Hamilton Terrace, lined with beautiful brownstones, is one of the most charming streets in New York City. Spanning three blocks from 141st Street to 144th Street, it was mapped between Convent and St. Nicholas Avenues in the 1880s. By the 1890s, it had been named Hamilton Terrace as an homage to Alexander Hamilton, whose country home had just been moved to the bottom of the Street.
Hamilton Terrace’s isolation gives it a distinct and harmonious character. Most of its 50 or so houses were built in a single burst of activity from 1895 to 1902. In 1898, The Times wrote that the Street appealed ”strongly to people of cultivated tastes and artistic perceptions.” The initial tenants of the houses were prosperous, well-to-do citizens of New York City. Many of them were teachers and professors at City College, located nearby. Hamilton Terrace was indeed a peaceful respite from the rest of the city.
Hamilton Terrace – the 1930s
The 1930s marked a significant turning point in the history of Hamilton Terrace. Many of its homes were repurposed into rooming houses, and a wave of African Americans migrated from central Harlem to this area, bringing with them a new cultural and social dynamic.
Hamilton Terrace – the 1940s
In the 1940s, Hamilton Terrace was no longer quiet. Instead, it was pulsing to the sounds of jazz. Hamilton Terrace became home to Mary Lou Williams, one of the greatest jazz pianists, composers, and arrangers of all time, who had lived here for almost three decades since 1943.
Williams’ apartment turned into a music “salon” where the best musicians of the jazz era came to play and listen to music. She said that “Monk, Tadd Dameron, Kenny Dorham, Bud Powell, Aaron Bridgers, Billy Strayhorn, plus various disc jockeys and newspapermen, would be in and out of my place at all hours and we’d really ball.” Thelonious Monk often camped out at her house playing a new tune for two or three months in a row. Other close friends and frequent visitors were pianist Bud Powell and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. After witnessing what drugs do to the musicians, Williams turned her one-bedroom apartment into a one-woman rehabilitation center. Not only did she detox, feed, and clothe addicted musicians, but she also helped them find work.
Hamilton Terrace came full circle, once again becoming a respite for the prosperous. It’s lovely and wonderfully quiet. However, it’s hard to say which is better—the newfound tranquility or the sublime sounds of jazz.
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