The Interlocking Audubon Park and Audubon Terrace Historic Districts

Sponsor: Save Harlem Now!

As the first program in its 2021 series, Save Harlem Now! presented a virtual walking tour of northern Manhattan’s Audubon Park neighborhood with Save Harlem Now! board member, Matthew Spady, author of The Neighborhood Manhattan Forgot: Audubon Park and the Families Who Shaped It. This free Zoom program took place on Wednesday, April 28, 2021,7:00-8:00 pm. At the conclusion of the presentation, Save Harlem Now! held a drawing for autographed copies of Spady’s book.

Sitting just north of West 155th Street, today’s Audubon Park neighborhood, the interlocking Audubon Terrace and Audubon Park Historic Districts, owes its name to the naturalist and painter, John James Audubon, who bought a wooded, 14-acre parcel here in 1841, when the area was still generally known as Harlem Heights. In this virtual walking tour, Spady focuses on the neighborhood’s journey from farmland to cityscape, and takes a look at why the present-day footprint and streetscape disrupt Manhattan’s grid. He shares historic as well as present-day photographs to illustrate the evolving architectural typologies, from the Audubons’ farmhouse to the Italianate villas that populated suburban Audubon Park, to the apartment buildings, museum complex, and church that cover the neighborhood today.