Residents look back at Sugar Hill

While Harlem is often credited as having been the epicenter of African-American cultural activity, the New York Times identified an area farther north, the corner of Edgecombe Avenue and 155th Street in Sugar Hill, nestled between Hamilton Heights and Washington Heights, as being the true hotbed of African-American talent and intellectualism. One building at 409 Edgecombe Avenue was home to no fewer than three luminaries, Thurgood Marshall, W.E.B. DuBois and Aaron Douglas, the purported “father of black American art,” according to the Times. Another, at 555 Edgecombe Avenue, counted musical prodigies Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkings and Lena Horne as tenants. In this story, residents of the neighborhood look back at how the area shaped their lives.