Mapping Black Historical Sites: explorer map
Bayard Rustin Residence
Bayard Rustin Residence. Click to expand.
The Bayard Rustin Residence is significant as the most important resource associated with Bayard Rustin (1912- 1987), a person of great importance in American political and social history. Born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, Rustin lived a peripatetic life as a social activist and organizer, living intermittently in a number of different homes. In 1962, Rustin purchased apartment 9J in Building 7 of the new Penn South Complex in the West Chelsea section of Manhattan. This was his longest and most permanent place of residence as an adult. He lived there from September 11, 1962 until his death in 1987. In 1977, Bayard’s partner, Walter Naegle, moved into the apartment; Naegle continues to reside there, preserving the apartment almost exactly as Rustin left it.
Dyckman Farmhouse
Dyckman Farmhouse. Click to expand.
Dyckman Farmhouse (1785) is Manhattan’s oldest remaining farmhouse. Located on the corner of Broadway and 204th Street. The Farmhouse is both a New York City Landmark and a National Historic Landmark.
Seneca Village
Seneca Village. Click to expand.
Seneca Village (1825)- was a settlement in the 19th-century in present-day Central Park
Amsterdam News
Amsterdam News. Click to expand.
The Amsterdam News was founded in 1909 and takes its name from its original location one block east of Amsterdam Avenue. James Henry Anderson founded the paper with just a $10 investment, and at the time it was one of only a handful of black-owned newspapers in the United States. The paper originally sold for just 2 cents out of Anderson’s home, yet it was eventually sold to the Powell Savory Corporation, which helped the paper write about both local and national news. The newspaper published the writings of W.E.B. DuBois and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and it was one of the first publications to publish Malcolm X. Today, the paper is edited by Elinor Tatum, daughter of previous Editor-in-Chief Wilbert Tatum.
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church. Click to expand.
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church on West 134th Street is the oldest black Episcopal parish in New York City, founded in 1809 by free African Americans. The church was originally named the Free African Church of St. Philip and was first located in the Five Points neighborhood, before moving north to Harlem. The church’s first rector was Rev. Peter Williams, Jr., an abolitionist who also supported free black emigration to Haiti and served on the executive committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society.
The Lewis Latimer House
The Lewis Latimer House. Click to expand.
The Lewis Latimer House in Flushing, Queens, honors Lewis Howard Latimer, an African-American inventor and humanist born to fugitive slaves who lived in the home from 1903 until his death in 1928.
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Studio
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Studio. Click to expand.
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Studio-57 Great Jones Street in Greenwich Village an artist of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent best known for his graffiti art.
Louis Armstrong House
Louis Armstrong House. Click to expand.
Louis Armstrong House in Corona, Queens, was where jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong lived with his wife Lucille Wilson from 1943 until his death in 1971.
Esplanade Gardens
Esplanade Gardens. Click to expand.
At the Esplanade Gardens along the Harlem River there is a bronze statue of MLK, designed by Stan Sawyer in 1970 with a plaque containing an excerpt of his “I Have a Dream Speech.”
Shirley Chisholm Campaign Office
Shirley Chisholm Campaign Office. Click to expand.
Shirley Chisholm Campaign Office 1467 Bedford Avenue in Crown Heights and Shirley Chisholm State Park 1750 Granville Payne Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11239- while the students may know that Chisolm was a presidential candidate. They may not know that she introduced Search for Education, Elevation and Knowledge (SEEK) Programs. This program was designed to help disadvantaged students enter college. The SEEK program that has helped thousands of students with varying challenges on entry to college.
Weeksville
Weeksville. Click to expand.
Weeksville was a neighborhood that was founded by free African Americans, situated in modern-day Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Hotel Theresa
Hotel Theresa. Click to expand.
The Hotel Theresa on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard was considered the “Waldorf of Harlem.”
Langston Hughes House
Langston Hughes House. Click to expand.
The Langston Hughes House on East 127th Street in Harlem was the home of Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes where he wrote works like “Montage of a Dream Deferred” and “I Wonder as I Wander.”
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Click to expand.
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a New York Public Library research library on Malcolm X Boulevard that serves as an archive repository for Black culture worldwide. Names after the Afro-Puerto Rican scholar Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, it houses manuscripts to rare books to photographs depicting Black culture.
Spike Lee Studios
Spike Lee Studios. Click to expand.
Ida B. Wells Place
Ida B. Wells Place. Click to expand.
Wells's great-grandson Benjamin Duster IV (left) with his daughter Miranda, son Josh, daughter Sara, and his wife Deborah.
The Malcolm Shabazz
The Malcolm Shabazz. Click to expand.
The Malcolm Shabazz market in Harlem is full of fabulous traditional African crafts and textiles. Standouts include the hair-braiding boutiques, large selection of carved wooden figurines, and handmade African-style clothes for men, women, and children. Urbanwear as well. Occasionally Saturday is a giveaway day.
The Brooklyn Branch of the Underground Railroad
The Brooklyn Branch of the Underground Railroad. Click to expand.
Bayard Rustin Residence
The Bayard Rustin Residence is significant as the most important resource associated with Bayard Rustin (1912- 1987), a person of great importance in American political and social history. Born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, Rustin lived a peripatetic life as a social activist and organizer, living intermittently in a number of different homes. In 1962, Rustin purchased apartment 9J in Building 7 of the new Penn South Complex in the West Chelsea section of Manhattan. This was his longest and most permanent place of residence as an adult. He lived there from September 11, 1962 until his death in 1987. In 1977, Bayard’s partner, Walter Naegle, moved into the apartment; Naegle continues to reside there, preserving the apartment almost exactly as Rustin left it.
Dyckman Farmhouse
Dyckman Farmhouse (1785) is Manhattan’s oldest remaining farmhouse. Located on the corner of Broadway and 204th Street. The Farmhouse is both a New York City Landmark and a National Historic Landmark.
Seneca Village
Seneca Village (1825)- was a settlement in the 19th-century in present-day Central Park
Amsterdam News
The Amsterdam News was founded in 1909 and takes its name from its original location one block east of Amsterdam Avenue. James Henry Anderson founded the paper with just a $10 investment, and at the time it was one of only a handful of black-owned newspapers in the United States. The paper originally sold for just 2 cents out of Anderson’s home, yet it was eventually sold to the Powell Savory Corporation, which helped the paper write about both local and national news. The newspaper published the writings of W.E.B. DuBois and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and it was one of the first publications to publish Malcolm X. Today, the paper is edited by Elinor Tatum, daughter of previous Editor-in-Chief Wilbert Tatum.
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church on West 134th Street is the oldest black Episcopal parish in New York City, founded in 1809 by free African Americans. The church was originally named the Free African Church of St. Philip and was first located in the Five Points neighborhood, before moving north to Harlem. The church’s first rector was Rev. Peter Williams, Jr., an abolitionist who also supported free black emigration to Haiti and served on the executive committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society.
Many of the church’s members were pioneers in their fields, including many teachers, doctors, restauranteurs, and marine traders. The church would suffer damage in the mid-1800s due to vandalism by whites and by the NYPD during the 1863 Draft Riots. The church moved to Harlem in the early 1900s and was designed by Tandy & Foster, prominent African-American architects, in the Neo-Gothic style. The church included among its parishioners Dr. James McCune Smith, the first African American to hold a medical degree. Among its members were W.E.B. DuBois, Thurgood Marshall, and Langston Hughes.
The Lewis Latimer House
The Lewis Latimer House in Flushing, Queens, honors Lewis Howard Latimer, an African-American inventor and humanist born to fugitive slaves who lived in the home from 1903 until his death in 1928.
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Studio
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Studio-57 Great Jones Street in Greenwich Village an artist of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent best known for his graffiti art.
Louis Armstrong House
Louis Armstrong House in Corona, Queens, was where jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong lived with his wife Lucille Wilson from 1943 until his death in 1971.
Esplanade Gardens
At the Esplanade Gardens along the Harlem River there is a bronze statue of MLK, designed by Stan Sawyer in 1970 with a plaque containing an excerpt of his “I Have a Dream Speech.”
Shirley Chisholm Campaign Office
Shirley Chisholm Campaign Office 1467 Bedford Avenue in Crown Heights and Shirley Chisholm State Park 1750 Granville Payne Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11239- while the students may know that Chisolm was a presidential candidate. They may not know that she introduced Search for Education, Elevation and Knowledge (SEEK) Programs. This program was designed to help disadvantaged students enter college. The SEEK program that has helped thousands of students with varying challenges on entry to college.
Weeksville
Weeksville was a neighborhood that was founded by free African Americans, situated in modern-day Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Hotel Theresa
The Hotel Theresa on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard was considered the “Waldorf of Harlem.”
Langston Hughes House
The Langston Hughes House on East 127th Street in Harlem was the home of Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes where he wrote works like “Montage of a Dream Deferred” and “I Wonder as I Wander.”
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a New York Public Library research library on Malcolm X Boulevard that serves as an archive repository for Black culture worldwide. Names after the Afro-Puerto Rican scholar Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, it houses manuscripts to rare books to photographs depicting Black culture.
Spike Lee Studios
Ida B. Wells Place
Wells's great-grandson Benjamin Duster IV (left) with his daughter Miranda, son Josh, daughter Sara, and his wife Deborah.
Photo by Corazon Aguirre
The Malcolm Shabazz
The Malcolm Shabazz market in Harlem is full of fabulous traditional African crafts and textiles. Standouts include the hair-braiding boutiques, large selection of carved wooden figurines, and handmade African-style clothes for men, women, and children. Urbanwear as well. Occasionally Saturday is a giveaway day.