What Harlem looked like in the 1930s; A Photographic Journey

#1 Manhattan: Inwood Hill Park, 1932.

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#2 Manhattan: High Bridge Park and 181st Street bridge, 1939.

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#3 Manhattan: 8th Avenue and 155th Street (West), 1939.

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#4 Occupations: Peddlers selling ice and coal, 1934.

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#5 Manhattan: 8th Avenue and 155th Street (West), 1939.

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#6 Manhattan: 7th Avenue and 151st Street, 1936.

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#7 Manhattan: 8th Avenue and 155th Street, 1939.

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#8 Manhattan: 7th Avenue and 150th Street, 1936.

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#9 Flam and Flam, 165 East 121st Street, 1938.

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#10 Manhattan: 136th Street (West) and Lenox Avenue, 1936.

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#11 Manhattan: 139th Street (West) and 5th Avenue, 1934.

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#12 Bridges: Washington Bridge viewed from 175th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, with High Bridge in the background, 1934.

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#13 Firehouse, Park Avenue and East 135th Street, 1935.

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#14 Squatters colony at the Harlem River, 1933.

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#15 Harlem street: 422-424 Lenox Avenue, 1938.

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#16 Woman crossing street in Harlem at West 125th Street and Eighth Avenue, 1939.

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#17 Harlem Community Art Center, 290 Lenox Avenue, 1939.

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#18 Seventh Avenue, looking north from West 125th Street, in Harlem, 1934.

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#19 Lenox Fruit & Vegetable Market being picketed by a labor union supporter, Harlem, 1939.

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#20 Aerial view of Harlem, looking southeast, possibly from Edgecombe Avenue above Colonial (now Jackie Robinson) Park, 1939.

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#21 View of Lenox Avenue, Harlem, at 135th Street, showing businesses, pedestrians, and a shoeshine stand, 1939.

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#22 Boarded residential building on the corner of Madison Avenue and East 133rd Street, Harlem, 1938.

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#23 Harlem River, Manhattan: View of shoreline from East 118th to 117th Streets, 1935.

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#24 Marchers in street during Scottsboro protest parade in Harlem, 1931.

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#25 Manhattan: 125th Street (East), Harlem River, and 2nd Avenue, 1935.

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#26 Harlem River, Manhattan: 188th Street (West), High Bridge Park, and United Electric Light and Power Company, 1935.

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#27 Bill Robinson at ticket campaign with crowd in Harlem, 1935.

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#28 Harlem River, Manhattan: 142nd and 144th Streets (West), Public Fuel Service Company, Meenan Coal Company, 1935.

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#29 View of Harlem storefronts, 1939.

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#30 Sugar Hill looking north from Harlem River Houses, 1938.

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#31 Harlem River and High Bridge, 1939.

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#32 Harlem River, Manhattan: Academy Street, 1933.

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#33 Bridges: Washington Bridge over the Harlem River and High Bridge, 1939.

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#34 Harlem River, Manhattan: East 116th Street, 1937.

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#35 Harlem River, Manhattan: East 122nd Street, 1934.

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#36 Harlem River, Manhattan: 207th Street (West), 1933.

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#37 Harlem River, Manhattan: Inwood Hill Park, 1935.

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#38 Harlem River, Manhattan: East 102nd Street, 1934.

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#39 Harlem River, Manhattan: East 127th Street, 1931.

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#40 Harlem River, High Bridge and 174th Street, 1939.

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#41 Harlem River, Manhattan: 155th Street (West) and Harlem Houses, 1937.

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#42 Harlem River, Manhattan: 147th Street (West) and Harlem Houses, 1939.

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#43 Harlem newspaper stand, 1939.

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#44 Bridges: Washington Bridge spanning the Harlem River from upper Manhattan at West 181st Street and Amsterdam Avenue to the Bronx, 1932.

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#45 Harlem River, Manhattan: 140th to 145th Streets (West), Elm Coal Company, Meenan Coal Company, Public Fuel Service Company, and Stokes Coal Company, 1935.

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#46 Scottsboro protest marchers, including picketers bearing signs supporting striking coal miners and social equality for blacks, in Harlem, 1931.

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#47 Shoeshiners, 135th Street and Lenox Avenue, 1939.

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#48 135th Street near 5th Avenue, 1938.

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#49 Madison Avenue at 133rd Street, 1938.

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#50 Lenox Fruit and Vegetable Market, 1939.

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#51 Pushcart vendors at 145th Street and 8th Avenue, 1939.

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#52 Manhattan: 8th Avenue and 155th Street, 1939.

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#53 African-American children playing on swings at a Harlem playground, 1935.

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#54 Black children playing on a street in Harlem, 1930s.

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#55 Jitterbug dancers in Harlem, 1930s.

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#56 Businesses line Lenox Avenue, crowded with pedestrians in Harlem.

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#57 Riots broke out on 125th Street in Harlem amid rumors that police had killed a youth arrested for shoplifting.

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#58 Cootie Williams playing the trumpet with Duke Ellington’s band in a Harlem ballroom, 1930s.

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#59 African Americans waiting to vote at Public School 90 in Harlem.

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#60 A parade of followers of Father Divine demonstrated in Harlem to protest against high rents, 1936.

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#61 Police escorting suspects after a night of rioting in Harlem.

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#62 Cab Calloway leads the band at the New Year’s celebration at the Cotton Club, 1937.

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#63 Harlem children playing on the street, 1935.

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#64 Men conversing on a sidewalk on Lenox Avenue in Harlem.

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#65 Pedestrians on Lenox Avenue in Harlem, 1935.

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#66 A view down Edgecombe Avenue, Harlem, 1930s.

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#67 Spectators watching a parade on Lenox Avenue in Harlem.

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#68 Pedestrians pass shops on a street in Harlem, 1930s.

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#69 A view of 125th Street in Harlem, 1935.

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#70 A view down 125th Street, Harlem, 1935.

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#71 Children playing in water sprayed from a sprinkler in South Harlem, 1937.

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#72 The marquee of the Cotton Club nightclub, early 1930s.

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#73 Children playing in fire hydrant water.

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#74 A street scene in Harlem, the largest “Negro City in the World.”

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#75 Pedestrians stroll down a sidewalk on a summer day in Harlem, 1935.

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#76 Communist demonstration in Harlem at the funeral of Allad Luro on Lenox Avenue.

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#77 Used clothing on sale on Park Avenue near 110th Street, Harlem, 1935.

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#78 African Americans at the voting polls of Harlem.

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#79 Outdoor market under the Eighth Avenue elevated train in Harlem, 1935.

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#80 The Cotton Club dancers in Vogues of 1938, 1936.

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#81 Crowds at the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem at the opening of Macbeth, 1936.

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#82 Customers wait in line at the Dunbar National Bank in Harlem, 1933.

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#83 Children playing in fire hydrant water.

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#84 A view down West 139th Street in the Striver’s Row area of Harlem, 1930s.

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#85 Removal vans with furniture on the sidewalk in Harlem, 1930s.

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#86 The 369th Infantry, the Harlem Hellfighters, marching in a parade, 1930s.

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#87 The stump of the original “Tree of Hope” in front of the Lafayette Theater.

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#88 The Cotton Club nightclub, featuring variety show performances, late 1930s.

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#89 Police officer putting his club through the broken window of a shoe store after riots in Harlem, 1935.

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#90 A view of Edgecombe Avenue, Harlem, 1930s.

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#91 Cab Calloway leads an orchestra during a New Year’s Ball at the Cotton Club, 1937.

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#92 A beauty shop in Harlem, the largest “Negro City in the World.”

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#93 A chorus line dancing the cancan at the Cotton Club.

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#94 New Yorkers outside a printing shop in Harlem, 1935.

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#95 A view of Edgecombe Avenue, Harlem, 1930s.

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#96 A car abandoned after a flood in Harlem.

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#97 A street scene in Harlem, the largest “Negro City in the World.”

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#98 The annual parade of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in Harlem, 1930.

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#99 Signs outside the Cotton Club at night.

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#100 Acrobatic dancers performing onstage at the Cotton Club.

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#101 A car with a sign for the ‘Pentecostal Faith Church’ parked on a street in Harlem, 1935.

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#102 Police escorting the arrested to the courthouse after rioting in Harlem, 1935.

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#103 Harlem rallies for Ethiopian defense.

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#104 Pedestrians in front of cars exiting the Triborough Bridge in Harlem, 1936.

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#105 Children playing in a water-filled street in Harlem.

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#106 Rosco Porter and Elizabeth Hart, winners of the Big Apple swing dancing contest.

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#107 Alberta Dawson, Celestine Davis, and Gladys Taylor, winners of the swing dancing contest.

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#108 Father Divine’s followers celebrate acquisition of new “heaven.”

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#109 Crowd admiring Joe Louis and his wife.

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#110 Urban renewal in Harlem, 1930s.

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#111 Supporters of Father Divine parade through Harlem, 1938.

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#112 People celebrating Joe Louis’ victory in Harlem.

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#113 Cars streaming over the Triborough Bridge on its opening day, 1936.

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#114 Cars travel on the Triborough Bridge ramp to Astoria, Queens, 1936.

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#115 The Crane Company building in Harlem, 1935.

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#116 Fats Waller, Harlem, 1937.

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#117 Sign that reads “Whites Only” in Harlem, 1935.

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#118 125th Street with the Apollo Theater in Harlem, 1938.

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#119 Children playing leapfrog in a street in Harlem.

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#120 Boarded residential building on the corner of Madison Avenue and East 133rd Street, Harlem, 1938.

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#121 An Italian street vendor selling hot dogs at night in Harlem, 1935.

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#122 Roma girls at a Roma camp at 143rd Street in Harlem, 1935.

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#123 Woman walking in Harlem, 422-424 Lenox Avenue, 1938.

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#124 Jesse Owens dancing with Bill Robinson and female dancers in the Cotton Club.

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#125 Stores on the corner of Lenox Avenue after a night of rioting in Harlem.

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#126 African-American women walking in Harlem, 1933.

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#127 Harlem residents raise a toast after Joe Louis’ victory over Max Schmeling.

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#128 Ernestine Rose working at the 135th Street branch of the New York City Public Library, 1930.

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#129 Friends and relatives carry the casket of Morro Castle victim Miguel Lapolito through Harlem.

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#130 Cleanup underway after rioting in Harlem.

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#131 Attorney Samuel Leibowitz addresses a crowd of citizens of Harlem in the Salem M. E. Church.

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#132 A numbers headquarters at 351 Lenox Avenue in Harlem.

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#133 Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds across the Harlem River, 1930s.

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#134 Gov. Elmer Benson addresses a rally in Harlem, 1932.

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#135 Women carry flags at a communist demonstration in Harlem, 1935.

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#136 Children outside the River Houses.

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#137 Harlem schoolboys, 1930s.

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#138 Pedestrians on a Harlem sidewalk, 1930s.

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#139 Harlem Street: 422-424 Lenox Avenue, 1938.

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#140 Children playing in a wading pool.

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#141 Man standing on steps, Church of God, 25 East 132nd Street, Harlem, 1936.

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#142 Harlem Barber Shop on Main Street, Oxford, North Carolina, 1939.

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#143 A procession of communists attends the funeral of a black member in Harlem, 1930s.

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#144 Policeman talking with Harlem street kids, 1930s.

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#145 Harlem schoolboy, 1930s.

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#146 422-424 Lenox Avenue, Harlem, 1938.

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#147 Two women sitting in doorway of empty storefront in Harlem, 1930s.

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