Morningside Heights Historic District Map. Credit LPC.

District is composed of 115 buildings between West 109th and West 199th Streets. On February 21, 2017, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate the Morningside Heights Historic District, in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights neighborhood. Made up of 115 buildings, the district is characterized by its residential architecture, developed within a relatively short period of time in the early 20th century, for middle and upper class tenants. The district is bounded by West 109th Street to the south, and West 119th street to the north, between Riverside Drive and Amsterdam Avenue. (more…)

Proposed Morningside Heights Historic District. Image Credit: LPC.

Designation of 115-property district widely supported by community and elected officials, though Columbia University and religious organizations opposed the inclusion of their properties within boundaries. On December 6, 2016, Landmarks held a hearing on the potential designation of the Morningside Heights Historic District. The potential district consists of 115 properties and is bounded by Riverside drive to the west, with 119th Street and 109th Street as its rough northern and southern boundaries. Landmarks officially added the potential historic district to its calendar at its September 13, 2016, meeting.

The area was a latecomer in Manhattan’s history of residential development. In the 19th century, the future neighborhood was dominated by two large institutions, the Leake and Watts Orphan Asylum and New York Hospital’s Bloomingdale Insane Asylum. Residential development was further hindered by the lack of public transportation, and its location on a rocky plateau surrounded by steep cliffs. (more…)

Morningside Heights Historic District Map. Image Credit: LPC

Potential 115-building district was largely developed in a short time frame following closures of two asylums that occupied area and extension of IRT subway line at turn of the century. On September 13, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to add the Morningside Heights Historic District to its calendar, formally commencing the designation process. The proposed district is composed of approximately 115 buildings in upper Manhattan, to the west and south of Columbia University’s campus. The district is almost entirely residential in character, with some institutional buildings, including Broadway Presbyterian Church, falling within its borders. (more…)

Morningside Park will be City’s tenth scenic landmark. On July 15, 2008, Landmarks voted to designate Morningside Park a scenic landmark, the first since 1983. Designed by Central Park architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the park consists primarily of a stone cliff between 110th and 123rd Streets, separating the neighborhoods of Morningside Heights and Harlem. Built between 1867 and 1895, the 30-acre park also features curvilinear walks, a buttressed stone retaining wall, a pond, and a waterfall. At an April 10, 2007 hearing, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe expressed strong support for designation. 4 CityLand60 (May 15, 2007).

Morningside Park has undergone some substantial alterations in its history, including a playground installation by Robert Moses in the 1940s. In the 1960s, Columbia University planned to build a gymnasium in the park, a plan that was ultimately quashed by student and community protests. Neglected throughout much of the 20th century, the Parks Department undertook a large restoration project in 1989. (more…)

If designated, the park would be the City’s first new scenic landmark in over 20 years. On April 10, 2007, Landmarks held a public hearing on the proposed designation of Morningside Park as a scenic landmark. If designated the park would be the City’s tenth scenic landmark and the first since 1983.

Resting on steep cliffs separating Morningside Heights from Harlem, the nearly 30-acre park is bound by West 110th and West 123rd Streets, Morningside Drive, and Manhattan and Morningside Avenues. Frederick Olmsted and Calvert Vaux designed the park in 1873, but Parks rejected their plan. In 1880, Jacob Wrey Mould reworked the Olmsted and Vaux plan, and construction finally began in 1883. When Mould died in 1886, Parks hired Olmsted and Vaux to finish the project. Several speakers at the hearing recalled Samuel Parsons Jr., Parks Superintendent when the project was completed, as writing “perhaps Morningside Park was the most consummate piece of art that [Vaux] ever created.” (more…)