Walking Tour: Historic Harlem, From the 1600s to Its Renaissance and Beyond

Join Deborah Zelcer for a very Picturesque Prowl through historic Harlem, once a bucolic estate setting for gracious mansions, later a hub for European immigrants, and then the destination of southern Blacks fleeing Jim Crow and migrating to the North in pursuit of jobs and rights. We will visit settings associated with all of these phases of Harlem’s history, while concentrating on the emergence of the Harlem Renaissance, that wonderful period of Harlem history when the creativity of Black writers, musicians and performers became a sought after and much admired influence on American and world culture. We will walk through Sugar Hill, past Hamilton Grange, Hamilton Heights, the historic City College campus, Strivers Row, and the Abyssinian Baptist Church, and see sites where well known Harlem residents lived. We will end this enlightening and pleasurable Prowl at a special pavilion to view historic WPA era murals depicting the lives of Harlem’s Black residents. (allow 2-1/2 to 3 hours for this tour on urban sidewalks, either level or downhill)