Then and Now: Eighth Avenue at 155th Street, NYC

155th Street at Frederick Douglass Boulevard, Manhattan

Eighth Avenue at 155th Street, NYC, looking south in 1970.

If you are a native New Yorker, some of what I'm going to write about below is probably painfully obvious. However, New York City has a language all of its own when it comes to its streets, and sometimes its useful to explain some fo the nuances. As we've seen in some other posts, Manhattan is fairly unique in having multiple names for the same streets. A good example is Eighth Avenue, which has been called that since it was projected in the 1811 grid pattern but since has acquired other names along certain stretches. From West 59th Street to West 110th Street, Eighth Avenue is better known as Central Park West (or CPW). North of West 110th Street, Eighth Avenue is also known as Frederick Douglass Boulevard. This is due to a peculiar New York City custom of honoring leaders of the past by renaming portions of streets after them. However, it should be emphasized that if you give an address as being on Eighth Avenue but it's really on CPW or Frederick Douglass, everyone is still going to know where you mean (and they might scratch their heads for a moment if you don't say Eighth Avenue above 110th Street, that's how ingrained the grid pattern has become). When I saw the above photo from 1970, I decided to hunt down the exact location and see what it looks like now. So, I did a comparison of Eighth Avenue at West 155th Street, NYC, from 1970 to 2017.

Eighth Avenue at 155th Street, NYC, looking south in October 2017 (Google Street View).

It was easy to find the same location in the Upper Manhattan/Sugar Hill section because, as is often the case in Manhattan residential areas, the view hasn't changed very much. This exact location is a bit tricky because there are actually two West 155th Streets here. One is at ground level, as shown in the original 1970 photograph. The other West 155th Street is elevated directly above it and leads onto the Macombs Dam Bridge, which crosses the Harlem River from Manhattan to the South Bronx. One of the stanchions can be seen in the 1970 photo, and the same stanchion remains in 2017. I know, stanchions are not that exciting, but its almost 60 years and the exact same item is there, and that's kind of cool. Many of the street lights look the same, too (they added one in the same style on the corner). We can tell that we are in the right spot and facing in the proper (southerly) direction from the stanchion and the distinctive buildings in the background.

Frederick Douglass Boulevard at 155th Street, NYC, looking south in October 2017. For some reason, the street signs sometimes spell it "Douglas" rather than the proper "Douglass" (Google Street View).

Incidentally, the way Manhattan streets are named can be confusing in a variety of ways, and one of those is that West 155th Street is actually on the east side of Manhattan at this point. The "East" streets disappear because of the configuration of the island and how it narrows to the northwest, not any deviation in the grid pattern.

And, just to show we are not being harsh on whoever orders the street signs, here is Frederick Douglass Boulevard spelled correctly (Google Street View).

This predominance of "West" streets is one of those things that is obvious to New Yorkers but may not be to others, so I just thought I'd mention it. Whether a street is "West" or "East" depends solely on its relation to Fifth Avenue, which ends at the East River around 143rd Street. So, everything north of 143rd Street is "West" regardless of its actual placement on the island.

Eighth Avenue at 155th Street, NYC, looking south in October 2017 (Google Street View).

Frederick Douglass Boulevard has experienced a revival in the 21st Century. After decades of neglect, has experienced an influx of new residents and some new construction. While we will call this "improvement," others will call it "gentrification." How you feel about that is, well, how you feel about it. Some people like it, others don't, and there are a lot of reasons why people don't like gentrification. For our purposes, the gentrification hasn't really changed the look of the neighborhood that much. The low-rise buildings on the left (east) side of the street are 2920 and 2922 Frederick Douglass Boulevard. They were built in 1920 and have that quaint early-20th Century look complete with fire escapes. The distinctive building in the distance with the large water tank structure is 2850 Frederick Douglass Boulevard at West 152nd Street. That apartment building was built in 1968, so it was fairly recent when the original photo was taken.

Eighth Avenue at 155th Street, NYC, looking at the southwest corner in October 2017 (Google Street View).

There is a certain grimness to the 1970 photo (that it was taken during a rainstorm helps add that air of gloom). While it doesn't show the west side of the street very well, the 1970 photo does suggest that there's not much going on there. Part of the gentrification process has stimulated businesses along this street. In fact, Frederick Douglass Boulevard has acquired the nickname "Restaurant Row." As can be seen in the above photos, the solid wall of buildings visible in the 1970 photo (with lots of roll-down security shutters) now is broken up with a variety of fast food and restaurant awnings (and still a few roll-down security shutters). Hey, that's progress, folks, like it or not.

I hope you enjoyed this entry in our "the more things change, the more they stay the same" series. Upper Frederick Douglass Boulevard is like a lot of Manhattan in that it has prospered over the decades, though not everyone will necessarily love everything that change brings. That's life! Please visit some of our other entries in this series!

2019