Out of all the amazing musicians who lived in Addisleigh Park, Billie Holiday called it home for the least amount of time. Holiday moved and resided in this 1926 Tudor-style home with her second husband, John Levy, from 1950-51. Billie Holiday was born Elenor Fagan in Baltimore in 1915. She would eventually take her absent father’s last name and began singing in New York City in the late 1920s. She chose the name Billie around that time, allegedly after film star Billie Dove. Some of her earliest collaborations were with Benny Goodman and Count Basie. In the 1930s, Holiday was credited with one of the first protest songs of the Civil Rights Era, “Strange Fruit,” based on a poem of the same name. It was so controversial that she was ordered not to play it, so she moved to Commodore Records, which allowed her to record. Throughout her adult life, she had substance abuse issues which caused her to lose her license to perform in cabarets, but she was able to continue performing in larger venues. Apart from living in Addisleigh Park, she also lived in Jamaica as well as the Upper West Side. Unfortunately, she would pass away at the age of 44 in 1958. There have been efforts to relocate a statue of Holiday to the neighborhood from Queens Borough Hall. 176-06 Linden Blvd. was landmarked as part of the Addisleigh Park Historic District on February 1st, 2011.

This is one of one, if not the oldest home remaining in Harlem (depending on where you draw the neighborhood lines) and was constructed in either 1864 . Harlem was an independent village founded in 1656 by Peter Stuyvesant the Director General of New Amsterdam and it would remain pretty rural until the end of the 19th century. Although there were some rail lines running through the town, getting from Harlem to what at the time was considered New York was a tedious journey. In the 1830s for example, only 91 families lived there. In the 1860s, due to a decline in good farm land, speculators began buying up subdivided properties and began to build homes similar to this one. However, the real development would not occur until the arrival of elevated trains in the 1880s. Most of the townhouses in Harlem date from that construction boom. Most wood frame homes were torn down but No. 17 survived. Throughout its entire history it remained a single-family home, with those families doing a decent job of keeping it original. It was owned for decades by Carolyn Adams and her husband. Adams was a principal dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company from 1965-1982 and was an advocate for Harlem preservation and pride. The home sold in 2015 for $3.6 million. It was landmarked on December 12th, 1981.

In 1948, newly minted catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers and future Hall of Famer Roy Campanella moved to 114-10 179th Street in Addisleigh Park, Queens. Campanella was born in 1921 in Philadelphia. His father was the son of Italian immigrants, and his mother was Black. This precluded him from playing in Major League Baseball. Campanella thus began his baseball career playing for the Washington Elite Giants of the Negro League. He also played in Mexico and Venezuela, each stop proving his skill and work ethic. In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier, paving the way for additional Black players. Campanella joined as the Dodgers’ catcher in 1948, having a distinguished career playing in Brooklyn. Campanella would reside at this home, just a few blocks over from his teammate Robinson, until 1956 when he moved to Glen Cove, Long Island. The Dodgers would leave Brooklyn for Los Angeles in 1957, but Campanella would not join them. In January 1958, Campanella was in a car accident that paralyzed him from the neck down. Eventually, he was able to recover use of his arms. The LA Dodgers honored him with Roy Campanella Night at the Los Angeles Coliseum on May 7th, 1959, attracting the largest baseball crowd to date, with 93,103 people watching the Dodgers fall to the Yankees. Campanella would eventually move to Los Angeles to work for the team. He passed away in 1993 and was the second Black player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame after Robinson. His home in Addisleigh Park was built in 1922 and was landmarked as part of the Addisleigh Park Historic District on February 1st, 2011.

Three years ago today, my mother in law passed away from a rare aggressive form of cancer. Karen defied all mother in law stereotypes, she was incredibly loving and so supportive of landmarks. I was lucky enough that she was able to hear about my first book deal before she passed. After she passed, I held a fund raiser on this page to help fund research into ovarian cancer which you all helped raise $15,000 for. I’ll forever be grateful to all of you for helping us memorialize her. So today I would like to share a landmark from her town of Chatham NY. The Crandell Theatre is located on Main Street in the small town of Chatham, New York, about 2.5 hours north of the city. The Crandell Theatre was built in 1926 by Watler Crandell. At the time of its construction, the theater only played silent films; its auditorium had an orchestra pit and organ lofts. In 1929, the theater was configured with speakers. Crandell was purchased by Anthony Quirino in 1960, whose family owned and operated it for 50 years. In 2010, the theater was repaired and reopened as a non-profit community theater. It just underwent a full restoration and was reopened with the help of Walton Goggins. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 18th, 2017.

In 1809, when this house was built, most of Tribeca that wasn’t farm land would have looked similar to this. Although this type of housing was common, Number 2 White Street is one of the only remaining houses made of brick and wood that is still standing. It was built for Gideon Tucker who was an alderman and education commissioner. This would have likely been a part of a row of similar looking houses, many of them built speculatively as the city continued its growth to the north. The ground floor was designed for retail in the original plans and has been home recently to a travel agency, bar, J. Crew and, as of this writing, is a Todd Snyder. From 1842 to 1847, this house played a different role, a stop on the Underground Railroad. It was home to Theodore Sedgwick Wright, the Pastor of the First Colored Presbyterian Church and a staunch abolitionist. Wright was the first Black graduate of the Princeton Theological Seminary, which also made him one of the first Black college graduates in the United States. He helped found the New York Vigilance Committee which helped people fleeing enslavement in the South reach Canada. This home was a stopping point for some of the thousand people who Wright and the Vigilance Committee helped escape bondage. Wright died in 1849. The house was landmarked by The City of New York on July 19th, 1966.

This is the former home of the prolific composer, pianist, and bandleader, William “Count” Basie. Basie resided in Addisleigh Park for almost as long as he was a bandleader, moving in 1940 and leaving in 1982, just two years before his death. Basie got his start in Harlem meeting a future neighbor, Thomas “Fats” Waller. Over his career, he collaborated with other local musicians who owned homes in Addisleigh Park, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Illinois Jacquet, and Rose Murphy. When Count Basie moved in, the neighborhood was still trying to be only white, with neighbors suing each other if they tried to sell to someone of color. In the 1940s, a New York court case that upheld the segregative covenants, the judge noted that while these were legally binding, there were already Black families living in the neighborhood, effectively saying, “What do you want me to do?” That ruling would eventually be overturned in the Supreme Court case “Shelly vs. Kramer” in 1947. The home itself was built in the early neighborhood building boom in 1937 by builder Fred Burmeister. 174-27 Adelaide Road was landmarked as part of the Addisleigh Park Historic District on February 1st, 2011.

Have you ever heard the story of the abandoned presidential train car beneath the Waldorf Astoria? Well that’s story isn’t true, but the real one is possibly more.

Oysters weren’t always the delicacy we view them as today. It took a man by the name of Thomas Downing to make them into an elevated dining experience, and he wasn’t even a citizen in his own country. #blackhistorymonth

This might be the most recognizable landmark in Harlem. The Apollo Theater, or the building that would become it, was opened in 1914 on 125th Street. Originally, it was known as Hurtig & Seamon’s New Burlesque Theater. The theater had a strict “whites-only” policy when it opened. It would, however, fall into disrepair and go out of business in the 1930s. In 1933, the building was purchased by Sidney Cohen, who restored it and reopened it as the Apollo. The new theater catered to the local Black population, originally hosting vaudeville performances. While dealing with competition from other venues, the Apollo merged with the Harlem Opera House. The programming would eventually shift, with Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, and other jazz bands performing as well as launching the career of Ella Fitzgerald. One of the most famous events at the Apollo is Amateur Night, which began in 1934. In 1976, the theater closed after a slow decline; luckily, it was re-opened later that year. The Apollo underwent restorations in the 2000s, with the interior being refurbished in 2001 and the exterior in 2005. The theater is a rare double landmark, with both its interior and exterior receiving designations on June 28th, 1983.

Out of all the beautiful buildings on the Upper West Side, you might wonder why this building was singled out for landmark status. The designation has nothing to do with its architecture, but with its former owner, legendary author James Baldwin. Baldwin was born in Harlem and was a gifted student who quickly became aware of the racial disparities faced by the Black population in New York City, which he reflected on in his writings. He moved to Paris in 1948 but purchased this building in 1961. 137 West 71st Street would serve as his primary New York residence from 1966 until his death in 1987. His mother, two sisters, and their children also lived in the building with him. In addition to writing about the Black experience in America, Baldwin spoke openly about his sexuality, having relationships with men and women. The NYC LGBT Historic Sites project played a large role in securing the landmark status of the building. The building itself was originally a row house built in 1890 and was converted to apartments in 1961 with its current facade. 137 West 71st Street was landmarked on June 18th, 2019.

Fashion isn’t my strong suit, both in life or in my historical knowledge of it. But I think it’s important to push your horizons, and while reading a biography recently, I came across an interesting fact. The first of what we could call fashion week, it wasn’t the beginning of what we know today as fashion week; it came out of a fundraising event for the First World War. I decided to dig a little deeper, and here’s the story. #nyfw

Now that it isn’t absolutely freezing out, I’m ready to skip to spring and start the baseball season. In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the baseball color barrier, becoming the first Black man to play in any of the four major American sports when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers. During his first two years of playing, Robinson lived in East Flatbush in a small apartment. After he received a raise, he moved his family to this home at 112-40 177th Street in Addisleigh Park, joining his teammate, Roy Campanella, who had moved to the neighborhood a few years prior. Robinson also overlapped with other notable residents, Count Basie, who was responsible for the song, “Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?” The Robinsons would live here until 1956 when he built a compound in Stamford, Connecticut, to get more privacy. The home he resided in for almost a decade was originally constructed in 1921 for owner Gilbert Smith. Smith was responsible for the development of three other houses in the neighborhood. 112-40 177th Street was landmarked as part of the Addisleigh Park Historic District on February 1st, 2011.

Granville T. Woods was a prolific inventor at the turn of the 20th Century and dramatically improved rail travel and yet he died penniless without getting the credit he deserved. #blackhistorymonth

This is the former home of Ralph Bunche, one of the most impressive humans that you may have never heard of. Bunche had an accomplished career in academia and international relations, and served as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, making him the highest-ranking American ever in that organization. Bunche graduated from UCLA and Harvard on full scholarships. He taught at Howard University in Washington DC, and worked for the Office of Strategic Services, playing a large role in the decolonization of Africa following the conclusion of the Second World War. Bunche and his family would make the move to New York following the war to begin working for the United Nations. During the late 40s, he worked as the chief negotiator between the Israelis and Arab states, ultimately winning him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. Bunche had commemorative plates made prior to the conclusion of the negotiations with the names of the negotiators. When he presented the plates to them, he was asked what he would have done with them had the peace negotiations failed? Bunche replied that he would have “…broken the plates over your damn heads.” Caption continues in the comments.

Lena Horne was an accomplished actor, singer, and was one of the earliest Black women to purchase a home in Addisleigh Park, Queens in 1946. Horne lived here at 112-45 178th Street from 1946-1962. Apart from all of her accomplishments in the performing arts space, Horne was extremely involved in the Civil Rights movement. She refused to play shows for the USO during the Second World War for segregated audiences. Often, Black service members were seated behind German Prisoners of War. During one performance, she walked to the first row of Black service members and began performing with the Germans to her back. She worked extensively with the NAACP as well as attending the March on Washington. She moved to Manhattan in the 1980s and passed away in 2010 at the age of 92. Her 1926 Tudor Home was landmarked as part of the Addisleigh Park Historic District on February 1st, 2011.

This freestanding home at 190 New York Avenue was built around 1896 and designed by Edward P. York in Crown Heights. York worked for a time as a junior architect at the firm of McKim, Mead, and White before going on to begin his own design company. This is the first Colonial Revival home in the neighborhood, think symmetry and nice porches. In the 1950s, the 2nd floor apartment was home to legendary singer Ethel Waters. Waters was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Harlem around 1919, participating in the Harlem Renaissance and performing at venues like the Cotton Club. She would have a legendary career on screen, stage, and in song. In 1954, Edward R. Murrow would interview Waters while she was in the apartment, which you can still watch on YouTube. The building is now a two family home, which sold in 2023 for $4.5 million. It was landmarked as part of the Crown Heights North Historic District on June 28th, 2011.

This home at 205 DeKalb Avenue dates back to the 1860s and is most notable for being the home of Dr. Susan McKinney-Stewart, the first Black woman to graduate from medical school in the state of New York. Dr. McKinney-Stewart was born to a large family in Weeksville, Brooklyn. Her father was a merchant and hog farmer and made a decent living. Her siblings were trailblazers in their own right; her sister was the first Black woman to become a principal in New York. Susan enrolled in the New York College for Women in 1867 and paid her way through school by teaching in both New York and Washington, D.C. Her enrollment didn’t attract as much attention as you might think due to the fact that her mentor was able to dissuade the press from covering her. Dr. McKinney-Stewart graduated at the top of her class. She pursued a career in homeopathy as it was more accepting toward women and people of color. After graduating, she began a clinic in Brooklyn and focused primarily on the treatment of children. She became so well known that she began to treat both Black and white patients. She lived in this home with her sister in the 1890s. In addition to her work in medicine, she worked towards civil rights. She was a member of the Women’s Loyal Union and the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement. These organizations pushed for equal rights for women, for African Americans as well as pushing for women’s suffrage. Dr. McKinney-Stewart passed away suddenly in 1918 while working at Wilberforce University in Ohio. She was buried in Greenwood Cemetery. Her home in Fort Greene was landmarked as part of the Fort Greene Historic District on September 26th, 1976.#blackhistorymonth

This humble abode at 179-07 Murdock Ave was the former home of Ella Fitzgerald, also known as “the First Lady of Song” from 1949 to 1967. She overlapped with some of the other notable residents such as Jackie Robinson and Count Basie and briefly with James Brown. Ella Fitzgerald was born in Virginia but spent most of her childhood in Yonkers and Harlem, with her first performances being at the Apollo during one of its first-ever amateur nights; she was only 17 years old. Her career would take off with her performing at both the Savoy and Roseland Ballroom. She would marry jazz musician Ray Brown in 1947, living with him in Corona, Queens, prior to moving here in 1949. She later divorced him in 1953 but stayed in this house until 1967, after which she would move to Los Angeles, where she passed away in 1996. The house itself was built sometime between 1934 and 1940. The fact that we don’t have the exact date is interesting considering it is a relatively new building in a relatively new historic district. The home was landmarked as part of the Addisleigh Park Historic District on February 1st, 2011. #blackhistorymonth

This is the New York Public Library, Schomburg Collection for Research in Black Culture, and it was one of the original Carnegie Libraries in New York. If you have never heard of the Carnegie Libraries, over 2,500 were built in the United States, with 69 in New York City thanks to a grant from Andrew Carnegie. This one is located on 135th Street and was built in 1905. At the time, this part of Harlem was primarily an upper-middle-class Jewish neighborhood, but demographic trends began to change with the area becoming home to a large Black population by the 1920s. Ernestine Rose, the branch librarian, made a point throughout her career to integrate her libraries with the cultures of local communities and wanted to make this library a center of the community. She integrated the library staff and sought to acquire collections of Black authors. She was able to get a $15,000 grant for the purchase of Arturo Schomburg’s personal collections and hired him to head the collection in 1926. Arturo Alfonso Schomburg was born in Puerto Rico in 1874. His mother was black, and his father was the son of a German immigrant. Schomburg became a historian, writer, and activist, spurred on by an event during his early education. In elementary school, Schomburg was told by a teacher that black people didn’t have history or culture. He would spend his career documenting, writing, and collecting works of Africans and the diaspora, proving his teacher wrong. In addition to working with the NYPL, Schomburg was also a curator at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. Arturo Alfonso Schomburg passed away in 1938 following dental surgery. His massive collection of artwork, manuscripts, and rare books was the cornerstone of the 135th Street library, which is named in his honor. The New York Public Library, Schomburg Collection for Research in Black Culture, was landmarked on February 3rd, 1981. Photo 1: Schomburg Collection Photo 2: Arturo Schomburg Photo 3: Ernestine Roes (left) #blackhistorymonth

The Weeksville Heritage Center is an amazing institution dedicated to showing the experience of Black New Yorkers beginning in the 1830s. Weeksville was the largest free Black community in New York leading up to the Civil War. It includes multiple original buildings, each decorated in the style of a different decade of the 1800s. #blackhistorymonth