Washington Heights, Manhattan

A 1921 map of some of the shell desposits found in the New York metropolitan area.[6]^:9 Note the dot by the Hudson River near Dyckman Street.

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Northern Manhattan was settled by the Weckquaesgeeks,[lower-alpha 1] a band of the Wappinger and a Lenape American Indian people.[10]^:5 The winding path of Broadway north of 168th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue to its south is living evidence of the old Weckquaesgeek trail which travelled along the Hudson Valley from Lower Manhattan all the way through Albany.[11]^:74[12]^:442 The area was also travelled by American Indians from the Early Woodland Period,[12]^:117 who left remains of shellfish and pottery at the site of the present-day Little Red Lighthouse.[11]^:79

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 the natives frequently reciprocating.[13]^:20 Even after the bloody Kieft's War (1643-1645), however, some Weckquaesgeeks managed to maintain residence in Washington Heights up until the Dutch paid them a settlement for their last land claims in 1715.[8]^:5

To the Dutch, the elevated area of northwestern Washington Heights was known as "Lange Berghe," meaning "Long Hill."[14] None of the land was under private ownership until 1712, when it was parcelled out in lots to various landowners from the village of Harlem to the south.[15]^:745 For the greater part of the next two centuries, Washington Heights would remain a home to country estates due to lack of train access or even road network; 155th Street, for instance, was only legally opened in 1877.[8]^:10[12]^:3,542

A topographic map of Northern Manhattan made by the British in November 1776 following the fall of Fort Washington,[16] which was known as Fort Knyphausen at this time.[lower-alpha 2]

During the Revolutionary War, the battle won by the British around present-day Morningside Heights in the fall of 1776 was dubbed the Battle of Harlem Heights, referring to the contemporary name for Northern Manhattan.[8]^:6[17] After their defeat in Harlem, the Continental Army was severely weakened; indeed, General George Washington wanted at first to retreat from Manhattan altogether, but was convinced to make a last stand at Fort Washington.[14][18]^:111 Located around present-day Bennett Park (known then as Mount Washington),[15]^:737 Fort Washington was built just a few months prior opposite Fort Lee in New Jersey in order to protect the Hudson River from enemy ships.[10]^:229

Washington's soldiers were decisively defeated, with thousands killed or wounded and thousands more taken prisoner.[19]^:167 Now in their control, the British eventually renamed the position Fort Tryon for Sir William Tryon,[lower-alpha 2] the last governor of New York before it was taken back by the Continental Army.[14] In contrast with its British namesake, Fort Tryon Park today holds a 1909 monument to Margaret Corbin, an American who took over at her husband's cannon after his death.[22] The plaque sits by Margaret Corbin Drive, the park's primary road which was named to honor her in 1977.[7]

Not far from the fort was the Blue Bell Tavern, located on an intersection of Kingsbridge Road, where Broadway and 181st Street intersect today, on the southeastern corner of the modern-day Hudson Heights sub-neighborhood.[23] On July 9, 1776, when New York's Provincial Congress assented to the Declaration of Independence, "A rowdy crowd of soldiers and civilians ('no decent people' were present, one witness said later) ... marched down Broadway to Bowling Green, where they toppled the statue of George III erected in 1770. The head was put on a spike at the Blue Bell Tavern ... "[23] The tavern was later used by Washington and his staff when the British evacuated New York, standing in front of it as they watched the American troops march south to retake New York.[24] Maintaining its historical significance, the site of the tavern became the Coliseum Theatre, built in 1915 but slated for demolition as of 2020, after it was denied landmark status.[25][26]

A view from Chittenden Avenue in the winter

For most of the 19th century, Washington Heights was sparsely populated except for several wealthy landowners. The estate of James Gordon Bennett Sr., purchased in 1871, became Bennett Park after the City acquired it in 1928.[27] Bennett's descendants later gave the land to the city to build a park honoring the Revolutionary War encampment. Lucius Chittenden, a New Orleans merchant, built a home on land he bought in 1846 west of what is now Cabrini Boulevard and 187th Street.[28] It was known as the Chittenden estate by 1864.[24] C. P. Bucking, a sheepskin manufacturer,[29] named his home Pinehurst on land near the Hudson.[28] Both names survive today: Pinehurst Avenue stretches from 187th Street to about 176th Street between Cabrini Boulevard and Fort Washington Avenue, while Chittenden Avenue is an alley between 186th and 187th streets with a scenic view of the Hudson River, the George Washington Bridge, and the Palisades.

Trinity Cemetery in Hamilton Heights

The series of ridges overlooking the Hudson held numerous villas of the time period, including the extensive property of John James Audubon along Riverside Drive. His family home was located between 155th and 156th streets just west of Riverside Drive, although it was deconstructed and moved to a city lot to make room for new development in 1931. The historic house was meant to be reconstructed eventually, yet to this day the location of its remnants is unknown.[30] Nearby Audubon's estate was Carmansville, a small village near the Hudson from about 140th Street to 158th Street, owned by wealthy landowner and box manufacturer Richard Carman.[31] The part of his estate between 153rd and 155th streets became Trinity Cemetery after he sold it to the Trinity Corporation, and the Carmansville Playground on Amsterdam Avenue between 151st and 152nd streets carries Carman's namesake to the present day.[32]

Washington Heights is also home to Fort George, a Revolutionary War encampment by the Harlem River and the last in Manhattan to be overtaken.[33] Abandoned by the British in 1783, the underlying area between 190th and 192nd streets became the Fort George Amusement Park, a trolley park/amusement park that stood from 1895 to 1914. Its site is now a seating area in Highbridge Park, which itself was laid out in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[34]

A postcard of Fort George Amusement Park, as seen from the Harlem River

At the turn of the 20th century the woods started being chopped down to make way for homes. The cliffs that are now Fort Tryon Park held the mansion of Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings, a retired president of the Chicago Coke and Gas Company. He purchased 25 acres (100,000 m²) and constructed Tryon Hall, a Louis XIV-style home designed by Gus Lowell. It had a galleried entranceway from the Henry Hudson Parkway that was 50 feet (15 m) high and made of Maine granite.[35][36] In 1917, Billings sold the land to John D. Rockefeller Jr. for $35,000 per acre. Tryon Hall was destroyed by fire in 1925. The estate was the basis for the book "The Dragon Murder Case" by S. S. Van Dine,[37] in which detective Philo Vance had to solve a murder on the grounds of the estate, where a dragon was supposed to have lived.[24]

In the early 1900s, Irish immigrants moved to Washington Heights. Later, during the 1930s and the 1940s, European Jews settled in Washington Heights to escape Nazism.[38] Greeks started moving to Washington Heights in the 1920s, and the community was referred to as the "Astoria of Manhattan" by the 1950s and 1960s.[39] Dominican immigrants began arriving shortly after and by the 1980s, Washington Heights was the epicenter of the Dominican diaspora in the United States.[40]

During World War I, immigrants from Hungary and Poland moved in next to the Irish community.[41] Then, as Nazism grew in Germany, Jews fled. By the late 1930s, more than 20,000 refugees from Germany were living in Washington Heights.[42]

The beginning of this section of Washington Heights as a neighborhood-within-a-neighborhood seems to have started around this time, in the years before World War II. One scholar refers to the area in 1940 as "Fort Tryon" and "the Fort Tryon area." In 1989, Steven M. Lowenstein wrote, "The greatest social distance was to be found between the area in the northwest, just south of Fort Tryon Park, which was, and remains, the most prestigious section ... This difference was already remarked in 1940, continued unabated in 1970 and was still noticeable even in 1980..."[43] Lowenstein considered Fort Tryon to be the area west of Broadway, east of the Hudson, north of West 181st Street, and south of Dyckman Street, which includes Fort Tryon Park. He writes, "Within the core area of Washington Heights (between 155th Street and Dyckman Street) there was a considerable internal difference as well. The further north and west one went, the more prestigious the neighborhood..."[43]

Fort Washington Collegiate Church

In the years after World War II, the neighborhood was referred to as "Frankfurt-on-the-Hudson" due to the dense population of German Jews who had settled there.[44] A disproportionately large number of them had immigrated from Frankfurt-am-Main, likely giving rise to the new name.[43] No other neighborhood in the city was home to so many German Jews, who had created their own central German world in the 1930s.[45]

In 1934, members of the German-Jewish Club of New York started Aufbau, a newsletter for its members that grew into a newspaper. Its offices were nearby on Broadway.[46] The newspaper became known as a "prominent intellectual voice and a main forum for Germanic Jewry in the United States", according to the German Embassy in Washington, D.C. The paper featured the work of numerous writers and intellectuals, including Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein, Stefan Zweig, and Hannah Arendt," and was one of the few newspapers that extensively covered the terror of the Holocaust during World War II.[47]

In 1941, it published the Aufbau Almanac, a guide to living in the United States that explained the American political system, education, insurance law, the post office and sports.[48] After the war, Aufbau helped families that had been scattered by European battles to reconnect by listing survivors' names.[49] Aufbau's offices eventually moved to the Upper West Side. The paper nearly went bankrupt in 2006, but was purchased by Jewish Media AG, and exists today as a monthly news magazine. Its editorial offices are now in Berlin, but it keeps a correspondent in New York City.[50]

When the children of Jewish immigrants to the Hudson Heights area became adults, they tended to leave the neighborhood, and sometimes, the city itself. By 1960, German Jews accounted for only 16% of the population in the area.[41] The neighborhood changed in character in the 1970s as Soviet immigrants moved in. After the Soviet immigration, families from the Caribbean, especially Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, made it their home. So many Dominicans live in Washington Heights that candidates for the presidency of the Dominican Republic campaign in parades in the neighborhood.[51] African-Americans began to move there in the 1980s, followed shortly by other groups. Soon enough, "Frankfurt-on-the-Hudson" no longer described the neighborhood.

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 the second largest drug distribution center in the Northeastern United States during that time, second only to Harlem,[52] and the neighborhood was quickly developing a reputation to that effect. Then-U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani and Senator Alphonse D'Amato chose the corner of 160th Street and Broadway for their widely-publicized undercover crack purchase,[53] and in 1989, The New York Times called the neighborhood "the crack capital of America."[54] By 1990, crack's devastation 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.[55]

The Trans-Manhattan Expressway, seen here from Audubon Avenue, was one of the many highway connections that made Washington Heights a hotspot for the cocaine trade.

The causes behind the severity of the crisis for Washington Heights, however, were more intricate. One was the neighborhood's location: with easy access via the George Washington Bridge and its numerous highway connections, many of the customers were White suburbanites, who could easily buy cocaine while evading the shadow of violence cast upon neighborhood's residents.[56]^:162 Another cause was that despite the top-level connections for the cocaine trade being Colombians, Dominicans predominantly controlled the cocaine operations in Upper Manhattan and the South Bronx, making Washington Heights especially a battleground area due to its Dominican majority.[54][57][58]

Being a drug with such high potential for profit, much of the violence of the crack crisis was a result of fierce competition for market control between numerous small crack crews, each selling their own "brands." One of the most infamous was the operation centered on 174th Street and Audubon Avenue, led by Santiago Luis Polanco Rodríguez and responsible for the "Based Balls" brand.[59]^:73 Other crews identified their product by the color of the vial's top, such as the Red Top Gang, whose history is chronicled among other gangs in Robert Jackall's book Wild Cowboys: Urban Marauders & the Forces of Order.[59]

As Robert W. Snyder describes in his book Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and the Promise of New York City, the reality of Washington Heights under the crack trade was not just one of physical danger, but also fear. People were scared to swim at the Highbridge Park pool after a thirteen-year-old was killed while she was drying off by an angry gunman who fired several rounds at a lifeguard.[56]^:165 Many would keep their heads down rather than stand up to the drug dealers taking over their communities for fear of violent retribution. This was exemplified by the story of José Reyes, who organized tenants of his building on 157th Street and talked with police officers to get the Jheri Curls crack gang out of his building. Suspecting him as an informer, a Jheri Curls member shot Reyes in broad daylight after he left a local shop. Perhaps intending to avoid Reyes' fate, eyewitnesses were reluctant to describe what they saw when police arrived at the scene.[56]^:178

This problem was exacerbated by the deteriorating relationship between residents and police, a conflict that came to a head on July 4, 1992, when José "Kiko" Garcia was shot by 34th Precinct Officer Michael O'Keefe on the corner of 162nd Street and Saint Nicholas Avenue. Although evidence later proved that the killing was the result of an honest conflict between an officer and a drug dealer, many residents quickly suspected police brutality.[56]^:180 This sentiment was not unfounded, as O'Keefe already had several civilian complaints of unnecessary aggression in arrests.[59]^:320 Furthermore, overall distrust of the police may have stemmed from corruption, which was alleged numerous times concerning the 34th Precinct overlooking drug crimes for bribes.[60] In any case, what started as a peaceful demonstration for Garcia's death turned into a violent riot, leaving broken windows, fires, fifteen injuries, and one death.[56]^:181[61]

Former 30th Precinct House on 152nd Street, a NYC Landmark

The violence of the neighborhood's drug crisis left many police officers dead as well. On October 18, 1988, 24-year-old NYPD Police Officer Michael J. Buczek was murdered by drug dealers in Washington Heights.[62] The killers fled to the Dominican Republic, where one – Daniel Mirambeaux, the alleged shooter – died in police custody in June 1989 after plunging to his death under mysterious circumstances, and a second was apprehended by U.S. Marshals in 2000. The third suspect was apprehended in the Dominican Republic in May 2002, after which Pablo Almonte, 51, and José Fernandez, 52, received maximum 25-years-to-life prison sentences for their roles in the murder of Officer Buczek.[63] As a sign of the start of a healing of relations between community members and police, the Buczek family founded the Police Officer Michael J. Buczek Foundation. Residents also named an elementary school, PS 48, in honor of Officer Buczek,[64] and the intersection of Amsterdam Avenue and Fort George Avenue in honor of his father Ted Buczek for his work in starting the Police Officer Michael J. Buczek Little League.[65] It is the nation's only program operated by police officers, hosting 30 teams with over 350 boys and girls, who are coached by officers from the NYPD and community members.[66]

During the 1990s, Washington Heights experienced a drastic decrease in crime. This can be seen in the 2019 statistics, where the combined 33rd and 34th precinct crime rates showed dramatic reductions from the 1990 rates in motor vehicle theft (96.3% decrease), burglary (91.1%), murder (90.3%), and robbery (80.6%), while more modest reductions were made in felony assault (57.1%), rape (50%), and grand larceny (44.1%).[67][68] The 30th and 32nd precincts to the south of Washington Heights, which cover most of Harlem above 133rd Street, experienced just as drastic crime drops from 1990 to 2019. Despite this, the combined per capita crime rate of the 33rd and 34th precincts was lower than that of the Harlem precincts in 2019, with significantly lower rates of murder (50.5%), rape (49.2%), felony assault (39.2%), and robbery (37%), in addition to slightly lower rates of burglary (8.7%) and grand larceny (5.8%); the one exception was motor vehicle theft, which was 13.6% higher in the Washington Heights precincts.[69][70][71]

The crime drop, which was felt across all major 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.[72][73] 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 notes in The Cocaine Kids: The Inside Story of a Teenage Drug Ring, many dealers from the powder cocaine era 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.[57]

Nonetheless, many also credit actions taken on the neighborhood level in increasing safety in Washington Heights. After much advocacy from residents, in 1994 the NYPD split the 34th Precinct to create the 33rd Precinct for Washington Heights south of 179th Street, due to the concentration of the drug trade and related crimes in the area.[56]^:170[74] Another local policing strategy was the "model block" initiative, first attempted in 1997 on 163rd Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, a location notable for the dealers who set up a "fortified complex" complete with traps and electrified wires to prevent police raids on their apartment.[56]^:192 In an attempt to disrupt drug activity on the block, police officers set up barricades at both ends, demanded proof of residence from anyone coming through, patrolled building hallways, and pressured landlords to improve their buildings.[75] The program was controversial, facing criticism from the New York Civil Liberties Union and resistance from some residents for its invasion of privacy,[56]^:193 but it did drastically reduce crime on the block,[76] and the initiative was expanded throughout the city and even exported to Chicago.[77]

A feral dog in an overgrown area of Highbridge Park

Although the improved safety was welcomed by all, violence itself was not the only outcome of the crack crisis; it also left scars on important neighborhood institutions, especially parks. Fort Tryon Park fell into a period of decline after the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis, when evaporated Parks Department funds left its walkways and playgrounds in a state of disrepair,[78] which only got worse during the crack crisis, when several corpses where found in the park.[79][80] After work from the Fort Tryon Park Trust and the New York Restoration Project throughout the 1990s and 2000s, funded by the city with the help of generous private donations,[81] the park was restored, leaving behind its reputation as a criminal area.[56]^:210[78] Highbridge Park, however, had the same problems as Fort Tryon Park but went without any major restoration funding for a while, likely due to being on the poorer side of Washington Heights and lacking a frequently touristed landmark like The Cloisters.[82] In 1997, the New York Restoration Project began to work on maintaining the park, but without the necessary funding most of the park's problems continued. In 2016, however, the park received $30 million in restoration funding through the city's Anchor Parks initiative, with the full restoration set to be finished by 2020.[83][84]

The YM&YWHA of Washington Heights and Inwood

Other forms of Washington Heights' renewal came in the growth of community organizations. The arts began flourishing, most notably with groups such as the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance and the People's Theatre Project, events such as the Uptown Arts Stroll and Quisqueya en el Hudson,[85] and the many cultural productions at the United Palace Theatre.[86][56]^:208 Washington Heights also became the spotlight of major artistic achievements, most notably the Broadway musical In the Heights and the novels of Angie Cruz.[56]^:219 Other organizations more focused on social services include the YM&YWHA,[87] the Washington Heights CORNER Project,[88] the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights,[89] and the Community League of the Heights.[90] Two independent bookstores were also established in the 21st century: Word Up Community Bookshop on 165th Street and Amsterdam Avenue,[91] and Sisters Uptown Bookstore on 156th Street and Amsterdam Avenue,[92] both of which also serve as centers for cultural events. Evidence of the strength of the neighborhood community can be found in the 2018 Community Health Profile, which found that 80% of Community District 12 residents believe neighbors are willing to help one another, the highest in Manhattan.[93]

Fort Washington Avenue Armory

While police-community relations have certainly improved since the days of the Kiko Garcia riots, significant setbacks still exist. Police have made efforts to connect with neighborhood families through Police Athletic League programs at the Fort Washington Avenue Armory and events such as the Night Out Against Crime.[94][95] The city also chose the 33rd and 34th precincts, among two others, to start its neighborhood policing initiative in 2015, which involves assigning officers to specific neighborhood areas and alloting them time to build relationships with residents.[96][97] However, the initiative received mixed responses, with some arguing that it does not go far enough in building mutual trust and cooperation, and others fearing it as a guise for the continuation of broken windows policing.[98][99]

Washington Heights underwent substantial gentrification through the 2000s, with the 2010 Census revealing that from 2000 the neighorhood's Hispanic / Latino population had decreased by nearly 17,000 and its Black population by over 3,000, while its White population increased by nearly 5,000.[100] Data from StreetEasy also found that rents listed on its site had increased by 37% from 2000 to 2018.[101] Furthermore, there have been several high-profile cases of commercial rent increases, most notably with Coogan's, a restaurant and bar located on the corner of 169th Street and Broadway.[102] Founded in 1985, the restaurant had the legacy of a place that welcomed all, but it nearly went out of business in 2018 when its landlord NewYork–Presbyterian suddenly asked for $40,000 more in monthly rent – a move that was almost successful, despite mass opposition, if not for Adriano Espaillat, Gale Brewer, and Lin-Manuel Miranda bringing enough attention to the issue for the landlord to reconsider.[103] A similar turn of events, however, did not befall Galicia or Reme, two beloved local restaurants that had been around for decades only to be forced out by rent hikes.[104][105]

Many have expressed opposition to the neighborhood's gentrification on both commercial and residential fronts. Luis Miranda and Robert Ramirez of the Manhattan Times wrote in 2005, "How sad and ironic that many of the same people who fought to save our neighborhoods in the face of thugs and drugs have ultimately been forced to surrender their communities to the almighty dollar."[56]^:206 Echoing this sentiment, Crossing Broadway author Robert W. Snyder said, "...The people who saved Washington Heights in the days of crime and crack deserve more for their pains than a stiff rent increase."[56]^:237 Fears about displacement in Upper Manhattan have most recently manifest themselves in the bitter fight against the 2018 Inwood rezoning plan, which despite its offers of community benefits and affordable housing triggered fears that the luxury developments involved would accelerate ongoing gentrification.[106]

In another sign of luxury interests in the neighborhood, ground was broken in 2018 by developer Youngwoo & Associates for the Radio Tower & Hotel on Amsterdam Avenue between 180th and 181st streets. The tower, designed by MVRDV, will be a 22-story multi-use tower with office space, retail and a 221-room hotel, and is the first major mixed-use development to be built in Washington Heights in nearly five decades. Expected to be completed in 2021, it will be one of the tallest buildings in the neighborhood.[107][108]

Hudson Heights is generally considered to cover the area west of Broadway or Overlook Terrace and north of 181st Street or 179th Street,[112][113] although some extend its southern boundary as far as 173rd Street.[114][115] The name was created by neighborhood advocates who formed the Hudson Heights Owners' Coalition in 1992 to help promote the northwest part of the neighborhood.[112] Elizabeth Ritter, the president of the group, said that they "didn’t set out to change the name of the neighborhood, but [they] were careful in how [they] selected the name of the organization."[116] "Hudson Heights" actually began to be used as a name for the section of the neighborhood a year later.[117]

Hudson Heights' name has been adopted by numerous arts organizations and businesses. Newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal,[118] The New York Times,[119] and The Village Voice[120] have used the name in reference to the neighborhood, as have The New York Sun[121] and Gourmet magazine.[122] The name also has its detractors, however. Led Black of the Uptown Collective blog disparaged the name in his 2018 post titled "Hudson Heights Doesn't Exist," asserting that despite the Broadway divide, "both sides are and will forever be Washington Heights."[123] Robert W. Snyder, Manhattan Borough Historian and author of Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and the Promise of New York City,[124] also argued that the name's intention was to "conceptually separate the area from the rest of Washington Heights," and that "use of the name could diminish a sense of shared interest on both sides of Broadway." [56]^:205

Castle Village, a housing co-op with 1,762 residents, 65.6% of whom are White.[100]

Demographically, as of the 2010 Census, nearly every census block in the area of north of 181st Street and west of Bennett Avenue is majority White, in addition to around half of the adjacent blocks between Bennett Avenue and Broadway.[100] The demographic divide between northwest Washington Heights and the rest of the neighborhood has been created by a variety of factors. One of the largest is the frequently-discussed pactice of redlining: in 1938, appraisers for the Home Owners' Loan Corporation rated only the area north of 181st Street and west of Bennett Avenue "grade A – best"; the northeast and southwest areas received "grade B – still desirable," while the area south of 181st Street and east of Broadway, of which every block was majority Black or Hispanic/Latino in 2010, received "grade C – definitely deteriorating."[56]^:20[125] Another factor, seen in the greater presence of owners rather than renters in the northwest,[126] is that many rental buildings became co-ops throughout the 1970s and 80s, including the large Castle Village complex, creating a higher wealth barrier for new residents.[56]^:137[127] The remaining rentals are also hard to afford: market rents are higher north of 181st Street and east of Broadway,[128] and rent-stabilized units – of which there are already fewer[129] – are disappearing more quickly, a phenomenon extending to the southwest as well.[130]

Historically, Fort George runs from Broadway east to the Harlem River, and from West 181st Street north to Dyckman Street. The largest institution in Fort George is Yeshiva University, whose main campus sits east of Amsterdam Avenue in Highbridge Park. A branch of the Young Men's & Women's Hebrew Association is in the neighborhood, and George Washington High School sits on the site of the original Fort George. Fort George Presbyterian Church is on St. Nicholas Avenue. Fort George also holds one of Manhattan's rare semi-private streets, Washington Terrace, which runs south of West 186th Street for a half-block between Audubon and Amsterdam Avenues. The single-family homes there were built for middle-class families but some have been unoccupied for years. The M3 and M101 bus routes serve the area.[131]

Stairs running from the end of Pinehurst Avenue down to West 181st Street

Because of their abrupt, hilly topography, pedestrian navigation in Upper Manhattan and the West Bronx is facilitated by many step streets.[132] The longest of these in Washington Heights, at approximately 130 stairs and with an elevation gain of approximately 65 feet,[133] connects Fort Washington Avenue and Overlook Terrace at 187th Street.[134]

Pedestrians can use the elevators at the 181st Street subway station, with entrances on Overlook Terrace and Fort Washington Avenue at 184th Street[135] and similarly at the 190th Street station to make the large elevation change. Only the 184th Street pedestrian connection is handicap accessible. When originally built, fare control for both of these stations was in the station house, outside the elevators, which meant that they could only be used by paying a subway fare, but both had fare control moved down to the mezzanine level in 1957, making the elevators free for neighborhood residents to use, and providing easier pedestrian connection between Hudson Heights and the rest of Washington Heights.[136] There is also a pedestrian tunnel and free elevator connection at the 191st IRT station.

The Uptown Arts Stroll is an annual festival of the arts that highlights local artists. Public places in Washington Heights, Inwood and Marble Hill host impromptu galleries, readings, performances and markets over several weeks each summer.[141]

Bennett Park is the location of the highest natural point in Manhattan, as well as a commemoration on the west side of the park of the walls of Fort Washington, which are marked in the ground by stones with an inscription that reads: "Fort Washington Built And Defended By The American Army 1776." Land for the park was donated by James Gordon Bennett, Jr., the publisher of the New York Herald. His father, James Gordon Bennett, Sr., bought the land and was previously the Herald's publisher.[142] Bennett Park hosts an annual Harvest Festival in September and a children's Halloween Parade – with trick-or-treating afterwards – on Halloween.

In contrast to other neighborhoods in Manhattan, several of the north–south thoroughfares are mostly residential with few street-level businesses, including Fort Washington Avenue, Cabrini Boulevard, Overlook Terrace, Bennett Avenue, Sherman Avenue, and Wadsworth Avenue. However, many small shops are located on 181st Street and along Broadway, as well as St. Nicholas Avenue and Audubon Avenue.[143] Nagle Avenue, near the northern end of Washington Heights, has a YM&YWHA (Jewish Community Center) which provides numerous afterschool programs and other services to the community.[144] There is a small shopping area at 187th Street between Cabrini Boulevard and Fort Washington Avenue in the Hudson Heights sub-neighborhood. The area around New York–Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center has many restaurants and businesses.

One of the major annual events of Washington Heights is the Medieval Festival, a collaboration between the NYC Parks Department and the Washington Heights and Inwood Development Corporation.[145] The event is located in Fort Tryon Park, primarily on Margaret Corbin Drive from the park's entrance up to The Cloisters.[145] Typically taking place at the end of September, the event has taken place at the park since 1983.[146] The event is free, relying on a mix of private and public sponsors as well as donations. The event draws an average of 60,000 people.[147] Common attractions at the Medieval Festival include music, fencing, jousting, theatrical performances, costumes, and a variety of vendors selling Medieval-themed crafts.[148]

Today the majority of the neighborhood, which was designated "Little Dominican Republic" along with Inwood in 2018,[149] is of Dominican birth or descent (the area is sometimes referred to as "Quisqueya Heights"), and Spanish is frequently heard spoken on the streets.[150] Washington Heights has been the most important base for Dominican accomplishment in political, non-profit, cultural, and athletic arenas in the United States since the 1980s. Most of the neighborhood businesses are locally owned.[151] As Roberto Suro describes in Strangers Among Us: Latino Lives in a Changing America, many Dominicans in Washington Heights lead double lives between the U.S. and the D.R., frequently moving between countries and often investing money back home.[152]^:183 Clear evidence of how connected Washington Heights Dominicans still are with their home country is in the local protests that took place on February 22, 2020 over the postponement of elections in the Dominican Republic and the possibility of underlying corruption.[153]

Before the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in 2001, according to an article in The Guardian, the flight had "something of a cult status in Washington Heights." A woman quoted in the newspaper said "Every Dominican in New York has either taken that flight or knows someone who has. It gets you there early. At home there are songs about it." After the crash occurred, makeshift memorials appeared in Washington Heights.[154]

Historically the home of many Irish Americans as well as German Jews, the neighborhood also has a sizable Orthodox Jewish population. In the decade leading up to 2011, the Orthodox community in Washington Heights and neighboring Inwood grew by more than 140%, from about 9,500 to nearly 24,000, the largest growth of any neighborhood identified in the Jewish Community Study, an increase largely fueled by an influx of young Orthodox Jews.[155][156]

The Audubon Mural Project paints the neighborhood with images of birds depicted by John James Audubon in his early 19th century folio The Birds of America.[157]

Heralding the arts scene north of Central Park is the annual Uptown Arts Stroll, in which artists from Washington Heights, Inwood and Marble Hill are featured in public locations throughout upper Manhattan each summer for several weeks.[141] As of 2008, the Uptown Art Stroll is run by Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance.

The Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance (NoMAA), led by Executive Director Sandra A. García Betancourt, was founded in 2007 to support artists and arts organizations in Community District 12. Their stated mission is to cultivate, support and promote the work of artists and arts organizations in Northern Manhattan. In 2008, NoMAA awarded $50,000 in grants to seven arts organizations and 33 artists in the Washington Heights/Inwood art community. NoMAA sponsors community arts events and publishes an email newsletter of all art events in Community District 12.[158]

Founded in 2008 by theater artists Mino Lora and Bob Braswell, the People's Theatre Project is an important cultural institution for youth in Northern Manhattan, and especially Washington Heights and Inwood.[159][160] The organization as a whole uses its ensemble-based theatre pieces to advocate for social justice issues. Many of their pieces, such as "Somos Más" from 2019, focus on the immigrant experience, and have toured around New York City.[161] In 2014, with funding from the US Embassy, they collaborated with Dominican youth on a piece for Santo Domingo's International Theatre Festival.[160]

Hilltop Park during a 1903 game

Five clubs in American professional sports played in the Washington Heights area: the New York Giants baseball club, the New York Mets, the New York Yankees, and the New York Giants and New York Jets football teams. The baseball Giants played at the Polo Grounds near 155th Street and Fredrick Douglass Boulevard from 1911–1957, the Yankees played there from 1913–1922, and the New York Mets played their first two seasons (1962 and 1963) there as well as the football Giants (1925–1955) and New York Jets (1960–1963). The Mets and Jets both began play at the Polo Grounds while their future home, Shea Stadium in Queens, was under construction.[162]

Before the Yankees played at the Polo Grounds, they played in Hilltop Park on Broadway between 165th Street and 168th Street from 1903–1912; at the time they were known as the New York Highlanders.[163] On May 15, 1912, after being heckled for several innings, the baseball great Ty Cobb leaped the fence and attacked his tormentor. He was suspended indefinitely by league president Ban Johnson, but his suspension was eventually reduced to 10 days and $50.[164] One of the most amazing pitching performances of all time took place at Hilltop Park; on September 4, 1908, 20-year-old Walter Johnson shut out New York three times in a three-game series.[165] The park is now the Columbia University Medical Center, a major hospital complex, which opened on that location in 1928.[166]

Washington Heights was the birthplace of former Yankee star Alex Rodriguez. Slugger Manny Ramírez grew up in the neighborhood, moving there from the Dominican Republic when he was 13 years old and attending George Washington High School, where he was one of the nation's top prospects. Hall-of-Fame infielder Rod Carew, a perennial batting champion in the 1970s, also grew up in Washington Heights, having emigrated with his family from Panama at the age of fourteen. The New York Yankees' Lou Gehrig grew up on 173rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue, and attended PS 132 at 185 Wadsworth Avenue; the Yankee captain lived in Washington Heights for most of his life.[167]

The New Balance Track and Field Center, located in the Fort Washington Avenue Armory, maintains an Olympic-caliber track that is one of the fastest in the world.[168] Starting in January 2012, the Millrose Games have been held there, after having been held at the second, third, and fourth Madison Square Gardens from 1914 to 2011.[169] Other activities meet at the Armory as well. High schools and colleges hold meets at the 2,300-seat auditorium at the Armory regularly, and it is open to the public for training, for a fee. Also at the Armory is the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, along with the Charles B. Rangel Technology & Learning Center for children and students in middle school and high school; the facility is operated by the Armory Foundation, which was created in 1993. The Armory is the starting point for an annual road race, the Coogan's Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks 5K, which was founded by Peter M. Walsh, co-owner of Coogan's Restaurant.[170] The race happens in March and sanctioned by the New York Road Runners.[171]

Mountain bike races take place in Highbridge Park in the spring and summer. Sponsored by the New York City Mountain Bike Association,[172] the races are held on alternate Thursdays and are open to professional competitors and amateurs. Participating in these races is free, but the All-City Cross Country Classic requires a registration fee because prize money is awarded. The bike path along the Hudson River draws cyclists from along the West Side and elsewhere. Connection to the George Washington Bridge means Manhattan cyclists have easy access to biking up the New Jersey Palisades and northward along 9W.

Extreme swimmers take part in the Little Red Lighthouse Swim, a 5.85-mile (9.41 km) swim in the Hudson River from Clinton Cove (Pier 96) to Jeffrey's Hook, the location of the Little Red Lighthouse.[173] The annual race, sponsored by the Manhattan Island Foundation, attracts more than 200 competitors. The course records for men and women were both set in 1998. Jeffrey Jotz, then a 28-year-old from Rahway, New Jersey, finished in 1 hour, 7 minutes, and 36 seconds, while then-31-year-old Julie Walsh-Arlis, of New York, finished in 1 hour, 12 minutes, and 45 seconds.

Local politicians, sports enthusiasts, and community organizers have organized the "Uptown Games" for children at the Fort Washington Avenue Armory.[174] The event has an aim of "teaching kids at an early age what a pleasure it is to be physically active", according to one of the 2012 organizers, Cliff Sperber, of the New York Road Runners Association.[175]

Washington Heights has some of the largest parks in northern Manhattan, which collectively has over 500 acres (200 ha) of parkland.[176]

• Fort Tryon Park – home of The Cloisters[177]
• Highbridge Park – home of the Highbridge Pool and Water Tower[178]
• Fort Washington Park – home of the Little Red Lighthouse[179]
• Bennett Park – location of the highest natural point in Manhattan[142]
• Mitchel Square Park – site of the Washington Heights and Inwood World War I memorial by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney[180]
• J. Hood Wright Park[181]
• Amelia Gorman Park[182]
• McKenna Square[183]

Among the Heights' now-vanished riverfront estates was "Minnie's Land", the home of ornithological artist John James Audubon, who is buried in Trinity Church Cemetery churchyard of the neighborhood's Church of the Intercession (1915), a masterpiece by architect Bertram Goodhue. Also buried there is poet Clement Clarke Moore, who wrote "'Twas the Night Before Christmas".[184]

Columbia-Presbyterian, the first academic medical center in the United States, opened in 1928.[185] Now known as NewYork-Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, the medical school of Columbia University, lie in the area of 168th Street and Broadway, occupying the former site of Hilltop Park, the home of the New York Highlanders – now known as the New York Yankees – from 1903 to 1912.[186] Across the street is the New Balance Track and Field Center, an indoor track and home to the National Track & Field Hall of Fame.[187]

The cloister from Bonnefont-en-Comminges, at The Cloisters

A popular cultural site and tourist attraction in Washington Heights is The Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park at the northern end of the neighborhood, with views across the Hudson to the New Jersey Palisades.[177] This branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is devoted to Medieval art and culture, and is located in a medieval-style building, portions of which were purchased in Europe by John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1925, brought to the United States, and reassembled, opening to the public in 1938.[188]

Audubon Terrace, a cluster of five distinguished Beaux Arts institutional buildings, is home to another major, though little-visited museum, The Hispanic Society of America.[189] The Society has the largest collection of works by El Greco and Goya outside the Museo del Prado, including one of Goya's famous paintings of Cayetana, Duchess of Alba. In September 2007, it commenced a three-year collaboration with the Dia Art Foundation. The campus on Broadway at West 156th Street also houses The American Academy of Arts and Letters, which holds twice yearly, month-long public exhibitions, and Boricua College.

The Morris-Jumel Mansion

Manhattan's oldest remaining house, the Morris–Jumel Mansion, is located in the landmarked Jumel Terrace Historic District, between West 160th and West 162nd Street, just east of St. Nicholas Avenue. An AAM-accredited historic house museum, the Mansion interprets the colonial era, the period when General George Washington occupied it during the American Revolutionary War, and the early 19th century in New York.[190]

The Paul Robeson Home, located at 555 Edgecombe Avenue on the corner of Edgecombe Avenue and 160th Street, is a National Historic Landmark building. The building is known for its famous African American residents including actor Paul Robeson, musician Count Basie, and boxer Joe Louis.[191]

Other notable Washington Heights residents include Althea Gibson the first African American Wimbledon Champion, Frankie Lymon of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" fame, Leslie Uggams who was a regular on the Sing Along with Mitch Show. Other musicians who resided in the area for significant periods of time were jazz drummers Tony Williams and Alphonse Muzon and Grammy award-winning Guitarist Marlon Graves.

On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated during a speech at the Audubon Ballroom, on Broadway at West 165th Street. The interior of the building was demolished, but the Broadway facade remains, incorporated into one of Columbia's Audubon Center buildings. It is now the home of the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center.[192] Several shops, restaurants and a bookstore occupy the first floor.

At the Hudson's shore, in Fort Washington Park[193] stands the Little Red Lighthouse, a small lighthouse located at the tip of Jeffrey's Hook at the base of the eastern pier of the George Washington Bridge that was made famous by a 1942 children's book.[179] It is the site of a namesake festival in the late summer. A 5.85-mile (9.41 km) recreational swim finishes there in early autumn.[194] It's also a popular place to watch for peregrine falcons.[195]

The United Palace, made a landmark in 2016, hosts a number of cultural and performing arts.[196] Originally a theater, it was bought by Reverend Ike and became a church for the United Church Science of Living Institute.[197]

PS 189

PS/IS 187 Hudson Cliffs

Public primary and secondary schools are provided to New York City students by the New York City Department of Education. Washington Heights is part of District 6, along with Inwood and parts of Hamilton Heights.

Zoned public elementary and elementary/middle schools include:

• PS 189 (grades 3K-5)[221]
• PS 48 Police Officer Michael John Buczek (grades 3K-5)[222]
• PS 128 Audubon (grades 3K-5)[223]
• PS 132 Juan Pablo Duarte (grades K-5)[224]
• PS 173 (grades 3K-5)[225]
• PS 115 Alexander Humboldt (grades PK-5)[226]
• PS/IS 187 Hudson Cliffs (grades PK-8)[227]
• PS 192 Jacob H. Schiff (grades 3K-5)[228]
• PS 4 Duke Ellington (grades 3K-5)[229]
• PS 8 Luis Belliard (grades 3K-5)[230]
• Dos Puentes Elementary School (grades K-5)[231]
• PS 28 Wright Brothers (grades 3K-5)[232]

Unzoned elementary and elementary/middle schools include:

• Castle Bridge School (grades PK-5)[233]
• PS 178 Professor Juan Bosch (grades K-5)[234]
• Washington Heights Academy (grades PK-8)[235]

Zoned middle schools include:

• JHS 143 Eleanor Roosevelt (grades 6-8)[236]
• MS 319 Maria Teresa (grades 6-8)[237]
• MS 324 Patria Mirabal (grades 6-8)[238]

Unzoned middle and middle/high schools include:

• Harbor Heights Middle School (grades 6-8)[239]
• Community Health Academy of the Heights (grades 6-12)[240]
• Community Math and Science Prep (grades 6-8)[241]
• IS 528 Bea Fuller Rodgers (grades 6-8)[242]
• City College Academy of the Arts (grades 6-12)[243]

The George Washington Educational Campus, built in 1923[244]

Gregorio Luperón High School for Science and Mathematics

The former George Washington High School, built in 1923, takes up an entire block between Audubon and Amsterdam Avenues, stretching slightly past West 192nd and 193rd streets. It became the George Washington Educational Campus in 1999 when it was split into four smaller schools:[244]

• The College Academy (grades 9-12)[245]
• High School for Media and Communications (grades 9-12)[246]
• High School for Law and Public Service (grades 9-12)[247]
• High School for Health Careers and Sciences (grades 9-12)[248]

The Gregorio Luperón High School for Science and Mathematics was founded in 1994 and serves students who have lived in the United States for two years or fewer and speak Spanish at home. It is located on the corner of 165th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.[249][250]

Washington Heights also has the unzoned Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School, on 182nd Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Audubon Avenue. It was founded in 2006 and is now an elementary, middle, and high school, serving grades PK to 12.[251][252]

Success Academy Washington Heights

The Mirabal Sisters Campus, the location of the WHIN Community Charter School as well as MS 319 Maria Teresa and MS 324 Patria Mirabal

Yeshiva University Schottenstein Center

New York Public Library, Washington Heights branch

Success Academy Charter Schools has a location, serving grades K to 4, in the former Mother Cabrini High School building near Fort Tryon Park.[253] KIPP also has a location between Jumel Place and Edgecombe Avenue in the Mirabal Sisters Campus, serving grades K to 8.[254]

The independent WHIN Community Charter School serves grades K to 3 and in the Mirabal Sisters Campus on Edgecombe Avenue between 164th Street and 165th Street.[255] The School in the Square is another Washington Heights charter school, serving grades 6 to 8 and located on the corner of 179th Street and Wadsworth Avenue.[256]

Private schools include:

• Incarnation School (grades 3K-8)[257]
• Saint Elizabeth School (grades 3K-8)[258]
• Yeshiva Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (grades 3K, PK, and 1-12)[259]
• Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy (grades 9-12)[260]
• Birch Family Services' Washington Heights Education Center (ages 3-8)[261]
• Medical Center Nursery School (ages 2-5)[262]
• Renaissance Village Montessori School (ages 1-6)[263]
• Gardens Daycare (pre-PK)[264]
• Bright Horizons at New York Presbytarian Hospital (ages 1-5)[265]

University education in Washington Heights includes Yeshiva University[266] and the primary campus of Boricua College.[267] The medical campus of Columbia University hosts the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the College of Dental Medicine, the Mailman School of Public Health, the School of Nursing, and the biomedical programs of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, which offer Masters and Doctorate degrees in several fields.[268] These schools are among the departments that compose the Columbia University Irving Medical Center.[269]

CUNY in the Heights, a program of the Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York, is actually located in Inwood, on the corner of 213th Street and Broadway, despite its name.[270] The CUNY XPress Immigration Center is located in the same building; its purpose is to assist immigrants and to help students enroll in one of the CUNY schools.[271]

The New York Public Library (NYPL) operates two branches in Washington Heights:

• The Fort Washington branch is located at 535 West 179th Street. The three-story Carnegie library opened in 1979.[272]
• The Washington Heights branch is located at 1000 St. Nicholas Avenue. It was founded in 1868 and moved to two separate buildings before relocating to its current structure in 1914.[273]

Three of the bridges that cross the Harlem River are visible: the High Bridge (foreground), the Alexander Hamilton Bridge (middle, behind High Bridge), and the Washington Bridge (background). In this photo, looking north, Manhattan is on the left and the Bronx on the right.

Washington Heights is connected to Fort Lee, New Jersey across the Hudson River via the Othmar Ammann-designed George Washington Bridge, the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge.[1][2] The Pier Luigi Nervi-designed George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal is located at the Manhattan end of the bridge, at 179th Street and Fort Washington Avenue.[297] In 1963, the year it was built, Nervi won an award for the terminal's use of concrete.[298] One of its most unique features is the huge ventilation ducts that look like concrete butterflies from a distance.[299]

The Trans-Manhattan Expressway, a portion of Interstate 95, proceeds for 0.8 miles (1.3 km) from the George Washington Bridge in a trench between 178th and 179th streets.[300] To the east, the highway leads to the Alexander Hamilton Bridge, completed in 1963 across the Harlem River to connect the GWB to the Bronx and the Cross Bronx Expressway.[301] The Washington Bridge crosses the Harlem River just north of the Alexander Hamilton Bridge. The High Bridge is the oldest bridge in New York City still in existence, crossing the river just south of the Alexander Hamilton Bridge at 175th Street in Manhattan. Completed in 1848, it originally carried the Croton Aqueduct as part of the New York City water system and later functioned as a pedestrian bridge that had been closed to the public since the 1970s.[302] In the late 1920s, several of the stone piers were replaced with a steel arch that spanned the river to allow ships to more easily navigate under the bridge.[303] In June 2015 the High Bridge reopened as a pedestrian and bicycle bridge.[302]

The Henry Hudson Parkway, part of New York State Route 9A, runs near the Hudson River, cutting directly through Fort Tryon and Fort Washington parks on the western edge of Washington Heights.[304] The highway was originally envisioned to run on the eastern edge of the parkland, but then-NYC Parks Commisioner Robert Moses opted for the current route in order to save funds that would be needed to buy the parkside land, and to get extra money for the project from the Civil Works Administration that was contingent on the highway being a "park access road."[305]^:534 This arrangement cut left the western edge of both parks cut off from direct access from residential areas, except through the Hudson River Greenway.

Washington Heights is well served by the New York City Subway. On the IND Eighth Avenue Line, service is available at the 155th Street and 163rd Street–Amsterdam Avenue stations (C train), the 168th Street station (1​, A, and ​C trains), and the 175th Street, 181st Street, and 190th Street stations (A train). The IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line (1 train) has stops at 157th Street, 168th Street, 181st Street, and 191st Street.[306]

The 190th Street station contains the subway's only entrance in the Gothic style,[307] although when originally built, it was a plain brick building; the stone facade was added later to bring the building into harmony with the entrance to Fort Tryon Park just across Margaret Corbin Circle.[136] The station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.[308] The 190th Street and 191st Street stations have the distinction of being the deepest in the entire subway system by distance to ground level.[309] Because of this, the IND 181st Street and 190th Street stations provide elevator connections between the Hudson Heights subneighborhood, on the top of the ridge, and the Broadway valley of Washington Heights below.[310] The IRT 191st Street station also has elevators to street level and a passageway to the Broadway valley.[311]

The following MTA Regional Bus Operations bus routes serve Washington Heights:[131][313]