12 Best Sights in Harlem, New York City

Built in 1847 as the founding college of what is now the largest public urban university system in America, City College was originally called Free Academy of the City of New York. Affectionately dubbed the "Harvard of the Proletariat," or "the poor man's Harvard," the idyllic Neo-Gothic campus was designed by George Brown Post (the architect behind the Stock Exchange) and has since expanded to 36 acres. At a time when private universities were predominantly restricted to Protestant students, City College became a beacon for religious tolerance, and over the years, 10 City College graduates went on to win Nobel Prizes, among a long list of notable alumni. It’s also the site where Albert Einstein first presented his theory of general relativity in America. Stroll between Convent Avenue and St. Nicholas Terrace to admire five landmark structures with white terra-cotta trim, four great arches, green spaces, and more than 600 Gothic gargoyles and grotesques, originally designed to symbolize the academic purpose of each building.

Founded in 1925 and named a National Historic Landmark in 2017, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is one of the world’s leading cultural institutions devoted to the research, preservation, and exhibition of materials focused on Black, African-diaspora, and African experiences. Established with the collections of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, this research division of the New York Public Library features diverse programming, including exhibits that draw from a collection of more than 11 million items illuminating the richness of global Black history, arts, and culture. The Photographs and Prints Division houses over 300,000 images that document African culture and history since the 18th century, while the Rare Books Division houses an extraordinary collection of manuscripts and archives available for research purposes. 

Before street art was a respected form, an artist named Ray “Sting Ray” Rodriguez wanted to create a safe space for Harlem artists to hone their craft. Over generations, vandals, rebels, and artists alike left their artistic gems at great risk. More than 40 years later, graffiti and mural art have evolved from the underworld of subway trains to now adorn walls aboveground. Today, the Graffiti Hall of Fame lines the concrete walls of Jackie Robinson Educational Complex’s schoolyard and still welcomes locals and artists, along with photographers and fans of the medium.

Founding father Alexander Hamilton and his wife raised eight kids in this Federal-style country home, which he called his "sweet project." Once located on Hamilton's 32 acres, the Grange, named after his father's childhood home in Scotland, has moved three times since it was built in 1802. It now stands in St. Nicholas Park and gives a lesson in Hamilton's life, from his illegitimate birth in the West Indies and his appointment as the nation's first Secretary of the Treasury to his authorship of The Federalist Papers and his death following a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr. The house's ground floor, formerly servants' quarters, hosts an interactive exhibit that includes a short film on Hamilton's life. Tours include views of the parlor, study, dining room, and two guest rooms. Note the beautiful piano, which belonged to his daughter, Angelica. 

To envision this neighborhood's Harlem Renaissance days, walk down tree-lined Convent Avenue and cross over to Hamilton Terrace to see a time capsule of elegant stone row houses in mint condition. One of the neighborhood's most beautiful blocks, it's popular with film and TV crews. The Hamilton Grange National Memorial, founding father Alexander Hamilton's Federal-style mansion, is located at the southern end of the block, on 141st Street. Turn west and continue down Convent Avenue to see the looming Gothic spires (1905) of City College. Next, head east to visit Strivers' Row.

After a $7.9 million renovation completed in fall of 2019, a 47-foot cast-iron watchtower (Julius Kroehl, 1865), the last remnant of a citywide network used to spot and report fires in pre-telephone days, once again stands atop a 70-foot-high outcrop of Manhattan schist (the same bedrock that anchors the city's skyscrapers) at the center of this historic, tree-filled public square. Around it, an Acropolis provides great views of Manhattan and the handsome neoclassical row houses of Mount Morris Park Historic District, which extends west from the park. In summer, check out musical and stage performances at the Richard Rodgers Amphitheater and at the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival (last weekend of August).

Talk about religious conversions: in the mid-1960s, the Lenox Casino was transformed into this house of worship and cultural center and given bright yellow arches and a huge, green, aluminum dome that loudly proclaims its presence in a neighborhood of churches. Once functioning as Temple No. 7 under the Nation of Islam with a message of Black nationalism, the mosque was bombed after the assassination of Malcolm X, who had preached here. It was then rebuilt and renamed in honor of the name Malcolm took at the end of his life, El-Hajj Malik Shabazz; its philosophy now is one of inclusion. To attend services, contact the mosque via the website.

These days the Sunni congregation has a large proportion of immigrants from Senegal, many of whom live in and around 116th Street. Next door is Graceline Court, a 16-story luxury condominium building that cantilevers somewhat awkwardly over the mosque.

During the Revolutionary War, General Washington used this wooden, pillared, 8,500-square-foot house (1765) as his headquarters, and when he visited as president in 1790, he brought along John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton. Inside, rooms are furnished with period decorations; upstairs, keep an eye out for the hand-painted wallpaper (original to the house) and a "commode chair," stuck in a corner of the dressing room. Outside, behind the house, is a Colonial-era marker that says it's 11 miles to New York—a reminder of what a small sliver of Manhattan the city was at that time. West of the house is the block-long Sylvan Terrace, a row of crisp two-story clapboard houses built in 1882.

This block of gorgeous, 1890s, Georgian and Italian Renaissance Revival homes earned its nickname in the 1920s from less-affluent Harlemites who felt its residents were "striving" to become well-to-do. Some of the few remaining private service alleys, used when deliveries arrived via horse and cart, lie behind these houses and are visible through iron gates. Note the gatepost between Nos. 251 and 253 on 138th Street that reads, "Private Road. Walk Your Horses." These houses were built by the contractor David H. King Jr., whose developments also include Madison Square Garden and the Washington Arch. When the houses failed to sell to whites, the properties on these blocks were sold to Black doctors, lawyers, and other professionals; composers and musicians W. C. Handy and Eubie Blake were also among the residents. If you have the time, detour a block north to see the palazzo-style group of houses designed by Stanford White, on the north side of 139th Street.

Standing on the bluff of Sugar Hill overlooking Jackie Robinson Park, outside the slightly run-down 409 Edgecombe Avenue, you'd never guess that here resided such influential African Americans as NAACP founder W. E. B. DuBois and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. In 1946, Langston Hughes reportedly called it one of Harlem’s “most fashionable addresses." And farther north at 555 Edgecombe (known as the "Triple Nickel"), literary icon Zora Neale Hurston and jazz musicians Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lena Horne, and others lived, wrote, and played. It's also here that, for more than 25 years, musician Marjorie Eliot has been hosting jazz concerts in her apartment (3F) at 3:30 pm every Sunday. Farther down, at No. 345, you can't miss the Benzinger House with its flared mansard roof. Amid all this history, the modern-looking Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling, at 155th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue, gathers local families for programs that encourage the creative spirit of children.

Swing Low, a bronze statue of abolitionist Harriet Tubman rising from a traffic triangle at the crossroads of St. Nicholas Avenue, West 122nd Street, and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, was created in 2007 by sculptor Alison Saar. Inspired by West African "passport" masks, the striking monument incorporates the faces of "anonymous passengers" of the Underground Railroad in Tubman's skirt. The granite base includes bronze tiles that depict pivotal events in Tubman's life and traditional quilting patterns.

This is the best collection of Hispanic and Spanish art outside El Prado in Madrid, with more than 18,000 works in paintings, sculptures, textiles, manuscripts, music, and decorative arts dating from the Paleolithic through the 20th century. On the first floor in the Sala Bancaja, stand in the middle and admire the 13 massive, colorful paintings, capturing everything from Holy Week penitents to fishermen in Catalonia. A smaller room houses intricately carved marble pieces from bishops' tombs. Upstairs, there's a room filled with antique iron doorknockers, two rooms of earthenware from Spain and Mexico, and notable pieces by Goya, El Greco, Murillo, Velázquez, and Zurbarán. The entrance is on Broadway, between 155th and 156th Streets, up the steps to the left.