Harlem

I was up in Harlem in the late afternoon and early evening, getting as far as Madison Avenue and 125th Street. It was a beautiful day for a walk, and Harlem is always a fun place to stroll about in, as the wide boulevards and low buildings create a spacious, Parisian kind of feeling. 125th Street has never been so prosperous looking. Big shiny stores everywhere. I didn’t mean to be nosy but I went into a Commerce Bank at the corner of Frederick Douglas Boulevard and 125th Street, to look more closely at an impressive looking mural that was visible through the bank’s plate glass window from the street. In fact it was a huge panoramic photo, touched up and colorized with paint, of 125th Street looking west from Eighth Avenue in 1909, a busy commercial avenue with all kinds of stores, and with well dressed men and women going about their business. Signs indicated types of businesses that no longer exist today, such as “Hats Blocked and Cleaned,” and “Clothing on Credit.” A clerk explained to me that every Commerce Bank branch does the same thing, displaying a historic photo of the neighborhood where the branch is located. People in the present day Harlem, as the people in 1909, seem to be enjoying life.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 11, 2007 12:56 AM | Send