title: Donald O'Connor

text: Universal did not know what to do with their teen star turned young adult for one year. O'Connor was almost broke. A merger in 1946 had reorganized the studio as Universal-International. The studio paired O'Connor opposite their biggest female star, Deanna Durbin, in "Something in the Wind" (1947).


title: Donald O'Connor

text: He starred in "Are You with It?" (1948) with Olga San Juan, "Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin'" (1949) with Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride, and "Yes Sir, That's My Baby" (1949) with Gloria DeHaven.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: "I wasn't really a dancer, a good dancer, until I got older," he said later. "I could do those wings and stuff and I looked very good, but my heavens it was very, very hard for me to pick up on — pick up steps. It was just oh — so laborious for me. I didn't have a short cut like the other dancers do."


title: Donald O'Connor

text: In 1949, O'Connor played the lead role in "Francis", the story of a soldier befriended by a talking mule. Directed by Arthur Lubin, the film was a huge success. As a consequence, his musical career was constantly interrupted by production of one "Francis" film per year until 1955. O'Connor later said the films "were fun to make. Actually, they were quite challenging. I had to play straight in order to convince the audience that the mule could talk."


title: Donald O'Connor

text: O'Connor followed the first "Francis" with comedies: "Curtain Call at Cactus Creek" (1950), "The Milkman" (1950), and "Double Crossbones" (1951).


title: Donald O'Connor

text: He did "Francis Goes to the Races" (1951), another big hit. In February 1951 he signed a new contract with Universal for one film a year for four years, enabling him to work outside the studio.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: O'Connor received an offer to play Cosmo the piano player in "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Comedy or Musical. The film featured his widely known rendition of "Make 'Em Laugh", which he choreographed with help from the assistant dance directors and his brother.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: O'Connor said, "All hoofers, they dance from the waist down. And I had to learn to dance from the waist up. And then, I became what's known as a total dancer."


title: Donald O'Connor

text: He said he was forced to go to the hospital during the production of "Singin' in the Rain" due to injuries and exhaustion.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: "The scene was building to such a crescendo, I thought I'd actually have to kill myself," said O'Connor.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: He went back to Universal for "Francis Goes to West Point" (1952) then returned to MGM for "I Love Melvin" (1953) a musical with Debbie Reynolds.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: He began appearing regularly on television. One review in 1952 called him "1952's new star. Movie bred, he has the versatility of a Jimmy Durante and the effervescence of youth. He can dance, he can sing, he can act, and he can spout humor, but not yet with the finesse of a veteran."


title: Donald O'Connor

text: He supported Ethel Merman in "Call Me Madam" (1953) at 20th Century Fox, later saying the film contained his best dancing.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: After "Francis Covers the Big Town" (1953), Universal put O'Connor in a musical in colour, "Walking My Baby Back Home" (1953) with Janet Leigh.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: He did "Francis Joins the WACS" (1954) then played Tim Donahue in the 20th Century Fox all-star musical "There's No Business Like Show Business" (1954), which featured Irving Berlin's music and also starred with Ethel Merman, Marilyn Monroe (O'Connor's on screen love interest), Dan Dailey, Mitzi Gaynor and Johnnie Ray.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: He was meant to play Bing Crosby's partner in "White Christmas" (1954). O'Connor was unavailable because he contracted an illness transmitted by the mule and was replaced in the film by Danny Kaye.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: He starred in "The Donald O'Connor Show" (1954–55) for one season. O'Connor was a regular host of NBC's "Colgate Comedy Hour".


title: Donald O'Connor

text: O'Connor was reluctant to keep making "Francis" films but agreed to "Francis in the Navy" (1955). Arthur Lubin, who directed the series, later recalled that O'Connor "got very difficult" to work with after a while. "He'd sit in his dressing room and stare into space, and I think he had problems at home."


title: Donald O'Connor

text: "Francis in the Navy" was Donald O'Connor's last film for Universal after 13 years with the company. At a farewell luncheon, the studio executives presented him with a gift: a camera and 14 rolls of film. O'Connor was stunned at the insignificance of the gift after all the millions of dollars he had made for the studio, and in later life recalled, "What can I say about these people?"


title: Donald O'Connor

text: O'Connor and Bing Crosby united on "Anything Goes" (1956) at Paramount. That studio also released "The Buster Keaton Story" (1957), in which O'Connor had the title role.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: The Brussels Symphony Orchestra recorded some of his work, and in 1956 he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a performance of his first symphony, Reflections d'Un Comique.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: He hosted a color television special on NBC in 1957, one of the earliest color programs to be preserved on a color kinescope; an excerpt of the telecast was included in NBC's 50th anniversary special in 1976.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: In the late 1950s he began guest starring on shows like "Playhouse 90", "The DuPont Show of the Month", and "The Red Skelton Hour". But his focus moved increasingly to touring live shows.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: O'Connor teamed with Glenn Ford in "Cry for Happy" (1961) at Columbia and he played the title role in "The Wonders of Aladdin" (1961) for MGM.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: He subsequently focused on theatre work and his nightclub act, performing in Las Vegas. He returned to Universal for the first time in ten years to make the Sandra Dee comedy "That Funny Feeling" (1965).


title: Donald O'Connor

text: He did episodes of "Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre", "Vacation Playhouse", "ABC Stage 67" and "The Jackie Gleason Show". He also appeared in several productions of "Little Me".


title: Donald O'Connor

text: In 1968, O'Connor hosted a syndicated talk show also called "The Donald O'Connor Show." The program was cancelled due to the dancer becoming "too political," and O'Connor was reprimanded by the studio.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: He began to use nitroglycerin pills before performances so that he would have the stamina to complete them. He then suffered a heart attack in 1971, leading him to quit taking the medication.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: He was in a TV production of "Li'l Abner" (1971) and continued to perform on stage, notably in Las Vegas.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: He guest-starred on episodes of "The Girl with Something Extra", "Ellery Queen", "The Bionic Woman", "Police Story", and "Hunter".


title: Donald O'Connor

text: O'Connor claimed to have overcome his depression after being hospitalized for three months after collapsing in 1978. He wrote letters to his friends and family explaining that his life had "completely changed". The dancer was paralyzed from the waist down, but recovered by way of physical therapy. The letters detail the lives of other patients, particularly a 30-year-old man who was completely immobilized.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: His career had a boost when he hosted the Academy Awards, which earned him two Primetime Emmy nominations.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: He appeared as a gaslight-era entertainer in the 1981 film "Ragtime", notable for similar encore performances by James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. It was his first feature film role in 16 years.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: O'Connor appeared in the short-lived "Bring Back Birdie" on Broadway in 1981. The following year he was in "I Ought to Be in Pictures" in Los Angeles.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: He was Cap'n Andy in a short-lived Broadway revival of "Show Boat" (1983) and continued to tour in various shows and acts.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: "I've been on the road forever," he said in 1985, adding "I'd consider another movie or a TV series, but I won't play an old man. Art Carney is about my age and he's making a career out of being old. I'm still singing and dancing. I'm not ready to be old."


title: Donald O'Connor

text: O'Connor guest starred on "The Littlest Hobo", "Fantasy Island", "Simon & Simon", "Hotel", "Alice in Wonderland", "The Love Boat", and "Highway to Heaven", and was in the films "Pandemonium" (1982), "A Mouse, a Mystery and Me" (1988), and "A Time to Remember" (1988).


title: Donald O'Connor

text: He bought a theatre, the Donald O'Connor Theatre, and would perform in it with his children. In a 1989 interview he said "There's an element out there that wants to be entertained-and they can't find this kind of thing I do. And yeah, I think I wear well. I sing, I dance, I do comedy. I'm not threatening. When you grow up in a circus family, the more things you learn, the more you get paid. So I can do straight comedy without the song and dance; I can do all kinds of combinations. Whatever's in at the time, I can fit into."


title: Donald O'Connor

text: O'Connor continued to make film and television appearances into the 1990s, including the Robin Williams film "Toys" (1992) as the president of a toy-making company. He continued to perform live.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: He had guest roles in "Murder, She Wrote", "Tales from the Crypt", "The Building", "The Nanny" and "Frasier", and was in the films "" (1994), and "Father Frost" (1996).


title: Donald O'Connor

text: In 1992 he said, "I never wanted to be a superstar. I'm working on being a quasar, because stars wear out. Quasars go on forever... I look for the parts where I die and they talk about me for the rest of the movie."


title: Donald O'Connor

text: O'Connor's last feature film was the Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau comedy "Out to Sea", in which he played a dance host on a cruise ship. O'Connor was still making public appearances well into 2003. He said he went on the road "about 32 weeks a year. I do my concert work and I do night clubs and that kind of stuff. So I don't dance much any more, but I do enough to show people I can still move my legs."


title: Donald O'Connor

text: The most distinctive characteristic of O'Connor's dancing style was its athleticism, for which he had few rivals. Yet it was his boyish charm that audiences found most engaging, and which remained an appealing aspect of his personality throughout his career. In his early Universal films, O'Connor closely mimicked the smart alec, fast-talking personality of Mickey Rooney of rival MGM Studio. For "Singin' in the Rain", however, MGM cultivated a much more sympathetic sidekick persona, and that remained O'Connor's signature image.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: O'Connor was married twice and had four children. His first marriage was in 1944 to Gwendolyn Carter, when he was 18 and she was 20. They married in Tijuana. Together they had one child, a daughter Donna. The couple divorced in 1954. During the turbulent nine-year marriage, Carter physically abused O'Connor in frustration over her lack of an acting career. In the divorce Carter was given ownership of their home and custody of their daughter. According to reports at the time the couple split, O'Connor was left with only the dog and sought the help of multiple psychiatrists. Carter remarried in 1955 to actor Dan Dailey. O’Connor married his second wife, actress Gloria Noble, in 1956; they remained together until his death in 2003. They had three children, son Donald Frederick, daughter Alicia, and son Kevin. Noble died in 2013.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: Donald was honored with a retrospective at New York's Lincoln Center and an honorary degree from Boston University. He chose to keep much of his philanthropy work private. Some of it includes work for the United States Army and Red Cross. He created the Donald O'Connor Alcoholism Counseling Scholarship.


title: Donald O'Connor

text: O'Connor had undergone quadruple heart bypass surgery in 1990, and he nearly died from pleural pneumonia in January 1999. He died from complications of heart failure on September 27, 2003, at age 78 at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital, in Woodland Hills, California. His remains were cremated. His belongings were auctioned off and all proceeds were given to charity.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: Hessians ( or ) were German soldiers who served as auxiliaries to the British Army during the American Revolutionary War. The term is an American synecdoche for all Germans who fought on the British side, since 65% came from the German states of Hesse-Kassel and Hesse-Hanau. Known for their discipline and martial prowess, around 30,000 Germans fought for the British during the war, comprising a quarter of British land forces.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: While regarded, both contemporaneously and historiographically, as mercenaries, Hessians were legally distinguished as auxiliaries: whereas mercenaries served a foreign government of their own accord, auxiliaries were soldiers hired out to a foreign party by their own government, to which they remained in service. Auxiliaries were a major source of income for many small and relatively poor German states, typically serving in wars in which their governments were neutral. Like most auxiliaries of this period, Hessians served with foreign armies as entire units, fighting under their own flags, commanded by their usual officers, and wearing their existing uniforms.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: Hessians played a key role in the Revolutionary War, particularly in the northern theater. They served with distinction in many battles, most notably at White Plains and Fort Washington. The added manpower and skill of German troops greatly sustained the British war effort, though it also outraged colonists and increased support for the Revolutionary cause. The use of "large armies of foreign mercenaries" was one of the 27 colonial grievances against King George III in the United States Declaration of Independence, while the Patriots used the deployment of Hessians to support their claims of British violations of the colonists' rights.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: The use of foreign soldiers was not unusual in 18th-century Europe. In the two centuries leading up to the American Revolution, the continent was characterized by constant warfare, and military manpower was in high demand. Germany was not yet a unified nation, but a collection of several hundred states loosely organized under the Holy Roman Empire. Conflict between and among these states led to the creation of professional armies, which were consequently experienced and well trained. Many German societies became militarized, with most men undergoing annual training from adolescence well into adulthood, often serving for life or until they were too old. German states varied considerably in size and wealth, and several came to rely on their troops as an economic resource, especially since sustaining a standing army was costly.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: When military conflict broke out, as it often did in Europe, German states provided a ready supply of trained troops prepared to go into action immediately. Hesse-Kassel soon emerged as the most prominent source of soldiers. To field a large professional army with a relatively small population, it became the most militarized state in Europe: 5.2 to 6.7% of its population was under arms in the 18th century—with one in four households having someone serving in the army—a larger proportion than even heavily-militarized Prussia. Whereas Prussia relied partly on mercenaries from other German states, Hesse-Kassel employed only "Landeskinder," native men. The military was the dominant force in the country. All Hessian males were registered for military service at the age of seven, and from the age of 16 until 30, had to annually present themselves to an official for possible recruitment. Only those whose occupation was considered vital to the country could be exempt. Those deemed "expendable", such as vagrants and the unemployed, could be conscripted at any time.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: Hessian military service was notably strict and demanding, emphasizing iron discipline through draconian punishment. However, morale was generally high, and soldiers were said to take pride in their service. Officers were usually well-educated, and in contrast to most European armies, promoted on the basis of merit. Soldiers were paid relatively high wages, and their families were exempt from certain taxes. Although plunder was officially forbidden, it remained common practice (as in most military forces at the time), offering another incentive for service. Overall, Hessian troops were considered superb fighters, even by their opponents.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: The Hessian military became a major source of economic strength. Hesse-Kassel manufactured its own weapons and uniforms, and its textile industry was so prosperous from supplying the military that workers could afford to buy meat and wine every day. The revenue from renting the army to the British equaled roughly 13 years' worth of taxes, allowing the "Landgrave" of Hesse-Kassel, Friedrich II, to reduce taxes by one-third between the 1760s and 1784. A self-styled enlightened despot, he also oversaw public-works projects, administered a public welfare system, and encouraged education. American historian Edward Jackson Lowell lauded Friedrich II for spending British money wisely, describing him as "one of the least disreputable of the princes who sent mercenaries to America".


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: Well before the American Revolutionary War, Hessian soldiers were familiar in battlefields across 18th-century Europe.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: In most of these wars, Hesse-Hanau was never formally a belligerent. While its troops remained members of the Hessian military, and even fought in their national uniform, they were hired out for service in other armies, without their government having any stake in the conflict. Thus, Hessians could serve on opposing sides of the same conflict. In the War of the Austrian Succession, both Britain and Bavaria employed Hessian soldiers against one another; in the Seven Years' War, the forces of Hesse-Kassel served with both the Anglo-Hanoverian and the Prussian armies against the French; although Hesse-Kassel was technically allied to Britain and Prussia, her troops were actually leased by the British.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: Nevertheless, the practice of lending out auxiliaries did sometimes result in direct consequences. In July 1758, during the course of the Seven Years' War, most of Hesse-Kassel, including its capital, was occupied by a French army under Charles de Rohan, Prince of Soubise, which easily overcame the home defence force of 6,000 Hessian militiamen. Soubise ordered his troops to live off the land, take high-ranking hostages, and extort payments of cash and produce, with the intention of forcing Hessian troops to withdraw from the war. Hessian and allied forces attempted to liberate their homeland, but were repulsed at the Battle of Sandershausen on 23 July. Following two sieges of Cassel, in 1761 and 1762, the capital was retaken, which constituted the last military action of the war.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: The characterization of Hessian troops as "mercenaries" remains controversial over two centuries later. American history textbooks refer to them as "mercenaries", and they are still widely perceived as such in the popular imagination of the United States. American historian Charles Ingrao describes Hesse as a "mercenary state" whose prince rented out his regiments to fund his governmental expenditures. By contrast, British historian Stephen Conway referred to them as "auxiliaries". Military historians Dennis Showalter and Rodney Atwood note that Hessians would not have been legally considered mercenaries at the time, but rather auxiliaries. Whereas mercenaries served a foreign ruler in an individual capacity, auxiliaries forces were controlled by a state, and their foreign service was in direct competition to professional mercenaries. (Similarly, in the twentieth century, the Moroccan Goumiers were attached as auxiliaries to the French Army of Africa.)


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: Hessians would not be categorized as mercenaries under modern international law. Protocol I (1977) to the Geneva Convention defines a mercenary as "any person who ... has not been sent by a State which is not a Party to the conflict on official duty as a member of its armed forces." Hessian troops served in America on official duty from the armed forces of Hesse-Cassel and Hesse-Hanau. Protocol I also requires a mercenary to be "promised, by or on behalf of a Party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that promised or paid to combatants of similar ranks and functions in the armed forces of that Party." While not formally incorporated into the British military, Hessian troops were paid the same wages as British soldiers.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: Great Britain maintained a relatively small standing army, so it found itself in great need of troops at the outset of the American Revolutionary War. Several German princes saw an opportunity to earn extra income by hiring out their regular army units for service in America. Their troops entered the British service not as individuals, but in entire units, with their usual uniforms, flags, equipment, and officers. Methods of recruitment varied according to the state of origin. The contingent from Waldeck was drawn from an army based on universal conscription, from which only students were exempt. Other German princes relied on long-service voluntary enlistment supplemented by conscription when numbers fell short. Many princes were closely related to the British House of Hanover and were comfortable placing their troops under British command.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: A total of 29,875 German troops fought alongside British troops in the Revolutionary War, of which 16,992 came from Hesse-Kassel and 2,422 from Hesse-Hanau. Other contingents came from Brunswick (4,300), Ansbach-Bayreuth (2,353), Anhalt-Zerbst (1,119), and Waldeck (1,225). As the majority of the German troops came from Hesse, Americans use the term "Hessians" to refer to all German troops fighting on the British side.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: Hessian troops included "Jägers", hussars, three artillery companies, and four battalions of grenadiers. Most infantrymen were "chasseurs" (sharpshooters), musketeers, and fusiliers. Line infantry was armed with muskets, while the Hessian artillery used the three-pound cannon. The elite "Jäger" battalions used the "Büchse", a short, large-caliber rifle well-suited to woodland combat. Initially, the typical regiment was made up of 500 to 600 men. Later in the war, due to death in battle, death by disease, and general desertion to settle in the Colonies, the regiments may have been reduced to only around 300 to 400 men.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: The first Hessian troops to arrive in North America landed at Staten Island, New York on August 15, 1776. Their first engagement was less than two weeks later, in the Battle of Long Island, the first major battle in the war. Hessians proved decisive to the British victory, and subsequently fought in almost every battle that year.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: By 1777, the British used them mainly as garrison and patrol troops. Hessians fought at the Battle of Bennington, the turning point of the Saratoga campaign. Around 1,000 Hessians were defeated, killed, and captured by a raw, untrained militia force from Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. General John Burgoyne lost 1,000 of his 8,000 soldiers at Bennington, and the loss of so many Hessians doomed his army later. An assortment of Hessians fought in the battles and campaigns in the southern states during 1778–1780 (including Guilford Court House), and two regiments fought at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781. Hessians also served in Nova Scotia for five years (1778–1783), where they protected the colony from American privateers, such as during the 1782 Raid on Lunenburg.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: Notwithstanding their reputation as skilled and disciplined fighters, many British soldiers shared the American distrust of Hessians, who often spoke little or no English and were perceived as crude and barbaric.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: Hessians, for their part, spoke out against executions of captured prisoners of war after the Battle of Long Island, especially since many were of German descent; one Hessian is quoted as saying, "many among them were Germans, and that cut me doubly to the heart". One American woman spoke to the Hessians of her reappraisal of them after the battle, as they refused to take part in any plundering: "she saw very plainly there was no truth in what people


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: Americans, both Revolutionaries and Loyalists, often feared the Hessians, believing them to be rapacious and brutal mercenaries. The American Declaration of Independence, written roughly a year after hostilities broke out, condemned King George III of "transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to [complete] the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation." Throughout the war, reports of plundering by Hessians were said to have galvanized neutral colonists to join the Revolutionary side.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: General Washington's Continental Army had crossed the Delaware River to make a surprise attack on the Hessians in the early morning of December 26, 1776. In the Battle of Trenton, the Hessian force of 1,400 was quickly overwhelmed by the Continentals, with only about 20 killed and 100 wounded, but 1,000 captured.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: The Hessians captured in the Battle of Trenton were paraded through the streets of Philadelphia to raise American morale; anger at their presence helped the Continental Army recruit new soldiers. Most of the prisoners were sent to work as farmhands.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: By early 1778, negotiations for the exchange of prisoners between Washington and the British had begun in earnest. These included Nicholas Bahner(t), Jacob Trobe, George Geisler, and Conrad Grein (Konrad Krain), who were a few of the Hessian soldiers who deserted the British forces after being returned in exchange for American prisoners of war. These men were both hunted by the British for being deserters and by many of the colonists as a foreign enemy.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: Throughout the war, Americans tried to entice Hessians to desert the British, emphasizing the large and prosperous German-American community. The U.S. Congress authorized the offer of land of up to 50 acres (roughly 20 hectares) to individual Hessian soldiers who switched sides. British soldiers were offered 50 to 800 acres, depending on rank.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: Many Hessian prisoners were held in camps at the interior city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, home to a large German community known as the Pennsylvania Dutch. German prisoners were subsequently treated well, with some volunteering for extra work assignments, helping to replace local men serving in the Continental Army. After the war, many POWs never returned to Germany and instead accepted American offers of religious freedom and free land, becoming permanent settlers – one of which was the fifth great grandfather of American actor Rob Lowe. By contrast, British prisoners were also held in Lancaster, but these men did not respond favorably to good treatment and often tried to escape.


title: Hessian (soldier)

text: After the war ended in 1783, some 17,313 German soldiers returned to their homelands. Of the 12,526 who did not return, about 7,700 had died; some 1,200 were killed in action, and 6,354 died from illnesses or accidents, mostly the former. About 5,000 German troops, most of whom had been press-ganged or conscripted in their countries of origin, opted to settle in either the United States or Canada.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights is a neighborhood in the uppermost part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest natural point on Manhattan by Continental Army troops to defend the area from the British forces during the American Revolutionary War. Washington Heights is bordered by Inwood to the north along Dyckman Street, by Harlem to the south along 155th Street, by the Harlem River and Coogan's Bluff to the east, and by the Hudson River to the west.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights, which before the 20th century was sparsely populated by luxurious mansions and single-family homes, rapidly developed during the early 1900s as it became connected to the rest of Manhattan via the A, C, and 1 subway lines. Beginning as a middle-class neighborhood with many Irish and Eastern European immigrants, the neighborhood has at various points been home to communities of German Jews, Greek Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and Russian Americans.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, many White residents left the neighborhood for nearby suburbs as the Black and Latino populations increased. Dominican Americans became the dominant group by the 1980s despite facing economic difficulties, leading the neighborhood to its status in the 21st century as the most prominent Dominican community in the United States. While crime became a serious issue during the crack cocaine crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, in the 2000s Washington Heights became a much safer community and began to experience some upward mobility as well as gentrification.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights is set apart among Manhattan neighborhoods for its high residential density despite the lack of modern construction, with the majority of its few high-rise buildings belonging to the NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. Other higher education institutions include Yeshiva University and Boricua College. The neighborhood has generous access to green space in Fort Washington Park, Highbridge Park, and Fort Tryon Park, home to the historical landmarks the Little Red Lighthouse, the High Bridge Water Tower, and the Cloisters respectively. Other points of interest include Audubon Terrace, the Morris–Jumel Mansion, the United Palace, the Audubon Ballroom, and the Fort Washington Avenue Armory.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights is part of Manhattan Community District 12, and its primary ZIP Codes are 10032, 10033, and 10040. It is served by the 33rd and 34th Precincts of the New York City Police Department and Engine Companies 67, 84, and 93 of the New York City Fire Department. Politically, it is part of the New York City Council's 7th and 10th districts.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the area was traversed by American Indians from the Early Woodland Period, who left remains of shellfish and pottery at the site of the present-day Little Red Lighthouse. Washington Heights is part of the section of northern Manhattan that was settled by the Wecquaesgeeks (originally a name for the area meaning "birch-bark country"), a band of the Wappinger and a Lenape Native American people. The winding path of Broadway north of 168th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue to its south is living evidence of the old Wecquaesgeek trail which travelled along the Hudson Valley from Lower Manhattan all the way through Albany. On the plateau west of Broadway between 175th and 181st streets, the residents had been cultivating crops in a field known to Dutch colonists as the "Great Maize Field."


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Arriving in 1623, the Dutch initially worked as trade partners with the American Indians but became more and more hostile as time went on, with the natives frequently reciprocating. The Dutch referred to the elevated area of northwestern Washington Heights as "Long Hill," while the Fort Tryon Park area specifically carried the name "Forest Hill." None of the land was under private ownership until 1712, when it was parcelled out in lots to various landowners from the village of Harlem to the south. Even after repeated attempts by the Dutch to drive them out, including the bloody Kieft's War (1643–1645), some Wecquaesgeeks managed to maintain residence in Washington Heights up until the Dutch paid them a settlement for their last land claims in 1715. For the greater part of the next two centuries, Washington Heights would remain a home to wealthy landowners seeking a quiet location for their suburban estates.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: During the New York Campaign of the Revolutionary War, General George Washington's Continental Army secured a small but much-needed victory over the pursuing British Army at the Battle of Harlem Heights, after a series of defeats in Manhattan. Not long after their victory, the Continental Army suffered one of its worst defeats at the Battle of Fort Washington, in which nearly 2,900 troops were captured. Fort Washington was a group of fortifications on the high points of Washington Heights, with its central site at present-day Bennett Park (known then as Mount Washington) built a few months prior opposite Fort Lee, New Jersey to protect the Hudson River from enemy ships.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Under British control, the position was renamed Fort Knyphausen for the Hessian general Wilhelm von Knyphausen, who played a major part in the victory; its lesser fortification at present-day Fort Tryon Park was renamed for Sir William Tryon, the last governor of New York before it was taken back by the Continental Army. The park holds a plaque dedicated in 1909 to Margaret Corbin, an American who took over at her husband's cannon after his death in the Battle of Fort Washington; she was also honored with the naming of Margaret Corbin Drive in 1977.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: At the northwest corner of 181st Street and Broadway (then Kingsbridge Road) was the Blue Bell Tavern, built in the early-mid 18th century as an inn and site of social gatherings. When New York's Provincial Congress assented to the Declaration of Independence on July 9, 1776, the head of the statue of George III ended up on a spike at the Blue Bell Tavern, broken off by a "rowdy" group of civilians and soldiers at Bowling Green.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Years later, during the British evacuation of New York in 1783, George Washington and his staff stood in front of the tavern as they watched the American troops march southward to retake the city. After changing ownership several times, the tavern moved to a new building in 1885, following the original structure's destruction for the widening of Broadway. In 1915, the tavern was demolished again to build the 3,500-seat Coliseum Theatre, which was demolished in 2021 after denial of its landmark status.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Before the apartment development of the 20th century, many wealthy citizens built grand mansions in Washington Heights. The most famous landowner in the southwest part of the neighborhood was ornithologist John James Audubon, whose estate encompassed the 20 acres from 155th to 158th Street west of Broadway. A mystery surrounds his family home by Riverside Drive, which was deconstructed and moved to a city lot to make room for new development in 1931, only for its remnants to vanish without a trace.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: On the eastern side, by Edgecombe Avenue between 160th and 162nd streets, the Morris–Jumel Mansion has been successfully preserved to this day. The land of the estate had been owned by Jan Kiersen and her son-in-law Jacob Dyckman before it was bought by British colonel Roger Morris in 1765 and completed the same year. In 1776, the house was commandeered as a headquarters by George Washington, and after changing hands a few times was purchased by Stephen and Eliza Jumel in 1810. In 1903, the City bought the mansion and it became a museum, the oldest surviving house in Manhattan.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: With a picturesque view of the Palisades, the elevated ridge of northwest Washington Heights became the site of a few modern castles. The first of these was Libbey Castle, built by Augustus Richards after he purchased the land from Lucius Chittenden in 1855. Located near Margaret Corbin Circle, this estate was once owned by William "Boss" Tweed but got its current name from William Libbey, who purchased it in 1880. Even more extravagant, Paterno Castle was situated on the estate of real estate developer Charles Paterno by the Hudson River at 181st Street. Built in 1907, the mansion was demolished thirty years later for Paterno's Castle Village complex, where pieces of the original structure still remain.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The neighborhood's largest estate was the property of industrial tycoon C. K. G. Billings, taking up 25 acres in the southern part of Fort Tryon Park. Although the Louis XIV-style mansion at present-day Linden Terrace burned to the ground in 1925, Billings Terrace remains, supported by the elegant stone archway that originally lead to the Billings mansion.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Initial residential development in Washington Heights began in the late 19th century with the construction of row and wood-frame houses in the southern portion of the neighborhood, particularly near Amsterdam Avenue. In 1886, the Third Avenue Railway was extended from 125th Street to 155th Street along Amsterdam Avenue. However, higher residential density would not be supported until the extension of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT)'s first subway line (now part of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line). The IRT built the 157th Street, 168th Street, 181st Street, and Dyckman Street stations between 1904 and 1906 (the 191st Street station opened as an infill station in 1911).


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Although skyrocketing land values sparked early predictions that upper-class apartment buildings would dominate the neighborhood, such development was limited in the pre-World War I period to the Audubon Park area west of Broadway and south of 158th Street. Buildings such as the 13-story Riviera included elaborate decor and generous amenities to attract higher-paying tenants.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The southern and eastern parts of Washington Heights experienced a construction boom in the years leading up to World War I. The downtown access provided by the IRT prompted a rapid increase in density through the proliferation of five- and six-story New Law Tenements, the vast majority of which remain. Many of the new residents came from crowded immigrant neighborhoods such as the Lower East Side, which saw its density halved between 1910 and 1930. As a result of the development of new housing, the total population of Manhattan north of 155th Street grew from just 8,000 in 1900 to 110,000 by 1920. The incoming residents of Washington Heights were a diverse group of people of European descent. In 1920, nearly half were Protestant, most of whom had parents born in the United States; the remainder was split between Jews and Catholics, typically immigrants or born to immigrant parents.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The next wave of urbanization for Washington Heights came in the 1920s, coinciding with the construction boom occurring across the city. The population increased significantly in the central area west of Broadway, and drastically in the area north of 181st Street, populating the last of the undeveloped areas just south and west of Fort Tryon Park. Transit for new residents was improved with the construction of the Independent Subway System (IND)'s Eighth Avenue Line in 1932, with stops at 175th Street, 181st Street, and 190th Street along Fort Washington Avenue.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Meanwhile, the demographics of the neighborhood were undergoing significant change. While the Protestant population remained stagnant, first- and second-generation Irish and Eastern European Jews continued to move in. By 1930, nearly a quarter of Manhattan's Jewish residents lived north of 155th Street. The neighborhood also saw an influx of German Jews escaping Nazism in the 1930s and 1940s, a history documented by Steven M. Lowenstein's book "Frankfurt-on-the-Hudson" (a nickname referencing the origin city of many in the diaspora). One attractive aspect of Washington Heights for German Jews was likely its Eastern European Jewish presence, but an economic pull was its abundance of housing stock from the 1920s construction boom. Although rents were higher than average, many landlords offered some free rent to draw new tenants, and apartments were nonetheless spacious for their cost.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: In the first half of the 20th century, tensions broke out between Catholics and Jews, who were not very segregated residentially but remained in separate social spheres. Around the start of World War II Irish groups such as the Christian Front arose, drawing large crowds to their antisemitic rallies, coupled with the vandalism of synagogues and beating of Jewish youth by Irish youth in gangs such as the Amsterdams. After continual charges of police negligence, a committee was created to combat the violence and many members of the Irish gangs were arrested. By 1944, the local Catholic Clergy were pressured to speak out against the prejudice, and Jews, Catholics, and Protestants began working together on solutions to ease the tensions.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Around this time, Washington Heights also gained its first substantial population of Black residents, by 1943 numbering around 3,000 and concentrated mainly in the southeastern part of the neighborhood. The Black population of Washington Heights was dwarfed, however, by that of Hamilton Heights, where White residents were 63% of the population in 1943. It was in this period that the popular boundary of Washington Heights shifted from 135th Street to 155th Street, as many residents of European descent refused to include African Americans in their conception of the neighborhood. This attitude was expressed in a phrase heard in the time period: "Washington Heights begins where Harlem ends." In fact, many of the neighborhood's new Jewish arrivals had left from Harlem as it became increasingly populated by Black people from the South during the Great Migration.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Despite the growth of the Black population, racial segregation remained very rigid. While in the vast majority of blocks less than 2% of housing units were occupied by non-White residents, nearly every block east of Amsterdam Avenue and south of 165th Street was over 90% non-White by 1950.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The process underlying this segregation is exemplified in the history of one of Washington Heights’ most famous apartment buildings: 555 Edgecombe Avenue. Built in 1914, the fourteen-story building rented to various relatively affluent White people until 1939, when the owner cancelled all the tenants’ leases and began renting exclusively to Black people. While organizations like the Neighborhood Protective Association of Washington Heights had kept the neighborhood virtually all-White throughout much of the 20th century, the overcrowded conditions of Harlem led to growth in demand for apartments outside the neighborhood.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Throughout the 1940s, the building had a number of notable Black residents, such as Paul Robeson, Kenneth Clark, and Count Basie. The presence of middle-class Black people in 555 Edgecombe and other higher-class buildings in southeast Washington Heights led many to associate it with Sugar Hill, the Harlem sub-neighborhood spanning between Edgecombe Avenue and Amsterdam Avenue to its south.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: In addition to segregation, racism also manifested itself in gang culture, where youth often defined themselves by race or ethnicity and violently defended their respective territories. These tensions were brought to a climax in 1957, with the assault of two teenagers of European ancestry, Michael Farmer and Roger McShane, members of the majority-Irish "Jesters" gang. The incident took place in the Highbridge Pool, a Works Progress Administration-funded pool built in 1936 which had no racial restrictions but was nonetheless an environment of racial hostility in the changing landscape of the neighborhood.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The assault, which ended in Michael Farmer's death, was perpetrated by an alliance of the African American Egyptian Kings and the Puerto Rican Dragons, both based in West Harlem just south of the Heights. The supposed motive for the attack was to counter the perception that Highbridge Pool was "owned" by the Jesters, and Black and Latino youths were often called racial slurs and chased away from the surrounding blocks. As Eric Schneider analyzes in "Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings: Youth Gangs in Postwar New York," the incident illustrated the effects of the neighborhood's demographic shift: the Jesters defined themselves as fighting against Black and Latino occupancy of the neighborhood even as they included newly arrived Black people in their ranks (similar diversity was seen in the membership of the Dragons and Egyptian Kings).


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: While the signs were slowly appearing for the first half of the century that Washington Heights would not forever be a neighborhood of European Americans, in the 1960s and 1970s the demographic shifts had entered in full force. Washington Heights’ upwardly mobile White residents began to leave in great numbers, while the lower-income Latino population saw great increases. Apart from the allure of suburban homes and their economic capacity to buy them, White residents were spurred to leave by the demographic changes themselves, increasing negligence of residential buildings, and rising crime (having more than doubled between 1969 and 1982). Compared to the White flight occurring in other neighborhoods such as the West Bronx, the process was much slower and less destructive as few buildings were outright abandoned or burned.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: While Puerto Ricans had been the dominant Latino group in the 1950s, by 1965 Cubans and Dominicans had overtaken them in number, and by 1970 native Spanish speakers were the majority group in central-eastern census tracts. Despite being a smaller group, Cuban immigrants in the Heights had an outsized role in business, according to a 1976 estimate owning the majority of Latino-owned stores. The neighborhood's Black population also increased, by 1980 numbering over 25,000 and residing in all areas of the neighborhood while remaining a plurality in the southeastern section.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: While the overall trend was of exodus among White residents, the rate of this trend varied among different groups. One of the most pronounced changes occurred with Greek immigrants, who had reached their peak in the 1950s with the establishment of St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church and an accompanying school, only to see that in two decades nearly all of the congregation had left for the suburbs. On the other hand, the German Jewish exodus was characterized by a decrease in overall population but an increasing presence in the neighborhood's northwestern corner. By the 1970s, evidence of the exodus of the broader Jewish community was present in the changing landscape of the neighborhood, where kosher stores and Jewish bakeries were gradually replaced by new small businesses with signs in Spanish.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: While some Dominican immigrants had been arriving in Washington Heights throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the pace increased drastically during the regime of Joaquín Balaguer, who took power in 1966 following the Dominican Civil War. The combination of the recent passing of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Balaguer's policy of freely granting passports, and the country's high unemployment rate created the conditions for growing emigration from the Dominican Republic. Some of the initial migrants were left-wing revolutionaries exiled by the Balaguer regime, theorized to have been granted visas through an unwritten agreement with the United States, but the majority of arrivals came for better economic opportunities.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: In "Quisqueya on the Hudson: The Transnational Identity of Dominicans in Washington Heights," Jorge Duany describes how Washington Heights developed as a "transnational community," continually defined by its connection to the Dominican Republic. The majority of Dominican immigrants viewed their stay in the United States as purely economically motivated while they remained culturally attached to the D.R.; many also sent remittances home, imagining an eventual retirement to the island.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: During the 1970s, Washington Heights' School District 6 (including Inwood and Hamilton Heights) was the scene of numerous conflicts over de facto racial segregation and unequal resource distribution within the district's schools. The School Decentralization Act, passed by the New York State Legislature in 1969, set up elected boards for New York City's school districts with limited hiring power and control over Title I funds. At the time, District 6's demographics were rapidly changing due to White students' withdrawal from the public school system and the broader trend of White flight, while the Black and Latino student population rapidly increased.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: This resulted in a stark gap between the district's few racially integrated schools, which enjoyed better academic reputations and access to resources, and the remainder of schools with very few White students and serious overcrowding problems. Fierce competition between different factions for educational funding and new schools was compounded by the disproportionate representation of the majority-White northwestern Heights on the board, creating an environment in which public meetings were plagued by incivility and at times even violence.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: George Washington High School, located on 193rd Street and Audubon Avenue near Highbridge Park, faced numerous issues representative of the changes and conflicts of the neighborhood's public schools, which intersected in 1970 to produce a situation of extreme chaos. Located in a grand building with a Works Progress Administration mural by Lucienne Bloch, the school was relatively prestigious in the decades after its 1925 founding, graduating people such as Alan Greenspan, Henry Kissinger, and Murray Jarvik. Although George Washington remained racially mixed through the early 1970s, the school had a tracking system that saw White students leave the school better prepared for college, and violence frequently broke out among gangs identifying by race.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Discontent with academics and school policy led to a wave of student demonstrations, supported by a group of parents who pushed to set up an information table in the school's lobby in order to answer questions and hear complaints regarding the school. However, the United Federation of Teachers – which had also clashed with students and parents over the 1964 school boycott and the 1968 teachers' strike – perceived this as an attempt to subvert teachers' authority, leading them to start a local strike after the administration reached a compromise with parents over the table.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: By the end of 1970, the high school had seen the resignation of three principals and multiple incidents of violence against students, teachers, and security guards; while many safety improvements were made throughout the 1970s, its academic performance continued to decline. In 1999, the school took its present form as the George Washington Educational Campus composed of four smaller schools.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: For the remainder of the 20th century the Dominican community of Washington Heights continued to increase considerably, most notably during the mid to late 1980s, when over 40,000 Dominicans settled in Washington Heights, Hamilton Heights, and Inwood. Around the year 2000, the Dominican community reached its peak and became a slim majority of Washington Heights and Inwood, propelling the neighborhoods' combined population to 208,000, the highest level since 1950.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Even as they arrived in great numbers, Dominicans who came to the neighborhood faced a difficult economic situation, with many of the manufacturing jobs they disproportionately occupied having disappeared throughout the 1970s and 1980s. This was clear by 1990, when the proportion of Dominican New Yorkers living in households below the poverty line was 36%, more than double the citywide rate. In addition to service work, many residents found local jobs in the small-scale garment sector and factory work in New Jersey.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: During the late 20th century, other immigrant groups began to make their home in the neighborhood as well. In the late 1970s and early 1980s a moderate influx of Soviet Jews occurred following a loosening of the country's emigration policy, predominantly professionals and artists pushed out by antisemitism and drawn by economic opportunity. The makeup of the neighborhood's Latino population also began to diversify beyond an exclusively Caribbean background, most prominently through the arrival of Mexicans and Ecuadorians, who together numbered over 6,000 by 2000 and over 10,000 a decade later.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Smaller communities of Central Americans, Colombians, and Chinese immigrants had also developed. The neighborhood's African American population began to decrease from its height in the 1970s, by 2000 making up less than one-tenth of the neighborhood. In the present day Washington Heights also has an Orthodox Jewish community served by numerous synagogues, many of which have noticed more young Jewish families move into the neighborhood during the 2000s.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: In the 1980s and early 1990s, Washington Heights was severely affected by the crack cocaine epidemic, as was the rest of New York City. Washington Heights had become one of the largest drug distribution centers in the Northeastern United States, bringing a negative reputation to Dominican Americans as a group. Then-U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani and Senator Alphonse D'Amato chose the corner of 160th Street and Broadway for their widely publicized undercover crack purchase, and in 1989, "The New York Times" called the neighborhood "the crack capital of America." By 1990, crack's impact on crime was evident: 103 murders were committed in the 34th Precinct that year, along with 1,130 felony assaults, 1,919 robberies, and 2,647 burglaries.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The causes behind the severity of the crisis for Washington Heights, however, were more intricate. One was the neighborhood's location: the George Washington Bridge and its numerous highway connections made for easy access from the New Jersey suburbs. Another contributing factor was that as Dominican dealers such as Santiago Luis Polanco Rodríguez brought the group higher status in cocaine operations, the heavily-Dominican Washington Heights became increasingly important as a strategic location. Washington Heights also had a high level of unemployment and poverty in the 1980s and 1990s, providing ample economic motivation for young people to enter the drug trade.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: As Robert W. Snyder describes in "Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and the Promise of New York City", the effects of the crack trade extended beyond physical danger to a breakdown in trust and widespread fear provoked by violence in public places as well as murders of people uninvolved in the drug business. It was common for police and detectives to note unresponsiveness from residents during murder inquiries. Overall distrust of the police may have stemmed from the perception of corruption, which was alleged numerous times concerning the 34th Precinct overlooking drug crimes for bribes.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Tensions between residents and the NYPD came to a head on July 4, 1992, when José "Kiko" Garcia was shot by 34th Precinct Officer Michael O'Keefe on the corner of 162nd Street and Saint Nicholas Avenue. Although evidence later supported that the killing was a reaction to violence initiated by Garcia, many residents quickly suspected wanton police brutality. The suspicion was not unfounded, as O'Keefe already had several civilian complaints of unnecessary aggression in arrests. What began as a peaceful demonstration for Garcia's death turned into a violent riot, causing multiple fires, fifteen injuries, and one death. Then-mayor David Dinkins, who had met with the Garcia family following the killing, pleaded for an end to the rioting: "There is much anger in the community about the death of José Garcia and other incidents, [but] you do not build a better city by destroying it."


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: During the mid to late 1990s, Washington Heights experienced a drastic decrease in crime that continued through the 21st century. From 1990 to 2021, reported motor vehicle thefts, murders, burglaries, robberies have each fallen by over 75%, while felony assaults and rapes have each fallen by over 45%, and grand larcenies by 35%. The 30th and 32nd precincts to the south of Washington Heights, which cover most of Harlem north of 133rd Street, experienced just as drastic crime drops during the past decades.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The crime drop, which was felt across all major U.S. cities, owed itself largely to the decrease in new users and dealers of crack cocaine, and the move of existing dealers from dealing on the streets to dealing from inside apartments. In Washington Heights, this meant a move back to the established cocaine dealing culture that had existed before the introduction of crack. As Terry Williams observes in "The Cocaine Kids: The Inside Story of a Teenage Drug Ring", many dealers from the pre-freebasing period put greater emphasis on knowing their customers and hid their operations more carefully from police, as opposed to dealers of the crack days who would deal openly and fight violently in the competition for the drug's high profits.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Nonetheless, many also credit actions taken on the neighborhood level in increasing safety in Washington Heights. After years of advocacy from residents, in 1994 the NYPD split the 34th Precinct to create the 33rd Precinct for Washington Heights south of 179th Street in order to devote more resources to crime prevention. Another local policing strategy was the "model block" initiative, first attempted in 1997 on 163rd Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, a location notable for the dealers who set up a "fortified complex" complete with traps and electrified wires to prevent police raids on their apartment. In an attempt to disrupt drug activity on the block, police officers set up barricades at both ends of the block, demanded proof of residence from anyone coming through, patrolled building hallways, and pressured landlords to improve their buildings. The program was controversial, facing criticism from the New York Civil Liberties Union and resistance from residents for its invasion of privacy, although crime was reduced on the block, and the initiative was later expanded throughout the city.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: As crime decreased, Washington Heights also saw a recovery of many of its community institutions, including parks. Fort Tryon Park had fallen into a period of decline after the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis, when evaporated Parks Department funds left its walkways and playgrounds in a state of disrepair, and several corpses were found in the park. After work from the Fort Tryon Park Trust and the New York Restoration Project throughout the 1990s and 2000s, funded by the city with the help of generous private donations, the park and its reputation were restored.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Highbridge Park, however, had the same problems as Fort Tryon Park but went without any major restoration funding for a while, likely due to its location in a lower-income area and lack of a frequently touristed landmark like The Cloisters. In 1997, the New York Restoration Project began to work on maintaining the park, but without the necessary funding much of the park's disrepair continued. In 2016, however, the park received $30 million in restoration funding through the city's Anchor Parks initiative, with the full restoration set to be finished by 2021.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Throughout the 2010s Washington Heights residents have made modest economic gains. According to American Community Survey data the neighborhood's poverty rate decreased from 27% to 18% in the approximate 2008–2018 period. In the same period, the unemployment rate decreased from 14% to 9% and the proportion of residents with bachelor's degrees increased from 29% to 35%.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights has faced gentrification throughout the 2000s, with data from the New York University Furman Center finding that Washington Heights and Inwood's average residential rent had increased by 29.3% between 1990 and 2014. Furthermore, there have been several businesses faced with drastic rent increases, such as Coogan's, a well-known restaurant and bar which managed to renegotiate with its landlord NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital following outcry by many locals, including Lin-Manuel Miranda.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights residents face many difficulties with the rental housing market; over a quarter of households pay the majority of their income in rent. As of 2014, Washington Heights and Inwood have the highest rate of severe crowding in Manhattan. Washington Heights also has the city's second-highest rate of serious housing code violations and its lowest rental vacancy rate.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Many have expressed opposition to the neighborhood's gentrification on both commercial and residential fronts. Luis Miranda and Robert Ramirez of the "Manhattan Times" wrote in 2005, "How sad and ironic that many of the same people who fought to save our neighborhoods in the face of thugs and drugs have ultimately been forced to surrender their communities to the almighty dollar." Echoing this sentiment, "Crossing Broadway" author Robert W. Snyder said, "The people who saved Washington Heights in the days of crime and crack deserve more for their pains than a stiff rent increase." Fears about displacement in Upper Manhattan have most recently manifest themselves in the controversy surrounding the 2018 Inwood rezoning plan, which despite its offers of community benefits and affordable housing has been accused of accelerating real estate speculation.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: In a sign of luxury interests in the neighborhood, ground was broken in 2018 on Amsterdam Avenue and 180th Street by developer Youngwoo & Associates for the MVRDV-designed Radio Tower & Hotel. The tower, a 22-story multi-use tower with office space, retail and a 221-room hotel, and is the first major mixed-use development to be built in Washington Heights in nearly five decades. The hotel opened in July 2022.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights is located on the high ridge of Upper Manhattan that extends west of Edgecombe Avenue from around 133rd Street to just below Dyckman Street. It contains the highest piece of land in Manhattan: an outcropping of schist above sea level in Bennett Park.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The neighborhood was in the early 1900s considered to run as far south as 135th Street west of Central Harlem, encompassing most of the elevated area of Upper Manhattan. In the modern day, Washington Heights is typically defined as the area between Hamilton Heights at 155th Street and Inwood at Dyckman Street, although some have also considered Washington Heights' southern boundary to be 158th Street.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The Hudson Heights subneighborhood is generally considered to cover the area west of Broadway and north of 181st Street or 179th Street, although some extend its southern boundary as far as 173rd Street. The name was created by the Hudson Heights Owners' Coalition in 1992 to promote the sale of co-op apartments in the northwestern part of the neighborhood.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Hudson Heights' name has been adopted by numerous newspapers, typically setting it apart from the rest of Washington Heights for its Art Deco decor, residential character, and closeness to Fort Tryon Park and the Hudson River. However, some disparage the name; Manhattan Borough Historian Robert W. Snyder argued that the name's intention was to "conceptually separate the area from the rest of Washington Heights," diminishing the "shared interest on both sides of Broadway."


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: While the name "Hudson Heights" may be relatively new, a divide between northwestern Washington Heights and the rest of the neighborhood has existed in some form in the neighborhood since the early 1900s. Census data from 1950 shows that rents in the western areas of the neighborhood tended to be slightly higher compared to the eastern areas, but the highest rents were almost entirely in the northwestern area, with its high concentration of more modern elevator buildings, and the Audubon Park Historic District, which has most of the neighborhood's few buildings with more than six stories.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: This economic divide became racial as well during the 1970s and 80s, as the majority of White residents who did not leave the neighborhood settled in the northwestern area. , market rents remain significantly higher north of 181st Street and west of Broadway, although the most noticeable difference is the racial divide; , Hudson Heights census blocks are 60% White while census blocks east of Broadway are 13% White.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Named for the Revolutionary War's Fort George, the lesser-recognized Fort George sub-neighborhood runs east of Broadway from 181st Street to Dyckman Street. Educational institutions include Yeshiva College, located east of Amsterdam Avenue near Highbridge Park, and George Washington High School, on the nearby site of the original Fort George. Fort George also holds one of Manhattan's rare semi-private streets, Washington Terrace, which runs south of West 186th Street for a half-block between Audubon and Amsterdam avenues.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Because of its abrupt, hilly topography, pedestrian navigation in Upper Manhattan is facilitated by many step streets. The longest of these is a set of 130 stairs connecting Fort Washington Avenue and Overlook Terrace at 187th Street.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: To help with eastward-westward transit in upper Washington Heights, elevators are available at the 181st Street IND station, with entrances on Overlook Terrace and Fort Washington Avenue at 184th Street, and the 190th Street station, with entrances on Fort Washington Avenue and Bennett Avenue. The 191st Street IRT station also has a pedestrian tunnel, with an entrance on Broadway near 190th Street, and free elevator connection. Exemplifying the abrupt changes in the area's terrain, the 191st Street and Dyckman Street IRT stations are at similar elevations compared to sea level, but the former is the city's deepest subway station below ground level, while the latter, just north, is above ground.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: For census purposes, the New York City government classifies Washington Heights as part of two neighborhood tabulation areas called Washington Heights North and Washington Heights South, split by 177th Street west of Broadway and 180th Street east of Broadway. Based on data from the 2020 United States Census, the population of Washington Heights was 143,879, a decrease of 23,249 (13.9%) from the 167,128 counted in 2000. Covering an area of , the neighborhood had a population density of .


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 21.7% (31,155) White, 7.5% (10,823) African American, 3.5% (4,976) Asian, 0.9% (1,348) from other races, and 2.3% (3,298) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race(s) were 64.1% (92,279) of the population. Between 2000 and 2020, the White and Asian populations increased by 42% (9,157) and 39% (1,385) respectively, while the Black and Hispanic/Latino populations decreased by 26% (3,766) and 25% (31,439) respectively.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: In-depth demographic statistics are collected by the American Community Survey. Based on 2016-2020 data, an estimated 18% of the population is under 20 (compared to 23% citywide), 30% are ages 20 to 35 (24% citywide), 37% are ages 35 to 65 (38% citywide), and 15% are 65 and over (15% citywide). 46% of residents are foreign-born (36% citywide), of whom 56% are U.S. citizens (58% citywide). Of the population 5 years and over, 70% speak a language other than English at home (48% citywide) and 35% speak English less than "very well" (22% citywide).


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The unemployment rate is 11% (7% citywide); 67% of workers commute by public transportation (53% citywide) and 12% by automobile (27% citywide). Washington Heights has a median household income of $58,373 ($67,046 citywide) and a mean household income of $78,184 ($107,000 citywide). 18% of residents are considered below poverty (17% citywide); the rate among children and seniors is 25% (24% citywide) and 28% (18% citywide) respectively. With a median gross rent of $1,405 ($1,489 citywide), 28% of households paid over half of their income in rent (28% citywide).


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights was designated "Little Dominican Republic" along with Inwood and part of Hamilton Heights in 2018, an area where two-thirds of Hispanic/Latino residents identify as Dominican . Another name sometimes given to the area is "Quisqueya Heights", in reference to a Taíno name for Hispaniola meaning "cradle of life." As Roberto Suro describes in "Strangers Among Us: Latino Lives in a Changing America", many Dominicans in Washington Heights lead double lives between the U.S. and the D.R., moving between countries and investing money back home. Jorge Duany supports this analysis in "Quisqueya on the Hudson", documenting how first-generation immigrants feel a strong cultural connection with the D.R., reinforced by frequent flights back to the island. A travel agency owner interviewed in "The New York Times" claimed, "For the Dominican to go to Santo Domingo during Christmas and summer is like the Muslims going to Mecca."


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: One of the most popular flights of the route between New York and Santo Domingo was American Airlines Flight 587, which in November 2001 suffered an accidental crash in Belle Harbor, Queens shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy Airport, killing all 260 people aboard the plane as well as five Belle Harbor residents. The flight had a long history among Dominican New Yorkers, even being referenced in Kinito Méndez and Johnny Ventura's song "El Avión." A memorial to the crash was built in 2006 near Rockaway Beach and Boardwalk, inscribed with the victims' names and the Pedro Mir quote ""Después no quiero más que paz"" (which translates to "Afterwards I want nothing more than peace").


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights' religious institutions are primarily Jewish, Protestant, and Catholic. Some of Washington Heights and Inwood's earliest churches were the St. Elizabeth Church, the United Presbyterian Church, and the Mount Washington Presbyterian Church, all built in the mid- to late-1800s before the neighborhood urbanized. Most of the neighborhood's places of worship date back to the early 1900s, but many have changed or moved as the ethnic composition changed in the later 1900s.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The landmarked Fort Washington Presbyterian Church, built in 1914 in neo-Georgian style according to plans by Thomas Hastings, is an example of how Washington Heights' religious institutions reflected demographic changes in the neighborhood. The church was constructed after a merger between two Presbyterian churches further south in order to have a location uptown, where many members of the previous congregations were moving. In 1982, the original congregation turned the church over to "La Primera Iglesia Española de Washington Heights", a congregation organized in 1942 by Puerto Rican Presbyterians on 172nd Street and Audubon Avenue. Other Protestant churches which changed from a European American to a mostly Caribbean American congregation in the later part of the 20th century include the landmarked Holyrood Episcopal Church and Iglesia Adventista del Séptimo Dia (a Seventh-day Adventist church).


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: With the exception of Our Lady of Esperanza Church, which was built in Audubon Terrace as New York's second Spanish-language Catholic church, the neighborhood's Catholic churches served its large Irish population during the early 1900s. Church of the Incarnation and St. Elizabeth Church both started Catholic schools which began to serve more and more Dominicans as the Irish moved to the suburbs.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Other Christian denominations have a smaller but significant presence in Washington Heights, such as Baptist churches and Greek Orthodox churches (most notably St. Spyridon). Also of note is the Holy Cross Armenian Apostolic Church, where in 1933 members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation assassinated Eastern Diocese Archbishop Levon Tourian as he walked down its halls, after which the church needed to be reconsecrated.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights' many Jewish institutions underwent significant change throughout the 20th century, with many of their locations in the southern part of the neighborhood being sold to Christian congregations as they closed or moved to more northern areas, where a significant population of Jewish people remained after the White flight of the 1960s and 1970s. Some Jewish congregations were founded by German Jewish immigrants during the flight from Nazi persecution in the 1930s and 1940s, such as the Conservative Fort Tryon Jewish Center, while others predate it, such as the Orthodox Mount Sinai Jewish Center. Khal Adath Jeshurun is a Separatist Orthodox congregation started by Rabbi Joseph Breuer in New York, a continuation of his father's Jewish community in Frankfurt am Main which includes the Yeshiva Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch as a parochial school.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights, along with other parts of the city such as the Bronx, had a significant role in the early history of graffiti in New York City. In 1971, TAKI 183 (born on 183rd street) was the first graffiti tagger to be exposed to the broader public through a profile in "The New York Times"; 188th Street and Audubon Avenue has also been cited as a location where graffiti writers exchanged names and ideas in the 1970s.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, founded in 2007 to support local artists, organizes the annual Uptown Arts Stroll, which features artists from Upper Manhattan in public locations for several weeks each summer. The United Palace, a landmarked theater built in 1930, continues as a space for film and live performance in the present day, having featured musicians such as John Legend, Bob Dylan, Lenny Kravitz, and Lauryn Hill. Also noteworthy is UP Theater Company, a Washington Heights and Inwood-based company established in 2010 which performs original plays in the neighborhood.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights has also become the setting for creative works such as Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway musical and film "In the Heights" and Angie Cruz's novels "Soledad" and "Dominicana".


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Five clubs in American professional sports have played in the Washington Heights area: the New York Giants, New York Mets, and New York Yankees baseball teams, and the New York Giants and New York Jets football teams. Situated on Coogan's Hollow where the present-day Polo Grounds Towers are located, the Polo Grounds have been the home field of the following teams: the baseball Giants (1911 to 1957), the Yankees (1912 to 1923), the Mets (1962 to 1963), the football Giants (1925 to 1955), and the New York Jets (1960 to 1963). The Mets and Jets both began play at the Polo Grounds while their future home, Shea Stadium in Queens, was under construction. The Polo Grounds were the site of two baseball-related deaths: the first of Ray Chapman in 1920 after being hit in the head by a pitch from Carl Mays, and the second of spectator Bernard Doyle in 1950, accidentally killed by a 14-year-old boy who had fired his .45 caliber pistol into the air from his apartment on Edgecombe Avenue.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Before the Yankees played at the Polo Grounds, they played at Hilltop Park on Broadway between 165th Street and 168th Street from 1903 to 1912; at the time they were known as the New York Highlanders. On May 15, 1912, after being heckled for several innings, then-Detroit Tigers player Ty Cobb leaped the fence and attacked his tormentor. He was suspended indefinitely by league president Ban Johnson, but his suspension was eventually reduced to 10 days and $50. A historically outstanding pitching performance took place at Hilltop Park, when on September 4, 1908, 20-year-old Washington Senators-player Walter Johnson shut out the Highlanders for three consecutive games. In 1928 the park became the Columbia University Medical Center, a major hospital complex.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights has been the childhood residence of many baseball stars, including former Yankee star Alex Rodriguez, who was born in the neighborhood to Dominican parents. Rod Carew and Manny Ramírez were two famous players who immigrated to the neighborhood as teenagers and attended George Washington High School (Carew during the 1960s and Ramírez during the 1980s). The New York Yankees' Lou Gehrig grew up in the neighborhood after moving out of Yorkville with his family, attending PS 132 during the 1910s.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The New Balance Track and Field Center, located in the Fort Washington Avenue Armory, maintains an Olympic-caliber track that is one of the fastest in the world. Starting in January 2012, the Millrose Games have been held there, after having been held at the second, third, and current Madison Square Gardens from 1914 to 2011. To encourage physical activity and healthy eating, a partnership of local politicians, schools, and community organizers have organized the annual "Uptown Games" for children grades 1 to 8 at the Armory. Also at the Armory is the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, along with the Charles B. Rangel Technology & Learning Center for middle and high school students; the facility is operated by the Armory Foundation, which was created in 1993. The Armory is the starting point for the annual Washington Heights Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks 5K, founded in 1999 by Peter M. Walsh of Coogan's Restaurant but is now run by the New York Road Runners.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights and Inwood collectively have over of parkland, representing over a third of the neighborhoods' total area.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights' Fort Washington Park runs from 155th Street to Dyckman Street along the Hudson River, meeting the George Washington Bridge at Jeffrey's Hook (around 178th Street). The 184-acre park was originally designed in 1873 by Fredrick Law Olmsted along with Riverside Park and Morningside Park, and most of the park was acquired via eminent domain between 1896 and 1927. Although it was initially connected with Fort Tryon Park to the east (a condition for John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s donation of the Fort Tryon parkland), the 1937 construction of the Henry Hudson Parkway separated the two parks.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Sitting just underneath the George Washington Bridge is the Little Red Lighthouse, which was originally built in 1917 in Sandy Hook, New Jersey before being moved to aid with navigation in the Hudson River during the 1920s. After the George Washington Bridge opened in 1931, the lighthouse became obsolete, and the United States Coast Guard began planning to dismantle and auction it. After a public outcry, contributed to by Hildegarde Swift's popular children's book "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge," the lighthouse was instead given to the city government in 1951. Having undergone renovation in 1986 and again in 2000, the lighthouse is available for tours and is honored in the annual Little Red Lighthouse Festival.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Occupying a 67-acre area south of Inwood Hill Park between Broadway and the Henry Hudson Parkway, Fort Tryon Park's history began with John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s purchase of the Hays, Shaefer, Libbey, and Billings estates for $2 million in 1917. Rockefeller hired Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (the son of Fort Washington Park's planner) to design the park in 1927, and in 1931 Mayor James Walker accepted his donation of the parkland, to be developed primarily at Rockefeller's expense. Opening in 1935, the park's picturesque views of the Palisades across the Hudson River were maintained by another Rockefeller purchase there with the aim of preventing construction, preserved as part of Palisades Interstate Park.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: As part of his Fort Tryon donation, Rockefeller reserved 4 acres in the center of the park for the Metropolitan Museum of Art to develop the Cloisters. The original Cloisters museum, a collection of medieval art owned by George Grey Barnard and located on upper Fort Washington Avenue, was purchased by the Metropolitan with Rockefeller funds in 1925. After Fort Tryon Park's opening in 1935, construction began for the new Cloisters building using elements shipped from abbeys in southern France and Catalonia, based on designs by Charles Collens. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, the museum has a vast collection of Romanesque and Gothic art, including the "Hunt of the Unicorn" tapestries, purchased by Rockefeller for $1 million in 1922.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: One of Fort Tryon Park's biggest annual events is the Medieval Festival, a collaboration between the Parks Department and the Washington Heights and Inwood Development Corporation that has taken place at the park since 1983. The event is free, relying on a mix of private and public sponsors as well as donations, and draws an average of 60,000 people for an afternoon of medieval-themed arts, activities, and food.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Highbridge Park, a 160-acre park with heavily wooded areas and views of the Harlem River, lies on Washington Heights' western cliffside from 155th Street to Dyckman Street, cut off from the waterfront by the Harlem River Drive. Unlike Washington Heights' other major parks, Highbridge had no prior design but was assembled piecemeal by the city through condemnation, the majority being acquired from 1895 to 1901. In the park's southern extreme lies Coogan's Bluff, which in the time of the Polo Grounds offered a vantage point for watching baseball games without paying for tickets. The park's northernmost Fort George Hill section was gained through the condemnation of Fort George Amusement Park, a trolley park built in 1895 that was burned twice by 1913. In 2007, the Parks Department collaborated with the New York City Mountain Bike Association to open a network of mountain bike trails in this section of the park.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Highbridge Park is home to three New York City landmarks: its namesake the High Bridge, the High Bridge Water Tower, and the Highbridge Play Center. The High Bridge, New York City's oldest remaining bridge, was built in 1848 as part of the Croton Aqueduct system connecting the Bronx to Manhattan at 174th Street and, since 2015, has been active as a bridge for pedestrians and cyclists. The bridge's accompanying water tower was also an integral part of New York City's water system until 1949.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Built on a former reservoir in front of the High Bridge Water Tower, the Highbridge Play Center is best known for its pool, one of many Works Progress Administration-funded outdoor pools opened in the summer of 1936.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: NewYork–Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center opened in 1928 as Columbia–Presbyterian, one of the first academic medical centers in the United States. The complex contains the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, the medical school of Columbia University. Located between 165th and 168th streets west of Broadway, it occupies the former site of Hilltop Park, the home of the New York Highlanders – later the New York Yankees – from 1903 to 1912. Across the street is the Fort Washington Avenue Armory's New Balance Track and Field Center, an indoor track home to the National Track & Field Hall of Fame.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Audubon Terrace, a cluster of eight distinguished Beaux Arts and Renaissance Revival buildings constructed between 1904 and 1930, is located on Broadway between 155th and 156th streets. Named for John James Audubon due to his land holdings in the Audubon Park Historic District, the complex was envisioned as a cultural center by its founder Archer Milton Huntington and almost entirely designed by his cousin Charles Pratt Huntington. A National Historic Landmark, the Audubon Terrace is home to the Hispanic Society of America, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Our Lady of Esperanza Church, and Boricua College. Despite their unique decor and expansive collections, its museums have long struggled with attracting visitors due to their non-central location; the American Geographical Society, the Heye Collection of the National Museum of the American Indian, and the American Numismatic Society all previously occupied Audubon Terrace but have since moved their collections elsewhere.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Overlooking Coogan's Bluff between 160th and 162nd streets in the Jumel Terrace Historic District, the Morris–Jumel Mansion has the distinction of being Manhattan's oldest surviving house. Headquartered by George Washington in 1776 before being taken by the British and Hessians, the mansion was built in 1765 by British colonel Roger Morris and in 1810 became property of Eliza Jumel. Jumel became one of the wealthiest women in the city after the death of her husband Stephen in 1832, and was later wife of Aaron Burr until his death in 1836.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Designated a landmark by the National Register of Historic Places, the house is owned and maintained as a museum by the Department of Parks and Recreation. At the time of its purchase by the Jumels in 1810, there were rumors that the mansion was haunted by a Hessian ghost. After Eliza Jumel's death she became the main focus of paranormal suspicions, partly due to rumors that she caused her first husband Stephen to die by falling from a carriage onto a pitchfork. In the modern day, it has been investigated as a haunted house on the Today Show, Haunted USA, and Ghost Adventures. "Hamilton" playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda sat in Aaron Burr's room to write of many of the hit musical's songs.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The Paul Robeson Home, located on the corner of Edgecombe Avenue and 160th Street, is a National Historic Landmark building. Part of Washington Heights' historically Black southeastern area, the building is known for its famous African American residents including actor Paul Robeson, musician Count Basie, and boxer Joe Louis.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The Audubon Ballroom was originally a vaudeville and movie theater, built by William Fox of the Fox Film Corporation on the corner of Broadway and 165th Street. Since the 1930s the theater had been used as a meeting space for unions and other organizations, and in the 1950s hosted the annual New York Mardi Gras festival. The building acquired its greatest historical significance on February 21, 1965, when Malcolm X was assassinated there during a rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The theater was seized by the city for unpaid back taxes in 1967 and, in the late 1980s, was planned for demolition in order to build a medical research center for Columbia University. After pushback by community members and Columbia students, the university reached a compromise in 1990 to restore part of the original facade and ballroom. , the building houses Columbia's Mary Woodard Lasker Biomedical Research Building in addition to the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, which houses documents related to the life and work of the two civil rights activists.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The United Palace was built in 1930 as the Loew's 175th Street Theater, designed primarily by Thomas W. Lamb (the same architect of the Audubon Ballroom) and featuring interior design work by Harold Rambusch. Originally a theater, it was bought in 1969 by televangelist Reverend Ike and became a church for the United Church Science of Living Institute. Made a New York City landmark in 2016, the United Palace also acts as a cultural center, hosting films and live performances .


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: "Manhattan Times" is a free English/Spanish bilingual community newspaper serving Spanish-speaking areas of Upper Manhattan, including Washington Heights. It was founded in 1999 or 2000 by Luís A. Miranda Jr., Roberto Ramírez Sr., and David Keisman. The newspaper features stories about news and events of interest to residents on the city and neighborhood level, and is funded in part by private advertisements in addition to public service announcements.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights is served by two precincts of the NYPD. The area south of 179th Street is served by the 33rd Precinct, located at 2207 Amsterdam Avenue, while the 34th Precinct, located at 4295 Broadway, serves the north side of the neighborhood along with Inwood.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The precinct was split in 1994 to increase police presence in Washington Heights at a time of very high crime rates, but crime has fallen drastically since then. , the neighborhood has a non-fatal assault hospitalization rate of 43 per 100,000 people (compared to 59 per 100,000 citywide) and an incarceration rate of 482 per 100,000 adults (425 per 100,000 citywide).


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: In 2021, the 34th Precinct reported 12 murders, 13 rapes, 211 robberies, 275 felony assaults, 139 burglaries, 589 grand larcenies, and 215 grand larcenies auto. The number of crimes committed in these categories fell by 34% between 1998 and 2021. In the same year, the 33rd Precinct reported 5 murders, 15 rapes, 232 robberies, 301 felony assaults, 130 burglaries, 363 grand larcenies, and 80 grand larcenies auto. Crime in these categories fell by 32.4% between 1998 and 2021.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Data on health indicators is compiled for each community district in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Community Health Profiles, the most recent of which was released in 2018. In Manhattan Community District 12 (Washington Heights and Inwood), there are 73 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 23.3 births to teenage mothers per 1,000 live births (19.3 per 1,000 citywide). The population of uninsured residents is estimated to be 14% (12% citywide).


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in Community District 12 is ( citywide). 13% of residents are smokers (14% citywide), 26% are obese (24% citywide), 13% are diabetic (11% citywide), and 28% have high blood pressure (28% citywide). Additionally, 24% of children are obese (20% citywide). 81% of residents eat some fruits and vegetables every day (87% citywide). In 2018, 68% of residents described their health as "good," "very good," or "excellent" (78% citywide). For every supermarket, there are an estimated 13 bodegas.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: , the overall life expectancy of Community District 12 is 84, 2.8 years greater than the citywide average and 5.3 years greater than the nationwide average. Its rates of premature death from cancer (39.1 per 100,000) and heart disease (26.1 per 100,000) are significantly lower than the citywide rates, although its drug-related death rate (9.6 per 100,000) is similar and suicide death rate (7.2 per 100,000) is higher.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center is located in Washington Heights at 168th Street between Broadway and Fort Washington Avenue. Built and opened in the 1920s, and known as the Columbia–Presbyterian Medical Center until 1998, the complex was one of the world's first academic medical centers. The campus contains the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, the medical school of Columbia University. The campus also contains Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, New York City's only stand-alone children's hospital. In addition, NewYork–Presbyterian's Allen Hospital is located in Inwood.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Politically, Washington Heights is in New York's 13th congressional district, represented by Democrat Adriano Espaillat . It is also part of the 31st State Senate District, represented by Democrat Robert Jackson, and the 71st and 72nd State Assembly districts, represented respectively by Democrats Al Taylor and Carmen De La Rosa. In the City Council, the neighborhood is part of the 7th and 10th districts, represented respectively by Democrats Mark Levine and Ydanis Rodriguez.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights is located in three ZIP Codes. From south to north, they are 10032 (between 155th and 173rd streets), 10033 (between 173rd and 187th streets) and 10040 (between 187th and Dyckman streets).


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Community District 12 has fewer college graduates and more high school dropouts compared to the borough and city as a whole. 38% of residents age 25 and older have a college education or higher (compared to 43% citywide), and 29% did not finish high school (19% citywide). , 19% of elementary school students missed twenty or more days per school year (20% citywide).


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: Washington Heights is part of District 6, along with Inwood and Hamilton Heights. Of the district's 19,939 students , 85% are Hispanic/Latino, 7% are Black, 5% are White, and 3% are any other race; in addition, 29% are English Language Learners, and 22% are Students with Disabilities. Of all students in the cohort set to graduate in 2019, 74% in District 6 did so by August 2019 (77% citywide). The district rate was significantly lower for males (69%), English Language Learners (52%), and Students with Disabilities (49%). , one-quarter of District 6 students are English Language Learners (defined as students who require support to learn English as a second language), of whom 96% are Hispanic or Latino.


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The New York City Department of Education operates public schools in Washington Heights as part of Community School District 6. As with most other school districts in New York City, District 6 has both zoned schools, which take students mainly from a small area in the neighborhood, and unzoned schools, which admit students from anywhere in the district. Zoned public elementary and elementary/middle schools include:


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The former George Washington High School, built in 1923, is located between 192nd and 193rd streets directly west of Highbridge Park. It became the George Washington Educational Campus in 1999 when it was split into four smaller schools:


title: Washington Heights, Manhattan

text: The Gregorio Luperón High School for Science and Mathematics was founded in 1994 and serves a student body of newly arrived Spanish-speakers. Washington Heights also has the unzoned Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School, serving grades PK to 12.