162 St: The Adventure

Yesterday, I was looking for photos of Washington Heights for a Promediacorp project when I saw the Morris Jumel House. Built in 1775, it's one of the last remaining REAL houses in Manhattan (a couple are up at 215th St stop near Columbia Uni fields). George Washington stayed here during the fall of 1776 as the Brits ran New York City way down south.

Alicia Keys lives in one of these 4 brownstones, according to the MJ tour guide. They were some of the first homes built here for when the subway was extended to 162nd St.
Then I had to scale a cliff.
These homes on Sylvan Terrace were temporary housing for subway construction workers. Go figure, now they're historic landmarks made of shit wood that are apparently deteriorating quickly, according to our guide. But aren't they cute?

This reminded me of Somerset House's stone work along the arches facing the Thames. Except these ones are wood, and you can see brick to the left was painted over white. Not quite William Chambers quality.
This is Eliza Jumel, the clever gold digger who lived at Jumel Mansion the longest, about 60 yrs.
Hexagon shaped formal room, lets in tons of light. Loved it.
Eliza's bedroom. I wonder if this means it's not her 2 hubby's room as well.
Upstairs window door to balcony.
Tessa and I walked down to 126th St & Broadway, stopping to eat at Jesus Taco. Then west across 125th St and into Central Park, finally getting on the train at 96th St.

As expected, Washington Heights had a lot of Spanish speakers and Harlem had a lot of black people. What I didn't expect was two hair salons on every single block, a free hot chocolate from Dunkin Donuts on B'way and 162 (nice guys), nor so many men standing about on st corners at lunch time. It's nice they all get to go on break at the same time, I wish my friends and I could do that.