Hamilton Heights

Hamilton Heights Review

To taste this neighborhood's Harlem Renaissance days, walk down tree-lined Convent Avenue, detouring onto adjacent Hamilton Terrace, and see a time capsule of elegant stone row houses in mint condition. (Until 2008 Hamilton Grange, founding father Alexander Hamilton's Federal-style mansion, stood at 287 Convent Avenue. The clapboard structure, owned by the National Park Service, has been moved around the corner to Saint Nicholas Park. At this writing it's closed for refurbishment and scheduled to reopen for tours in summer 2011: visit www.nps.gov/hagr for updates). Continue down Convent Avenue and see the looming Gothic spires (1905) of City College. The stately Oxford-inspired buildings here are New York to the core: they are clad with the schist rock unearthed when the city was building what is now the 1 subway line. When you're ready to move on, head east through Saint Nicholas Park, which will bring you to Strivers' Row.