![]() ![]() ![]() The history of Seneca Village had been all but lost until researchers in the 1990s began focusing on maps and census records that gave hints of the past. "To be able to connect here to where we are now and to what we're doing now is just a gift." "To think that our ancestors were here, this was their ground, this was where maybe some children played, this is where they worshiped," added Williamson. ![]() Audrey Williamson of Mother AME Zion Church in Harlem, which nearly two centuries ago was in Seneca Village. "It was not just the land that was lost, it was the community and the feeling of community," said Rev. The city took over the land through eminent domain to create a park for its growing population. Historians believe about a third of the population was Irish.īut in the 1850s, after just thirty years, it all came to an end. "In the first half of the 19th Century, if you were African-American and you owned property, you actually got the right to vote so that was another incentive to owning property," said Warsh. It had a population of 225 people and contained churches, a school and dozens of homes, many of them owned by free African-Americans, who had entered the middle class. The village stretched from what is now West 83rd to 89th Streets. (Map image courtesy of NYC Municipal Archives) ![]()
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