . Washington Heights is part of Manhattan Community District 12 , and its primary ZIP Codes are 10032, 10033, and 10040. It is served by

2470-746: The New York Campaign of the Revolutionary War , General George Washington 's Continental Army secured a small but much-needed victory over the pursuing British Army at the Battle of Harlem Heights , after a series of defeats in Manhattan. Not long after their victory, the Continental Army suffered one of its worst defeats at the Battle of Fort Washington , in which nearly 2,900 troops were captured. Fort Washington

2565-532: The New York metropolitan area as well as in other states, U.S. territories , and foreign countries. In 2011, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg referred to the city's waterfront and waterways as a composite sixth borough during presentations of planned rehabilitation projects along the city's shoreline , including Governor's Island in the Upper New York Bay . The Hudson Waterfront , in

2660-640: The U.S. state of New Jersey , lies opposite Manhattan on the Hudson River , and during the Dutch colonial era , it was under the jurisdiction of New Amsterdam and known as Bergen . Jersey City and Hoboken , in New Jersey's Hudson County , are sometimes referred to as the sixth borough, given their proximity and connections by rapid transit PATH trains to the city. Fort Lee , in Bergen County , opposite Upper Manhattan and connected by

2755-539: The White flight occurring in other neighborhoods such as the West Bronx, the process was much slower and less destructive as few buildings were outright abandoned or burned. While Puerto Ricans had been the dominant Latino group in the 1950s, by 1965 Cubans and Dominicans had overtaken them in number, and by 1970 native Spanish speakers were the majority group in central-eastern census tracts. Despite being

2850-697: The borough of Manhattan in New York City . It is named for Fort Washington , a fortification constructed at the highest natural point on Manhattan by Continental Army troops to defend the area from the British forces during the American Revolutionary War . Washington Heights is bordered by Inwood to the north along Dyckman Street , by Harlem to the south along 155th Street , by the Harlem River and Coogan's Bluff to

2945-614: The 1950s and 1960s, the pace increased drastically during the regime of Joaquín Balaguer , who took power in 1966 following the Dominican Civil War . The combination of the recent passing of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 , Balaguer's policy of freely granting passports, and the country's high unemployment rate created the conditions for growing emigration from the Dominican Republic. Some of

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3040-457: The 1970s and 1980s. This was clear by 1990, when the proportion of Dominican New Yorkers living in households below the poverty line was 36%, more than double the citywide rate. In addition to service work, many residents found local jobs in the small-scale garment sector and factory work in New Jersey . During the late 20th century, other immigrant groups began to make their home in

3135-600: The 1970s, its academic performance continued to decline. In 1999, the school took its present form as the George Washington Educational Campus composed of four smaller schools. For the remainder of the 20th century the Dominican community of Washington Heights continued to increase considerably, most notably during the mid to late 1980s, when over 40,000 Dominicans settled in Washington Heights, Hamilton Heights , and Inwood . Around

3230-643: The 33rd and 34th Precincts of the New York City Police Department and Engine Companies 67, 84, and 93 of the New York City Fire Department . Politically, it is part of the New York City Council 's 7th and 10th districts. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the area was traversed by American Indians from the Early Woodland Period , who left remains of shellfish and pottery at the site of

3325-619: The Amsterdams. After continual charges of police negligence, a committee was created to combat the violence and many members of the Irish gangs were arrested. By 1944, the local Catholic Clergy were pressured to speak out against the prejudice, and Jews, Catholics, and Protestants began working together on solutions to ease the tensions. Around this time, Washington Heights also gained its first substantial population of Black residents, by 1943 numbering around 3,000 and concentrated mainly in

3420-541: The Bronx , Brooklyn , Manhattan , Queens , and Staten Island . Each borough is coextensive with a respective county of the State of New York : The Bronx is Bronx County, Brooklyn is Kings County, Manhattan is New York County, Queens is Queens County, and Staten Island is Richmond County. All five boroughs of New York came into existence with the creation of modern New York City in 1898, when New York County (then including

3515-456: The Bronx), Kings County, Richmond County, and part of Queens County were consolidated within one municipal government under a new city charter . All former municipalities within the newly consolidated city were dissolved. New York City was originally confined to Manhattan Island and the smaller surrounding islands that formed New York County. As the city grew northward, it began annexing areas on

3610-452: The Dutch to drive them out, including the bloody Kieft's War (1643–1645), some Wecquaesgeeks managed to maintain residence in Washington Heights up until the Dutch paid them a settlement for their last land claims in 1715. For the greater part of the next two centuries, Washington Heights would remain a home to wealthy landowners seeking a quiet location for their suburban estates. During

3705-558: The Hudson River at 181st Street. Built in 1907, the mansion was demolished thirty years later for Paterno's Castle Village complex, where pieces of the original structure still remain. The neighborhood's largest estate was the property of industrial tycoon C. K. G. Billings , taking up 25 acres (10 ha) in the southern part of Fort Tryon Park. Although the Louis XIV -style mansion at present-day Linden Terrace burned to

3800-623: The IRT prompted a rapid increase in density through the proliferation of five- and six-story New Law Tenements , the vast majority of which remain. Many of the new residents came from crowded immigrant neighborhoods such as the Lower East Side , which saw its density halved between 1910 and 1930. As a result of the development of new housing, the total population of Manhattan north of 155th Street grew from just 8,000 in 1900 to 110,000 by 1920. The incoming residents of Washington Heights were

3895-626: The NYC Department of Parks and Recreation does monthly cleanups of this route. There is yet another way to get to the Little Red Lighthouse from Washington Heights. This link shows the path using the Haven Ramp to the Little Red Lighthouse and then returns via this other path that takes you out to Riverside Drive on the west side of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital . From there one can walk south to 165th Street. Tours of

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3990-559: The arrival of Mexicans and Ecuadorians , who together numbered over 6,000 by 2000 and over 10,000 a decade later. Smaller communities of Central Americans , Colombians , and Chinese immigrants had also developed. The neighborhood's African American population began to decrease from its height in the 1970s, by 2000 making up less than one-tenth of the neighborhood. In the present day Washington Heights also has an Orthodox Jewish community served by numerous synagogues , many of which have noticed more young Jewish families move into

4085-504: The central area west of Broadway, and drastically in the area north of 181st Street, populating the last of the undeveloped areas just south and west of Fort Tryon Park. Transit for new residents was improved with the construction of the Independent Subway System (IND)'s Eighth Avenue Line in 1932, with stops at 175th Street , 181st Street , and 190th Street along Fort Washington Avenue . The demographics of

4180-555: The city. In some document collections the boroughs used to be designated with a one-letter abbreviation: K for Brooklyn, M for Manhattan, Q for Queens, R for Staten Island (Richmond County), and X for the Bronx. The term "sixth borough" is used to describe any of a number of places that have been metaphorically called a part of New York City because of their geographic location, demographics (they include large numbers of former New Yorkers), special affiliation, or cosmopolitan character. They have included adjacent cities and counties in

4275-403: The corner of 160th Street and Broadway for their widely publicized undercover crack purchase, and in 1989, The New York Times called the neighborhood "the crack capital of America". By 1990, crack's impact on crime was evident: 103 murders were committed in the 34th Precinct that year, along with 1,130 felony assaults, 1,919 robberies, and 2,647 burglaries. The causes behind the severity of

4370-410: The corner of 162nd Street and Saint Nicholas Avenue . Although evidence later supported that the killing was a reaction to violence initiated by Garcia, many residents quickly suspected wanton police brutality . The suspicion was not unfounded, as O'Keefe already had several civilian complaints of unnecessary aggression in arrests. What began as a peaceful demonstration for Garcia's death turned into

4465-519: The counties are considered to be arms of the state government), rather than officials of the city government, they are not subject to the term limitations that govern other New York City officials such as the mayor, the New York City Public Advocate , members of the city council, or the borough presidents. Some civil court judges also are elected on a borough-wide basis, although they generally are eligible to serve throughout

4560-528: The crisis for Washington Heights, however, were more intricate. One was the neighborhood's location: the George Washington Bridge and its numerous highway connections made for easy access from the New Jersey suburbs. Another contributing factor was that as Dominican dealers such as Santiago Luis Polanco Rodríguez brought the group higher status in cocaine operations, the heavily-Dominican Washington Heights became increasingly important as

4655-580: The east, and by the Hudson River to the west. Washington Heights, which before the 20th century was sparsely populated by luxurious mansions and single-family homes, rapidly developed during the early 1900s as it became connected to the rest of Manhattan via the Broadway–Seventh Avenue and Eighth Avenue lines of the New York City Subway . Beginning as a middle-class neighborhood with many Irish and Eastern European immigrants,

4750-603: The extension of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT)'s first subway line (now part of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line ). The IRT built the 157th Street , 168th Street , 181st Street , and Dyckman Street stations between 1904 and 1906 (the 191st Street station opened as an infill station in 1911). Although skyrocketing land values sparked early predictions that upper-class apartment buildings would dominate

4845-471: The first half of the 20th century, tensions broke out between Catholics and Jews, who were not very segregated residentially but remained in separate social spheres. Around the start of World War II Irish groups such as the Christian Front arose, drawing large crowds to their antisemitic rallies, coupled with the vandalism of synagogues and beating of Jewish youth by Irish youth in gangs such as

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4940-657: The ground in 1925, Billings Terrace remains, supported by the elegant stone archway that originally led to the Billings mansion. Initial residential development in Washington Heights began in the late 19th century with the construction of row and wood-frame houses in the southern portion of the neighborhood, particularly near Amsterdam Avenue . In 1886, the Third Avenue Railway was extended from 125th Street to 155th Street along Amsterdam Avenue. However, higher residential density would not be supported until

5035-553: The incident illustrated the effects of the neighborhood's demographic shift: the Jesters defined themselves as fighting against Black and Latino occupancy of the neighborhood even as they included newly arrived Black people in their ranks (similar diversity was seen in the membership of the Dragons and Egyptian Kings). While signs were slowly appearing for the first half of the 20th century that Washington Heights would not forever be

5130-547: The initial migrants were left-wing revolutionaries exiled by the Balaguer regime, theorized to have been granted visas through an unwritten agreement with the United States, but the majority of arrivals came for better economic opportunities. In Quisqueya on the Hudson: The Transnational Identity of Dominicans in Washington Heights, Jorge Duany describes how Washington Heights developed as

5225-552: The lack of modern construction, with the majority of its few high-rise buildings belonging to the NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital / Columbia University Medical Center . Other higher education institutions include Yeshiva University and Boricua College . The neighborhood has generous access to green space in Fort Washington Park , Highbridge Park , and Fort Tryon Park , home to the historical landmarks

5320-867: The lighthouse are given infrequently. They are arranged by the Parks Department's Urban Park Rangers , especially on the Little Red Lighthouse Festival day in late September and Open House New York day in October. The October Little Red Lighthouse Festivals in 2018 and 2019 were run by the organization Summer on the Hudson in conjunction with the Riverside Park Conservancy and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The festival

5415-465: The mainland, absorbing territory from Westchester County into New York County in 1874 ( West Bronx ) and 1895 ( East Bronx ). During the 1898 consolidation, this territory was organized as the Borough of the Bronx, though still part of New York County. In 1914, Bronx County was split off from New York County so that each borough was then coterminous with a county. When the western part of Queens County

5510-405: The media, they are technically and legally the district attorneys of New York County and Kings County, respectively. The same goes for Staten Island. There is no such distinction made for the district attorneys of the other two counties, Queens and the Bronx, since these boroughs share the respective counties' names. Because the five district attorneys are, technically speaking, state officials (since

5605-522: The members of the 59 largely advisory community boards in the city's various neighborhoods. The Brooklyn and Queens borough presidents also appoint trustees to the local public library systems in those boroughs. Being coextensive with an individual county, each borough also elects a district attorney , as does every other county of New York State. While the district attorneys of Manhattan and Brooklyn are popularly referred to as "Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance, Jr. ", or "Brooklyn D.A. Kenneth P. Thompson " by

5700-420: The name of the county unchanged. There are hundreds of distinct neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs of New York City, many with a definable history and character to call their own. Since 1914, each of New York City's five boroughs has been coextensive with a county of New York State – unlike most U.S. cities , which lie within a single county or extend partially into another county, constitute

5795-499: The natives frequently reciprocating. The Dutch referred to the elevated area of northwestern Washington Heights as "Long Hill" while the Fort Tryon Park area specifically carried the name "Forest Hill". None of the land in present-day Washington Heights was under private ownership until 1712, when it was parcelled out in lots to various landowners from the village of Harlem to the south. Even after repeated attempts by

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5890-415: The neighborhood as well. In the late 1970s and early 1980s a moderate influx of Soviet Jews occurred following a loosening of the country's emigration policy, predominantly professionals and artists pushed out by antisemitism and drawn by economic opportunity. The makeup of the neighborhood's Latino population also began to diversify beyond an exclusively Caribbean background, most prominently through

5985-431: The neighborhood during the 2000s. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Washington Heights was severely affected by the crack cocaine epidemic , as was the rest of New York City. Washington Heights had become one of the largest drug distribution centers in the Northeastern United States , bringing a negative reputation to Dominican Americans as a group. Then-U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani and Senator Alphonse D'Amato chose

6080-403: The neighborhood has at various points been home to communities of German Jews , Greek Americans , Puerto Ricans , Cuban Americans , and Russian Americans . Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, many White residents left the neighborhood for nearby suburbs as the Latino populations increased. Dominican Americans became the dominant group by the 1980s despite facing economic difficulties, leading

6175-448: The neighborhood to its status in the 21st century as the most prominent Dominican community in the United States. While crime became a serious issue during the crack cocaine crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, in the 2000s Washington Heights became a much safer community and began to experience some upward mobility as well as gentrification . Washington Heights is set apart among Manhattan neighborhoods for its high residential density despite

6270-482: The neighborhood were undergoing significant change. While the Protestant population remained stagnant, first- and second-generation Irish and Eastern European Jews continued to move in. By 1930, nearly a quarter of Manhattan's Jewish residents lived north of 155th Street. The neighborhood also saw an influx of German Jews escaping Nazism in the 1930s and 1940s, a history documented by Steven M. Lowenstein's book Frankfurt-on-the-Hudson (a nickname referencing

6365-439: The neighborhood, such development was limited in the pre- World War I period to the Audubon Park area west of Broadway and south of 158th Street. Buildings such as the 13-story Riviera included elaborate decor and generous amenities to attract higher-paying tenants. The southern and eastern parts of Washington Heights experienced a construction boom in the years leading up to World War I . The downtown access provided by

6460-409: The neighborhood. This attitude was expressed in a phrase heard in the time period: "Washington Heights begins where Harlem ends." In fact, many of the neighborhood's new Jewish arrivals had left from Harlem as it became increasingly populated by Black people from the South during the Great Migration . Despite the growth of the Black population, racial segregation remained very rigid. While in

6555-449: The newly consolidated city . Under the 1898 City Charter adopted by the New York State Legislature, a borough is a municipal corporation that is created when a county is merged with populated areas within it. The limited powers of the boroughs are inferior to the authority of the government of New York City , contrasting significantly with the powers of boroughs as that term is used in Connecticut , New Jersey , and Pennsylvania , where

6650-452: The northwest corner of 181st Street and Broadway (then Kingsbridge Road) was the Blue Bell Tavern, built in the early-mid 18th century as an inn and site of social gatherings. When New York's Provincial Congress assented to the Declaration of Independence on July 9, 1776, the head of the statue of George III ended up on a spike at the Blue Bell Tavern, broken off by a "rowdy" group of civilians and soldiers at Bowling Green . During

6745-410: The origin city of many in the diaspora). One attractive aspect of Washington Heights for German Jews was likely its Eastern European Jewish presence, but an economic pull was its abundance of housing stock from the 1920s construction boom. Although rents were higher than average, many landlords offered some free rent to draw new tenants, and apartments were nonetheless spacious for their cost. In

6840-501: The owner cancelled all the tenants' leases and began renting exclusively to Black people. While organizations like the Neighborhood Protective Association of Washington Heights had kept the neighborhood virtually all-White throughout much of the 20th century, the overcrowded conditions of Harlem led to growth in demand for apartments outside the neighborhood. Throughout the 1940s, the building had

6935-559: The past decades. The crime drop, which was felt across all major U.S. cities, owed itself largely to the decrease in new users and dealers of crack cocaine, and the move of existing dealers from dealing on the streets to dealing from inside apartments. In Washington Heights, this meant a move back to the established cocaine dealing culture that had existed before the introduction of crack. As Terry Williams observes in The Cocaine Kids: The Inside Story of

7030-565: The present-day Little Red Lighthouse . Washington Heights is part of the section of northern Manhattan that was settled by the Wecquaesgeeks (originally a name for the area meaning "birch-bark country"), a band of the Wappinger and a Lenape Native American people. The winding path of Broadway north of 168th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue to its south is living evidence of the old Wecquaesgeek trail which travelled along

7125-519: The public school system and the broader trend of White flight, while the Black and Latino student population rapidly increased. This resulted in a stark gap between the district's few racially integrated schools, which enjoyed better academic reputations and access to resources, and the remainder of schools with very few White students and serious overcrowding problems. Fierce competition between different factions for educational funding and new schools

7220-472: The rate of this trend varied among different groups. One of the most pronounced changes occurred with Greek immigrants, who had reached their peak in the 1950s with the establishment of St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church and an accompanying school, only to see that in two decades nearly all of the congregation had left for the suburbs. On the other hand, the German Jewish exodus was characterized by

7315-515: The same year. In 1776, the house was commandeered as a headquarters by George Washington, and after changing hands a few times was purchased by Stephen and Eliza Jumel in 1810. In 1903, the City bought the mansion and it became a museum, the oldest surviving house in Manhattan. With a picturesque view of the Palisades , the elevated ridge of northwest Washington Heights became the site of

7410-532: The school better prepared for college, and violence frequently broke out among gangs identifying by race. Discontent with academics and school policy led to a wave of student demonstrations, supported by a group of parents who pushed to set up an information table in the school's lobby in order to answer questions and hear complaints regarding the school. However, the United Federation of Teachers – which had also clashed with students and parents over

7505-409: The southeastern part of the neighborhood. The Black population of Washington Heights was dwarfed, however, by that of Hamilton Heights , where White residents were 63% of the population in 1943. It was in this period that the popular boundary of Washington Heights shifted from 135th Street to 155th Street, as many residents of European descent refused to include African Americans in their conception of

7600-595: The spit of land at night. The land around Jeffrey's Hook was acquired by the city in 1896 and later became Fort Washington Park. The early structure was built as the North Hook Beacon at Sandy Hook, New Jersey , where it stood until 1917, when it became obsolete. It was reconstructed at its current location in 1921 by the United States Lighthouse Board as part of a project to improve Hudson River navigational aids, and originally had

7695-406: The three eastern towns of Queens County that had not joined the city the year before—the towns of Hempstead , North Hempstead , and Oyster Bay —formally seceded from Queens County to form the new Nassau County . The borough of Staten Island, coextensive with Richmond County, was officially the borough of Richmond until the name was changed in 1975 to reflect its common appellation, while leaving

7790-487: The towns of Kingsbridge , West Farms , and Morrisania ) and then following a referendum in 1894 (towns of Westchester , Williamsbridge , and the southern portion of Eastchester ). Ultimately in 1914, the present-day separate Bronx County became the most recent county to be created in the State of New York. The borough of Queens consists of what formerly was only the western part of a then-larger Queens County. In 1899,

7885-469: The vast majority of blocks less than 2% of housing units were occupied by non-White residents, nearly every block east of Amsterdam Avenue and south of 165th Street was over 90% non-White by 1950. The process underlying this segregation is exemplified in the history of one of Washington Heights' most famous apartment buildings: 555 Edgecombe Avenue . Built in 1914, the fourteen-story building rented to various relatively affluent White people until 1939, when

7980-537: The victory; its lesser fortification at present-day Fort Tryon Park was renamed for Sir William Tryon , the last governor of New York before it was taken back by the Continental Army. The park holds a plaque dedicated in 1909 to Margaret Corbin , an American who took over at her husband's cannon after his death in the Battle of Fort Washington; she was also honored with the naming of Margaret Corbin Drive in 1977. At

8075-430: The year 2000, the Dominican community reached its peak and became a slim majority of Washington Heights and Inwood, propelling the neighborhoods' combined population to 208,000, the highest level since 1950. Even as they arrived in great numbers, Dominicans who came to the neighborhood faced a difficult economic situation, with many of the manufacturing jobs they disproportionately occupied having disappeared throughout

8170-468: Was a group of fortifications on the high points of Washington Heights, with its central site at present-day Bennett Park (known then as Mount Washington) built a few months prior opposite Fort Lee, New Jersey to protect the Hudson River from enemy ships. Under British control, the position was renamed Fort Knyphausen for the Hessian general Wilhelm von Knyphausen , who played a major part in

8265-487: Was common for police and detectives to note unresponsiveness from residents during murder inquiries. Overall distrust of the police may have stemmed from the perception of corruption, which was alleged numerous times concerning the 34th Precinct overlooking drug crimes for bribes. Tensions between residents and the NYPD came to a head on July 4, 1992, when José "Kiko" Garcia was shot by 34th Precinct Officer Michael O'Keefe on

8360-457: Was compounded by the disproportionate representation of the majority-White northwestern Heights on the board, creating an environment in which public meetings were plagued by incivility and at times even violence. George Washington High School, located on 193rd Street and Audubon Avenue near Highbridge Park , faced numerous issues representative of the changes and conflicts of the neighborhood's public schools, which intersected in 1970 to produce

8455-423: Was consolidated with New York City in 1898, that area became the Borough of Queens. In 1899, the remaining eastern section of Queens County was split off to form Nassau County on Long Island , thereafter making the borough and county of Queens coextensive with each other. The term borough was adopted in 1898 to describe a form of governmental administration for each of the five fundamental constituent parts of

8550-445: Was deconstructed and moved to a city lot to make room for new development in 1931, only for its remnants to vanish without a trace. On the eastern side, by Edgecombe Avenue between 160th and 162nd streets, the Morris–Jumel Mansion has been successfully preserved to this day. The land of the estate had been owned by Jan Kiersen and her son-in-law Jacob Dyckman before it was bought by British colonel Roger Morris in 1765 and completed

8645-455: Was demolished in 2021 after denial of its landmark status. Before the apartment development of the 20th century, many wealthy citizens built grand mansions in Washington Heights. The most famous landowner in the southwest part of the neighborhood was ornithologist John James Audubon , whose estate encompassed the 20 acres (8.1 ha) from 155th to 158th Street west of Broadway. A mystery surrounds his family home by Riverside Drive , which

8740-515: Was not held in 2020 or 2021 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic but it resumed in 2022. The lighthouse is an important setting in the final scenes for the 1948 film Force of Evil , and Jane Campion 's neo-noir film In the Cut features the lighthouse as motif and as a filming location. Washington Heights, Manhattan Washington Heights is a neighborhood in the northern part of

8835-816: Was perpetrated by an alliance of the African American Egyptian Kings and the Puerto Rican Dragons, both based in West Harlem just south of the Heights. The supposed motive for the attack was to counter the perception that Highbridge Pool was "owned" by the Jesters, and Black and Latino youths were often called racial slurs and chased away from the surrounding blocks. As Eric Schneider analyzes in Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings: Youth Gangs in Postwar New York,

8930-554: Was relit by the city. Public access to the lighthouse is by the Hudson River Greenway , reachable north of the George Washington Bridge by a footbridge across the Henry Hudson Parkway at West 182nd Street and Riverside Drive , and south of the bridge by a footbridge at West 158th Street or the newer Denny Farrell Greenway Bridge (a pedestrian and bicycle bridge) at 151st Street. The northern path

9025-525: Was the scene of numerous conflicts over de facto racial segregation and unequal resource distribution within the district's schools. The School Decentralization Act, passed by the New York State Legislature in 1969, set up elected boards for New York City's school districts with limited hiring power and control over Title I funds. At the time, District 6's demographics were rapidly changing due to White students' withdrawal from

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