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Community Resources
Washington Heights and Inwood
Boundaries
Washington Heights and Inwood are the two northernmost neighborhoods on Manhattan Island. Washington Heights is bounded to the south by 155th Street and to the north by Fairview Avenue and runs from the Harlem River on the east to the Hudson River on the west. Inwood is the northern tip of the island, everything lying north of Fairview Avenue. The two neighborhoods are often lumped together as one because administratively they make up Manhattan Community District 12.
Geography
Geographically, two major hills run the length of the community, one with a ridge along Fort Washington Avenue and Inwood Hill Park, the other with a ridge running along St. Nicholas Avenue to Dyckman Street. Each of the ridges rise over 200 feet, often quite dramatically, from the Harlem and Hudson Rivers. Running between these ridges is a more gently sloped valley, through the middle of which runs Broadway. Dyckman Strret is built over a major geological fault, which cuts through the westernmost ridge, separating Fort Tryon Park from Inwood Hill Park and terminating at the eastern St. Nicholas Avenue ridge.
Several large parks dominate the area. Fort Tryon Park and Inwood Hill Park run along the Hudson River while Highbridge park, runs along the Harlem River. Columbia University's athletic fields are located at the extreme northern end of the community. Parks occupy almost a third of the community, more than in any other community in the city.
History
Washington Heights and Inwood held great significance for Native Americans of the Lower Hudson Valley. As early as 6,500 years ago, hunters settled in the area, the ancestors of the Lenape people that would meet the first European arrivals of the 17th century. It is believed that three major camps were located in the areas.
The Lenape's major trail ran the length of Mahattan's hilly spine, connecting the island's southern tip with the woods and marshes in the north. This route provided the path for the first regional roads through the area, which the 19th century city incorporated into Broadway and other major avenues as it sprawled northward.
With its wooded slopes and prospect over the Hudson, Washington Heights held strategic importance in the Revolutionary War. Place names, historic markers and remnants of fortifications trace the history of the Battle of Harlem Heights and the retreat of the American forces under General George Washington.
In the 19th century, Washington Heights became the connecting point between the island and the Bronx, Westchester and the Hudson Valley, and later New Jersey, as the City built bridges and railroads along the Hudson and Harlem River shorelines.
Population
Largely populated by German jewish refugees in the 1930s and 1940s, but with large emigration by Jews, Greeks, and Germans in the 1960s, the neighborhood is now mostly populated by recent immigrants, largely from the Caribbean and Latin America. Although, the community is one of the most culturally diverse in the city, the neighborhood has one of the largest concentrations of Dominicans in the United States.
According to the 2000 Census, Washington Heights/Inwood had a population of 208,414 people, which represented an increase of 5.2% since the 1990 Census. The racial/ethnic breakdown is as follows: 74.1% Hispanic, 13.6% White (non-His-panic), 8.4% Black (non-Hispanic), 2.1% Asian/Pacific Islander.
Community Treasures
Washington Heights and Inwood are home to some of the most important remnants of the Colonial Period as well as museums.
Cloisters Museum
The Cloisters, a beautifilly ersatz monastery in Fort Tyron park, is home to the Metropolitan Museum's collection of medieval art. The museum's stone-walled promenade overlooking the Hudson and English-style garden make for a sweepingly romantic spot. Inside the museum, the central cloister, its pink marble arcades and fountain purchased from the impoverished French monastery of St. Michel de Culixa at the turn of the century, will trick you into believing that you're really in southwestern France.
Morris-Jumel Mansion
With its proud Georgian outlines faced with a later Federal portico, Morris-Jumel Mansion is one of the more successful house museums in New York City. Inside, the mansion's rooms reveal some of it's engaging history. Built as a rural retreat in 1765 by Colonel Roger Morris, the house became George Washington's headquarters in the Fall of 1776 during the battle of Harlem Heights before falling into the hands of the British. The house was later purchased and refurbished by a wealthy merchant, Stephen Jumel for his wife Eliza, formerly a prostitute and his mistress. On the top floor of the house is her obituary, a magnificently fictionalized account of a "scandalous" life.
Dyckman Farmhouse
Dyckman Farmhouse is the oldest farmhouse still standing in New York City. The foundations date from the 1600's. The current house was reconstructed in 1783 after the original structure was burned by the British in 1777.
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American Academy of Arts & Letters
| Morris-Jumel Mansion and
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Aquamarina
| Kismat
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Parks and Recreation | |
Armory Track & Field
| Highbridge Park
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Bravo Supermarket
| Modells Sporting Goods
99¢ Stores
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