Have you heard of Seneca Village? Neither has most other people.
When Andrew Williams bought three lots of rural farmland from John and Elizabeth Whitehead (who, unlike most of the white landowners in the region, would sell property to African-Americans) for $125 in 1825 he became the first of many African-American property owners situated in an area located between 82nd and 89th Streets and 7th and 8th Avenues, slightly east of what is now Central Park West.
Despite this relative harmonious lifestyle in 1857 Seneca Village was ordered by the New York State legislature to be torn down and its 264 residents relocated.
All for the rich and the white to have a nice area to live in, and what is now know as Central Park. Luckily, there was a group, The Seneca Village Project, who finally brought some knowledge in 2001 to be named “Manhattan’s first prominent community of African American property owners.”
More info: interestingshit.com
“Manhattan’s first prominent community of African American property owners.”
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