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Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

The house at 12 West 129th Street, erected c.1863 when the village of Harlem was undergoing development as a suburban center, stands as a rare survivor of Harlem's early history, prior to its rapid development as an urban neighborhood.

Built for two carpenters, William Paul and Thomas Wilson, and their families, it was a two-and-a-half story frame structure characteristic of suburban architecture. Subsequent changes to the house reflect adaptations by new owners to their needs, as well as changes in the surrounding community. In 1883, piano merchant John Bolton Simpson, Jr., added the distinctive Moorish-inspired porch, the most significant architectural feature of the house, with its perforated ornamentation created by the use of a scroll saw. In 1896, the house was acquired by an order of Franciscan nuns which was expanding its mission in the greater New York area. In order to accommodate a new use as a convent and children's home, the building was enlarged to a full three stories. Since that time, the building has continued in institutional ownership; it was purchased in 1979 by the Christ Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith, which plans to convert it to a senior citizens' residence.

Harlem: Its History and Development

Harlem, originally known as New Harlem (named for the Dutch city of Haarlem), was established by Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant in 1658. Harlem's boundaries incorporated much of northern Manhattan, extending as far south as what is now East 74th Street near York Avenue. Most of the land in Harlem was divided into farms in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, with a small village established on the banks of the Harlem River to the south of present-day 125th Street. The village was an important social and political center in northern Manhattan, with its houses, court, inn, and Dutch Reformed Church. Although by 1683 Harlem was considered a part of the city and county of New York, it remained a modestly populated rural community, relatively untouched by urban development until the mid-nineteenth century.

As transportation links between Harlem and New York City to the south improved in the course of the nineteenth century, change began to occur in northern Manhattan, especially in the village on the Harlem River.

New York City's first railroad, the New York and Harlem Railroad, was incorporated in 1831 and, by the summer of 1837, was running steam trains to Harlem along Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue).' The presence of the railroad brought development to the village and by 1866, when the first New York City atlas depicting Harlem was published, many of the streets located to the east of Fourth Avenue had taken on an urban character/ The atlas plates show the location of such important urban amenities as a firehouse and a police station, as well as a substantial number of houses, several churches, and a number of factories and lumber and coal yards. These buildings faced onto the grid of rectangular streets that had been laid over most of Manhattan between Houston Street and 155th Street in 1811. To the west of the built-up village blocks were streets with freestanding suburban homes. Among these was the house erected in about 1863 at 12 West 129th Street

12 West 129th Street: History of its Construction and Occupancy

The land on which 12 West 129th Street was erected had been owned by Arent Haimanse Bussing, one of the original Harlem patentees/ Bussing, a native of Westphalia, appears to have arrived in Harlem as a militiaman. By the time of his death in 1718, he owned 127 acres of land in Harlem. At the death of his grandson, Aaron Bussing, in 1730, the property was still intact. According to New York City records, Aaron Bussing's executors conveyed the property to John Adriance in 1787/ The Adriance family remained involved with the block until 1844. After passing through several hands, the three twenty-five foot wide lots that now comprise the site of 12 West 129th Street were purchased in 1862 by William Paul. At the time that he purchased the Harlem property, Paul was a carpenter with his business at 86 West 24th Street and a residence nearby at 188 West 24th Street. He shared his house with another carpenter, Thomas Wilson.

City directories indicate that by 1864, Paul and Wilson were business partners; they were also sharing a new two-and-one- half-stoiy house located on West 129th Street between Fifth and Sixth (later Lenox) avenues (now No. 12 West 129th Street). A frame structure with gabled roof, the house was probably characteristic of the Italianate suburban residence type.

It is unclear whether the new Harlem house was erected by Paul, by Wilson, or by both carpenters. Thomas Wilson is recorded as living in the house as of 1863-64, while Paul is not recorded at this address until the following year. The house at No. 12 was not the first dwelling on the south side of West 129th Street betwe

Showing our new plushes before going to bed, at "West Side Inn", New York.

Mostrando nuestros nuevos peluches antes de irnos a dormir en el "West Side Inn", Nueva York.