Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street on the south. The greater Harlem area encompasses several other neighborhoods and extends west and north to 155th Street, east to the East River, and south to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Central Park, and East 96th Street.
Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658,Pierce, Carl Horton, et al. New Harlem Past and Present: the Story of an Amazing Civic Wrong, Now at Last to be Righted. New York: New Harlem Pub. Co., 1903. it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. Harlem's history has been defined by a series of economic boom-and-bust cycles, with significant population shifts accompanying each cycle. Harlem was predominantly occupied by Jewish and Italian Americans in the late 19th century, while African-American residents began to arrive in large numbers during the Great Migration in the early 20th century. In the 1920s and 1930s, Central and West Harlem were the center of the Harlem Renaissance, a major African-American cultural movement. With job losses during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the deindustrialization of New York City after World War II, rates of crime and poverty increased significantly. In the 21st century, crime rates decreased significantly, and Harlem started to gentrify.
The area is served by the New York City Subway and local bus routes. It contains several public elementary, middle, and high schools, and is close to several colleges, including Columbia University, the Manhattan School of Music, and the City College of New York. Central Harlem is part of Manhattan Community District 10. It is patrolled by the 28th and 32nd Precincts of the New York City Police Department. The greater Harlem area also includes Manhattan Community Districts 9 and 11 and several police precincts, while fire services are provided by four New York City Fire Department stations.
Geography
Harlem is located in Upper Manhattan. The three neighborhoods comprising the greater Harlem area—West, Central, and East Harlem—stretch from the Harlem River and East River to the east, to the Hudson River to the west; and between 155th Street in the north, where it meets Washington Heights, and an uneven boundary along the south that runs along 96th Street east of Fifth Avenue, 110th Street between Fifth Avenue to Morningside Park, and 125th Street west of Morningside Park to the Hudson River. Encyclopædia Britannica references these boundaries, though the Encyclopedia of New York City takes a much more conservative view of Harlem's boundaries, regarding only central Harlem as part of Harlem proper.
Central Harlem is the name of Harlem proper; it falls under Manhattan Community District 10. This section is bounded by Central Park North 110th Street on the south; 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Morningside Park, St. Nicholas Avenue, and Edgecombe Avenue on the west. A chain of large linear parks includes Morningside Park, St. Nicholas Park, Jackie Robinson Park, Rucker Park, and Marcus Garvey Park (also known as Mount Morris Park) which separates this area from East Harlem to the east. Central Harlem includes the Mount Morris Park Historic District.
West Harlem (Manhattanville, Hamilton Heights, and Sugar Hill) comprises Manhattan Community District 9. The three neighborhoods' area is bounded by Cathedral Parkway/110th Street on the south; 155th Street on the north; Manhattan/Morningside Ave/St. Nicholas/Bradhurst/Edgecombe Avenues on the east; and Riverside Park/the Hudson River on the west. Manhattanville begins at roughly 123rd Street and extends northward to 135th Street. The northernmost section of West Harlem is Hamilton Heights. A chain of large linear parks includes West Harlem Piers, Riverbank State Park, St. Nicholas Park, and Jackie Robinson Park.
East Harlem, also called Spanish Harlem or El Barrio, is located within Manhattan Community District 11, which is bounded by East 96th Street on the south, East 138th Street on the north, Fifth Avenue on the west, and the Harlem River on the east. A chain of parks includes Thomas Jefferson Park and Marcus Garvey Park.
SoHa controversy In the 2010s some real estate professionals started rebranding south Harlem as "SoHa" (a name standing for "South Harlem," in the style of SoHo or NoHo) in an attempt to accelerate gentrification of the neighborhoods. "SoHa," applied to the area between West 110th and 125th Streets, became a controversial name. Residents and other critics seeking to prevent this renaming of the area labelled the SoHa brand as "insulting and another sign of gentrification run amok", and said that "the rebranding not only places their neighborhood's rich history under erasure but also appears to be intent on attracting new tenants, including students from nearby Columbia University."
Three New York City politicians initiated legislative efforts to curtail this practice of neighborhood rebranding, which when introduced in other New York City neighborhoods led to increases in rents and real estate values, as well as "shifting demographics". In 2011, New York Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries attempted but failed to implement legislation "that would punish real estate agents for inventing false neighborhoods and redrawing neighborhood boundaries without city approval".
In June 2017, U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat, who represents Harlem, introduced a resolution in the U.S. Congress that would, as he put it, "keep Harlem Harlem". Espaillat said: "Harlem is about an attitude, a personality, a legacy. It is the capital of the African diaspora in the world.""SoHa in Harlem? The Misguided Madness of Neighborhood Rebranding", The New York Times, July 6, 2017. That same month, New York State Senator Brian Benjamin also worked, at the state level, to render the practice of rebranding historically recognized neighborhoods illegal. In the wake of the backlash against the renaming effort, in July 2017 the real estate company that had pushed the rebranding dropped its effort."REAL ESTATE COMPANY DROPS 'SOHA' BRANDING AMID BACKLASH," New York1, July 5, 2017.
The name originally referred to a bar by the name "SoHa" that was opened in October 1997 on Amsterdam Avenue near 108th Street by Matt Olds, who opened several other restaurants in the neighborhood around the same time. Susanne Cipolla, the manager of the restaurants owned by Olds, said "We're trying to create a hip alternative to downtown ... Casual, hip, young, downtown-type places."
Political representation
Politically, central Harlem is in New York's 13th congressional district for the U.S. House of Representatives, represented by Democrat U.S. Congressman Adriano Espaillat since 2017.Congressional District 13 , New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment. Accessed May 5, 2017.New York City Congressional Districts , New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment. Accessed May 5, 2017. On the state level, it is in the New York State Senate's 30th district, represented by Democrat Cordell Cleare since 2021,Senate District 30 , New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment. Accessed May 5, 2017.2012 Senate District Maps: New York City , New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment. Accessed November 17, 2018. and the New York State Assembly's 68th and 70th districts, represented by Democrats Edward "Eddie" Gibbs (since 2022) and Jordan J.G. Wright (since 2025), respectively.Assembly District 68 , New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment. Accessed May 5, 2017. Assembly District 70 , New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment. Accessed May 5, 2017.2012 Assembly District Maps: New York City , New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment. Accessed November 17, 2018. On the city level, it is in the New York City Council's 7th, 8th, and 9th districts, represented by Democrats Shaun Abreu (since 2026), Elsie Encarnacion (since 2026), and Yusef Salaam (since 2024), respectively.Current City Council Districts for New York County , New York City. Accessed May 5, 2017.
Harlem has had black political representation since the 1910s; Edward A. Johnson was elected to the State Assembly in 1917, becoming the body's first African American member, and Charles H. Roberts and George W. Harris were elected to the Board of Aldermen in 1919, also becoming the body's first African American members. After the Board was replaced by the City Council in 1938, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was elected its first African American member in 1941; he was later elected New York's first African American congressman in 1944.
History
Before the arrival of European settlers, the area that would become Harlem (originally Haarlem) was inhabited by a Native American band, the Wecquaesgeek, dubbed Manhattans or Manhattoe by Dutch settlers, who along with other Native Americans, most likely Lenape, occupied the area on a semi-nomadic basis. As many as several hundred farmed the Harlem flatlands. Between 1637 and 1639, a few colonial settlements were established. The settlement of Harlem was formally incorporated in 1660 under the leadership of Peter Stuyvesant."To Live In Harlem," Frank Hercules, National Geographic, February 1977, p. 178-
During the American Revolution, the British burned Harlem to the ground. It took a long time to rebuild, as Harlem grew more slowly than the rest of Manhattan during the late 18th century."Harlem, the Village That Became a Ghetto," Martin Duberman, in New York, N.Y.: An American Heritage History of the Nation's Greatest City, 1968
After the American Civil War, Harlem experienced an economic boom starting in 1868. The neighborhood continued to serve as a refuge for New Yorkers, but increasingly those coming north were poor and Jewish or Italian. The New York and Harlem Railroad, as well as the Interborough Rapid Transit and elevated railway lines,"The Growth and Decline of Harlem's Housing," Thorin Tritter, Afro-Americans in New York Life and History, January 31, 1998 helped Harlem's economic growth, as they connected Harlem to lower and midtown Manhattan. The Jewish and Italian demographics decreased, while the black and Puerto Rican population increased in this time.
The early-20th century Great Migration of black people to northern industrial cities was fueled by their desire to leave behind the Jim Crow South, seek better jobs and education for their children, and escape a culture of lynching violence. Starting around the time of the end of World War I, Harlem became associated with the New Negro movement, a phrase implying a more outspoken advocacy of dignity and a refusal to submit quietly to the practices and laws of Jim Crow racial segregation. During World War I, expanding industries recruited black laborers to fill new jobs, thinly staffed after the draft began to take young men."The Making of Harlem" , James Weldon Johnson, The Survey Graphic, March 1925 In 1910, the Central Harlem population was about 10% black people. By 1920, central Harlem was 32.4% black. By 1930, it had reached 70%.Gotham Gazette, 2008
Harlem then became associated with the artistic outpouring known as the Harlem Renaissance, which extended to poetry, novels, theater, and the visual arts. So many black people came that it "threaten[ed] the very existence of some of the leading industries of Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama.""118,000 Negroes Move From The South," The New York World, November 5, 1917 Many settled in Harlem. The 1930 census revealed that 70.18% of central Harlem's residents were black and lived as far south as Central Park, at 110th Street.