The character and integrity of the architecture in Harlem, New York is a classic story of endurance, perseverance, and true neighborhood. Harlemites have endured many challenges to their community. After taking note of the house at 317 West 138th Street (architect Edwin R. Will) in my neighborhood, I felt there was a story that had not been told of a historical period from a significant past. From childhood, I recognized that Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant had the most impressive brownstones in New York City. I later discovered that the details of the pediments and motifs exhibited in these Harlem row houses were a silent history of a past livelihood.


A pediment is the triangular pyramid or roof of a house. The motifs are the decorative ornaments of the house construction. These pediments and motifs have become outdoor canvases that the architects have turned into a still life. One homeowner told me that his father has lived in their house since kerosene lighting lit the city's streets (321 West 136th Street). Another elderly woman said that she has lived in her house since she was ten days old. For 417 Convent Avenue, I was told that the same ribbon motif is carried throughout the house. They are a legacy to the stability of the neighborhood. They recall the biblical parable of building your house on a rock foundation, so that it will withstand all elements.


In 1984, Philip Johnson's introduced the post-Modernist style that redesigned the city's landscape, with his AT&T, Headquarters, now the Sony Building (Chippendale Pediment). Today little is remembered of the New York architects that came before him. Those American architects, such as, Henri Fouchaux, Alfred Zucker, Gronenberg & Leuchtag, William E. Mowbray, C.B. Johnson, Stanford White, and Vertner Tandy were a few of the ambitious artists who created impressive Harlem architecture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. That was when architectural design was important to the development of The City of New York. Those significant contributions deserves special attention in the creation and livability of Harlem's neighborhoods.


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