Inwood, Manhattan
Inwood is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, at the northern tip of Manhattan Island. It is bounded by the Hudson River to the west, Spuyten Duyvil Creek and Marble Hill to the north, the Harlem River to the east, and Washington Heights to the south.
Inwood is part of Manhattan Community District 12, and its primary ZIP Code is 10034. It is served by the 34th Precinct of the New York City Police Department and Engine Company 95/Ladder Company 36 of the New York City Fire Department. Politically, it is part of the New York City Council's 10th district.
History
Lenape history
The north end of Manhattan, with its clam beds, cornfields, and annual fish runs, was described by the National Museum of the American Indian as the "best place to live" on the island before the Dutch and British colonists arrived in the 17th century. There was a large Lenape town straddling the Manhattan and Bronx sides of what is now called the Harlem River. Shorakapkok means 'sitting-down place' in the Munsee language.Colonial history
On May 24, 1626, according to legend, Peter Minuit, the director general of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, bought the island from the indigenous Lenape people for 60 Dutch guilders and, the story goes, some trinkets. On the southern tip of the island Minuit founded New Amsterdam. A plaque marking what is believed to be the spot of the sale is in Inwood Hill Park, the only natural forest left in Manhattan.During the British occupation of Manhattan in the American Revolutionary War, there was an encampment containing more than sixty huts occupied by Hessian troops between 201st and 204th Streets along Payson Avenue. The camp was discovered in 1914 by local archeologist and historian Reginald Bolton after a series of digs around the neighborhood.
19th century to present
The area between 190th and 192nd Streets was occupied by the Fort George Amusement Park, a trolley park/amusement park, from 1895 to 1914. Its site is now a seating area in Highbridge Park, which itself was laid out in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Inwood was a very rural section of Manhattan well into the early 20th century. Once the New York City Subway's IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, the modern, reached Inwood in 1906, speculative developers constructed numerous apartment buildings on the east side of Broadway. Construction continued into the 1930s, when the IND Eighth Avenue Line, the modern, reached Dyckman and 207th Streets along Broadway and the large estates west of Broadway were sold off and developed. Many of Inwood's impressive Art Deco apartment buildings were constructed during this period. The area around Dyckman Street and 10th Avenue formerly contained a stadium called the Dyckman Oval, with a capacity of 4,500 spectators, which hosted football games, boxing matches, and Negro league baseball games until it was demolished in 1938 and replaced by the Dyckman Houses public housing development in 1951.
The last family-owned farm in Manhattan is believed to have been in Inwood, close to the intersection of Broadway and 214th Street. It was operated by the Benedetto family and occupied an entire city block. The farm site was developed after being sold in 1954.
Demographics
For census purposes, the New York City government classifies Inwood as part of a larger neighborhood tabulation area called Inwood and Marble Hill. Based on data from the 2010 United States census, the population of Inwood and Marble Hill was 46,746, a change of −2,341 from the 49,087 counted in 2000. Covering an area of, the neighborhood had a population density of. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 15.1% White, 9.1% African American, 0.1% Native American, 1.9% Asian, 0% Pacific Islander, 0.4% from other races, and 1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 72.4% of the population.The racial composition of Inwood and Marble Hill changed moderately from 2000 to 2010, with the most significant changes being the Black population's decrease by 13% and the Hispanic / Latino population's decrease by 5%. Meanwhile, the White population grew by 5% and remained a minority, as with the Asian population which grew by 11% ; the small population of all other races decreased by 24%.
The entirety of Community District 12, which comprises Inwood and Washington Heights, had 195,830 inhabitants as of NYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 81.4 years. This is about the same as the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are children and middle-aged adults: 33% are between the ages of 25 and 44, while 25% are between 45 and 64, and 19% are between 0 and 17. The ratio of college-aged and elderly residents was lower, at 10% and 13% respectively.
As of 2019, the median household income in Community District 12 was $42,000, compared to $73,000 in Manhattan and $53,000 in the entire city. In 2019, an estimated 25% of Community District 12 residents lived in poverty, compared to 18% in all of Manhattan and 21% in all of New York City. One in eight residents were unemployed, compared to 7% in Manhattan and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 53% in Community District 12, compared to the boroughwide and citywide rates of 45% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation, as of 2018, Community District 12 is considered to be gentrifying: according to the Community Health Profile, the district was low-income in 1990 and has seen above-median rent growth up to 2010.
Trends
The residents of Inwood were substantially of Irish descent for much of the 20th century. The neighborhood exhibited a strong Irish identity with many Irish shops, pubs, and even a Gaelic football field in Inwood Hill Park. The second-largest group during this time was Jewish, an extension of the large Jewish population of Washington Heights. However, in the 1960s through the 1980s, many Irish and Jewish residents moved out to adjoining areas in other boroughs of New York City and the suburbs in a pattern consistent with overall trends in the city at that time. During the same period, there was a rise in the number of Dominican immigrants to the area.Today, Inwood has a predominantly Dominican population, especially in the areas east of Broadway; it has the highest concentration of residents of Dominican descent in New York City. Hispanic residents make up 74 percent of Inwood's population as a whole, according to census data. Nearly half of the residents were born outside the US.
Land use and terrain
Geography
Inwood is physically bounded by the Harlem River to the north and east, and the Hudson River to the west. It extends southward to Fort Tryon Park and alternatively Dyckman Street or Fairview Avenue farther south, depending on the source.While Inwood is the northernmost neighborhood on the island of Manhattan, it is not the northernmost neighborhood of the entire borough of Manhattan. That distinction is held by Marble Hill, a neighborhood situated just north of Inwood, on what is properly the North American mainland bordering the Bronx. Marble Hill was isolated from Inwood and the rest of Manhattan in 1895 when the route of the Harlem River was altered by the construction of the Harlem River Ship Canal.
Geology
, a soft, white, metamorphic rock found in northern Manhattan, takes its name after the neighborhood. From the mid-17th to the late 18th century, commercial quarries dotted the area as the material was used for building construction. However, due to its susceptibility to erosion, builders eventually used alternate construction materials. Inwood marble was quarried for government buildings in lower Manhattan and Washington, D.C. Small pieces of marble can still be seen in the stone retaining walls around Isham Park.The development of Inwood in the early 20th century resulted in the demolition of many rock outcroppings. However, several outcroppings still exist, including on Cooper Street between 204th and 207th Streets; at Broadway and West 216th Street; and in the garden of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church at Seaman Avenue and Cumming Street. The rock on Cooper Street contains a garden maintained by a nearby housing cooperative at 60 Cooper Street, which owns half of the rock.
The seismologically active Dyckman Street Fault runs east–west beneath the Dyckman Valley. As recently as 1989, activity of this fault caused a magnitude 2 earthquake.
Land use
Commercial retail uses are mainly located along Broadway, Dyckman Street and West 207th Street. In recent years Dyckman Street west of Broadway has become a popular entertainment district with many restaurants and lounges. Offices are typically located on second floors over retail, or in the neighborhood's sole office building at Broadway and West 215th Street. Inwood also contains one of Manhattan's few remaining C-8 zoning districts, which concentrates automotive uses on the northern stretches of Broadway.Industrial uses, including depots for subway, bus, and sanitation, exist primarily along Sherman Creek, an inlet of the Harlem River. The creek and surrounding industrial area is bounded by Dyckman Street to the south, Tenth Avenue to the west, and 207th Street to the north. There has been an initiative among politicians over the last few years to re-zone this area for residential and commercial use, and to create public access to the waterfront. Utility company Consolidated Edison and the City of New York own some of the property in this area.
The major residential land use in Inwood is multifamily five- to eight-story prewar apartment buildings. Most of the remaining detached and semi-detached houses on Manhattan Island are located in Inwood, nestled between apartment buildings. Adjacent to Sherman Creek is Inwood's public housing development, known as the Dyckman Houses and constructed in 1951.