PaveTrail
New York › Manhattan

Harlem

Gospel, Jazz and the Harlem Renaissance

42stops
5.1miles
3h 10mwalking
$2.99in the app

Harlem was a Dutch village, then a district of farms and country estates, then a fashionable suburb for white New Yorkers when the elevated trains arrived in the 1880s. Developers built far more housing than they could sell, and in the early 1900s Black families, many escaping the violence of the American South, began to move in. By the 1920s, Harlem was the capital of Black America, and the Harlem Renaissance produced poets like Langston Hughes, musicians like Duke Ellington and thinkers like W. E. B. Du Bois. This walk takes you past the churches, theaters, clubs and brownstones where that history was made, and the soul food restaurants where it is still celebrated.

Nearest subway
135 St 23 · 1 min walk to the start
Map of the Harlem walking route with its 42 stops
The route of the Harlem walk. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The first 3 stops

Try these stops for free in the app. The full stories and directions are waiting for you there.

  1. 1Harlem Hospital Center

    Harlem Hospital has served the neighborhood since 1887, and it hides an art treasure.

  2. 2Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

    As a boy in Puerto Rico, Arturo Schomburg was told by a teacher that Black people had no history.

  3. 3The Salvation Army Harlem Temple Corps

    The Salvation Army has been part of Harlem for over a century.

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39 more stops to discover

Unlock Harlem in the app for $2.99 for the full 5.1 mi route: every stop's photos and stories, and GPS guidance that tells you when you've arrived.

Download on theApp Store
Also on this walk: Apollo Theater, Sylvia’s Restaurant, The Abyssinian Baptist Church and more

Sights

  • Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building
  • AMC Magic Johnson Harlem 9
  • Amsterdam News
  • Apollo Theater
  • Bethel Gospel Assembly
  • Bill Clinton’s Office, 55 West 125th St
  • Canaan Baptist Church of Christ
  • First Corinthian Baptist Church
  • Graham Court
  • Hancock Park
  • Harlem Parish
  • Harlem Walk of Fame
  • Harlem YMCA
  • Hotel Theresa
  • James Brown Way
  • Malcolm X Boulevard
  • Marcus Garvey Park
  • Minton’s Playhouse
  • Mother AME Zion Church
  • Mount Morris Fire Watchtower
  • Mount Neboh Baptist Church
  • Muhammad Ali Islamic Center
  • Saint Aloysius Catholic Church
  • Salem United Methodist Church
  • Shiloh Baptist Church
  • Strivers’ Row
  • Swing Low: Harriet Tubman Memorial
  • The Abyssinian Baptist Church
  • The Greater Refuge Temple
  • The National Jazz Museum in Harlem
  • The Studio Museum in Harlem
  • Tree of Hope
  • Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing & Visual Arts

Food and drink

  • Amy Ruth’s
  • Harlem Shake
  • Melba’s Restaurant
  • Red Rooster Harlem
  • Sugar Hill Creamery
  • Sylvia’s Restaurant

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Harlem · $2.99 in the appGet the app