Hamilton Heights-Sugar Hill Historic District

Originally developed for upper-middle-class white residents, the neighborhood was constructed between the late 1880s and the early 1910s, with the long rows of townhouses and fine apartment buildings built on the promise of an up-and-coming area, newly accessible by cable car railroad. The 185 buildings in the district are varied in style, representing neo-Grec, Romanesque Revival and Renaissance Revival.

The district became known as Sugar Hill in the 1930s, when it became home to many accomplished African American professionals in the fields of law, business, literature, music, and arts. The most prestigious address in the district was 409 Edgecombe Avenue; its tenants included Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, painter Aaron Douglas, and scholar W.E.B. DuBois. While in residence at 749 St. Nicholas Avenue, Ralph Ellison wrote his critically acclaimed novel, The Invisible Man. Many jazz clubs and bars associated with the legendary musicians Miles Davis and Charlie “Bird” Parker were located in this district, on St. Nicholas Avenue. ©2014