Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on January 8, 2014

City Living: Manhattanville's rising popularity

Photo credit: See more photos of Manhattanville in the gallery below. (Anthony Lanzilote)

Nestled beneath the Riverside Drive Viaduct, the once-forgotten neighborhood Manhattanville is getting revamped.

Also known as West Harlem, the area is gradually gaining popularity and making a name for itself as a center for dining, nightlife, and innovation. In recent years an influx of new establishments gave the area a fresh vibrancy -- from restaurants to theater groups, and a biotech incubator, Harlem Biospace, which opened in November 2013.

A major project, the West Harlem Piers Waterfront Park -- which stretches from 125th to 132nd streets and includes a kayak launch, sculptures and a fishing pier -- transformed the Manhattanville waterfront.

Since its beginnings, Manhattanville attracted residents of various ethnicities from Quakers to Jews, and from Germans to the Irish and Puerto Ricans. This diversity still exists today, though the area is predominantly African American.

Nearby schools like Columbia University and City University of New Yorks City College (CCNY) also bring international students to the area. Most people associate the neighborhood with Columbia Universitys campus and its expansion which is now underway. But the area is also home to other institutions of higher learning, said Herve Jean-Baptiste, a blogger at HarlemCondoLife.com, noting The Manhattan School of Music, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture, part of CCNY. I refer to this [area] as Harlems Educational Hub.

According to the book, Manhattanville: Old Heart of West Harlem, by Eric K. Washington, it was designated as a village in 1806 and was recognized as a resort and suburb and as a prominent residential, manufacturing, and transportation hub.

However the neighborhood soon became further obscured as mass transit took over and New York City expanded.

Manhattanville suffered as issues of drugs and homelessness took over in the 1980s.

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City Living: Manhattanville's rising popularity

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month
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