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At 160th Street east of St. Nicholas Avenue stands
the Morris-Jumel Mansion, one of several historic houses that the parks
department maintains. British Col. Roger Morris built the mansion in 1765, but
after he fled during the American Revolution, George Washington used it as a
headquarters. In 1810, merchant Stephen Jumel bought the house. (After Jumel
died, his wife, Eliza, married Aaron Burr, one of the most nefarious characters
in American history.) Many beautiful nineteenth-century brownstones are located
in the surrounding neighborhood. For a rare connection to New York City history,
loiter just a few blocks south at an apartment building on 555 Edgecome
Avenue, where Count Basie, Paul Robeson and other African-American
celebrities lived during the ’30s and ’40s.
Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, west of Broadway in the 160’s, is
one of New York’s largest hospitals. Even now, a new babies hospital and a
cancer research center are being constructed.
At 166th and Broadway stands the Audubon Ballroom, a stunning piece of
terra-cotta architecture. Famed as the place where Malcolm X was shot in 1965,
it now houses a Columbia University biotechnology lab, a museum dedicated to the
memory of the late black nationalist leader and several stores. The Audubon’s
stage also hosted some of the most important R&B groups of the ‘50s and
‘60s: the Valentines, the Solitaires and the Cadillacs all performed here.
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