Heritage at risk! Saving Harlem Now!

Our lack of landmark protection is one problem facing Black Harlem; that’s not likely to get as quick a fix from Mayor Mamdani as overlooked potholes or repairing broken swings in a park might. The lack of positive action we get when it comes to protecting historic buildings representing our history and heritage, seemingly, is acute and seems to be getting worse.

Just a few years ago, we had such hopes. Anticipating the 60th anniversary of their founding, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) launched an emphatic Equity Framework for landmarking. Referencing “a dreadful year,” they lamented, “the killing of George Floyd … and Breonna Taylor … the despair and anger expressed subsequently, demands a new way of doing things. Events make it important for us to publicly reaffirm the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s … commitment to equity in all aspects of our work … prioritizing designations that represent New York City’s diversity and designations in areas less represented by landmarks.

“Despite designating two small new historic districts uptown, it’s been kind of a letdown,” said local realtor Laurent Delly, a former president of the Mount Morris Park Community Improvement Association. He was sharing a letter he’d just written to LPC Chair Lisa Kersavage, seeking action to correct unapproved and inappropriate alterations to three buildings supposedly protected by being included in the 48-year-old Mount Morris Park Historic District. It was a follow up on inquiries already made about landmarks law violations identified at three addresses: 34 West 123rd Street, 32 West 123rd Street, and 242 Lenox Avenue.

Particularly notable, 34 West 123rd Street, an ornate Queen Anne-style structure meant to evoke Harlem’s 17th-century Dutch lineage, was built in 1889 as the elite Harlem Club and designed by Lamb & Rich. As this South-East section of Harlem became one of the largest middle-class Jewish settlements in the world, the club started out courting disaster leading to its eventual downfall. According to historian Tom Miller, at the opening reception, “Senator Jacob A. Cantor was a guest of George McGown. Banker Robert Bonynge proposed him as a member that night.” But he was next approached by another member, one insisting, “In this club we draw the line at Hebrews.”

Just doors away from Temple Israel (now Mount Olivet Baptist Church), in this community, such unwise exclusion made failure inevitable. In 1907, the Harlem Club building became the Eastman Business College. This group ceased operations in 1935. Despite the Great Depression making any paying students invaluable, the school nonetheless refused to admit Black students.

Enter “Father (Major Jealous) Divine.” The entrepreneurial evangelist established the Unity Mission Church here. Amassing a fortune in realty holdings from followers, the charismatic 4-foot, 6-inch prelate was a force to be reckoned with.

In 1948 Devine was followed here by Rev. Millard Alexander Stanley of the newly-formed Bethelite Community Baptist Church. They decamped nearby in 1984 to the former James Fenimore Cooper Junior High School. That’s when Pastor James David Manning, a former convict, installed his ATLAH Church (All The Land Anointed Holy) in the building.

Denouncing Obama, endorsing Trump, castigating the LGBTQ+ community, Manning has deployed the church’s outdoor lighted sign to spread what seems to be a particularly uncharitable message. It is a sign erected following landmark designation, one which was never approved by the commission. Despite legal and financial troubles, it’s Rev. Manning who’s responsible for a number of other unsanctioned alterations here which Delly is again complaining about, noting:

“When property owners are permitted to make incompatible alterations without proper review, and when multiple 311 complaints go unanswered, public confidence in the entire landmark system is undermined. It is critical that the LPC apply its rules and regulations equitably and vigorously to all property owners in order to preserve our city’s architectural legacy. The repeated and unresolved violations across these three properties suggest a pattern that must be addressed through more effective and timely enforcement.”

Over at Save Harlem Now! Valerie Jo Bradley, their president, told Delly, “Save Harlem Now! agrees that violations in Harlem historic districts need to be taken more seriously by the LPC and we join you in your concern.”

If this were not already bad enough, from architecture critic Paul Goldberger at the New York Times comes a plea warning about yet another threat to Black heritage, the Queer legacy and all American history.

In order to push through his sky-high commemorative arch, the president has proposed amending Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. Highly effective as a tool to influence and moderate, Section 106 has had a superb record of encouraging negotiation and compromise. It does not forbid change or even stop demolition. It merely mandates efforts be made to “avoid, minimize or mitigate” any harm to historic places before approval is granted for any project that uses federal funds or could affect buildings or landscapes listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Impacts on historic resources must be evaluated and the public must be consulted.

Much as the Supreme Court did with the Voting Rights Act, Trump’s imposition, rendering the review process pointless, would eviscerate the statute’s efficaciousness. No longer need federal personnel visit threatened sites. From the king of the no-bid contract, proposed mitigation of negative impact must henceforth be “technically and economically feasible.”

That means that officials can with impunity, do what already occurs sometimes. They can opine, as happened in Harlem at the old Lowe’s Victoria Theater, ‘so sorry, but in our expert opinion, although the auditorium’s ornate plasterwork is indeed intact under drywall, uncovering and restoring it will just be too costly!’ That was how Harlem lost its most exquisite theater interior.

So, what then does this change mean for Harlem? Well, with the Victoria, it’s true that by the time State Senator Bill Perkins joined the committee determining its future, Chair Keith Wright had already doomed the auditorium. But Perkins’ efforts were still essential to restoring the facade and lobby as the new hotel’s entrance.

Yes. It’s further true that to date, few redevelopment projects have utilized the federal 20% historic preservation tax credit. Only The Victoria, the Apollo, P.S. 186 and the Red Rooster building. But if more of Harlem’s exceptional architectural treasures were landmarked — the Koch Store Building next to the Studio Museum, the Blumstein’s Department Store building, a limestone and bronze masterpiece by famed architect Robert D. Kohen that now houses Touro College, The Lee Brother Building and the nearby Twelfth Ward Bank — they’d each become eligible to benefit as well. Just think of what that might be like, to have these great places restored to their former glory? Completely made from cast iron, the building that housed Franks Restaurant is another example and the Hotel Theresa is already designated.

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