Marble Hill is the northernmost neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is bordered by Johnson Avenue on the west, 230th Street on the north, Broadway on the east, and Spuyten Duyvil Creek to the south. Although Marble Hill is legally considered part of Manhattan, it is physically connected to the borough of the Bronx and is not part of the island of Manhattan.
The area later known as Marble Hill became a Dutch colonial settlement in 1646. It served as a crossing point to the mainland when the colonial British had the King's Bridge constructed in 1693 to span the Spuyten Duyvil Creek. It gained its name in 1891 from the Inwood marble deposits discovered underneath the neighborhood. At one time, Marble Hill was part of the island of Manhattan. The neighborhood became a separate island in 1817 when two small streams were dug up to form a narrow canal that separated Marble Hill from the rest of Manhattan. In 1895, the canal was expanded and became the Harlem River Ship Canal. Marble Hill remained an island until it was physically connected to the Bronx by land reclamation in 1913.
Marble Hill is accessible from the rest of Manhattan by the Broadway Bridge. The neighborhood has Bronx area codes and a Bronx ZIP code; furthermore, it is part of Bronx Community District 8 and is served by the New York City Police Department's 50th Precinct, headquartered in the Bronx.
History Colonial era Marble Hill has been occupied since the Dutch colonial period. On August 18, 1646, Governor Willem Kieft, the Dutch Director of New Netherland, signed a land grant to Mattius Jansen van Keulan and Huyck Aertsen which included the area later known as Marble Hill. Johannes Verveelen petitioned the Harlem authorities to move his ferry from what is now the East River and 125th Street to Spuyten Duyvil Creek because the creek was shallow enough to wade across, thus providing a means of evading the toll. The ferry charter was granted in 1667. Many settlers circumvented the toll for the ferry by crossing the creek from northern Marble Hill to modern Kingsbridge, Bronx, a point where it was feasible to wade or swim through the waters.* In 1669 Verveelen transplanted his ferry to the northern tip of Marble Hill, which later became the intersection of Broadway and West 231st Street.
Two bridges connected Marble Hill with the mainland: the King's Bridge and the Dyckman Free Bridge. In 1693 Frederick Philipse, a Frisian-born merchant who had sworn allegiance to the Crown upon the British takeover of Dutch New Netherlands in 1664, built the King's Bridge at Marble Hill near what is now West 230th Street in the Bronx. A prominent trader in New Amsterdam, Philipse had purchased vast landholdings in what was then Westchester County during the 1670s and 1680s. Granted the title Lord of Philipse Manor, he established a plantation and provisioning depot for his shipping business upriver on the Hudson River in present-day Sleepy Hollow. His toll bridge provided access and opened his land to settlement. Later, it carried the Boston Post Road. In 1758, the Free Bridge was erected by Jacob Dyckman and Benjamin Palmer. It opened on January 1, 1759. Its purpose was to serve the farmers who refused to pay the toll. Stagecoach service was later established across the span. The new bridge proceeded to take much of the traffic away from the King's Bridge.
One of the local visiting spots during this period was a tavern operated by the Dyckman family, which also owned the Dyckman House. The tavern was situated to cater to the traffic from both bridges. In 1772 the Dyckmans sold the tavern to Caleb Hyatt, known afterwards as Hyatt's Tavern at the Free Bridge. The Dyckmans used the proceeds to finance a new operation on the west side of Broadway and 226th Street that was to be managed by Benjamin Palmer, who owned property on City Island.
American Revolution
When hostilities broke out at the start of the American Revolution, the Continental Army constructed a fort on Marble Hill as part of a series of forts to defend the area. By November 1776, the fort had been taken over by Hessian forces and renamed Fort Prince Charles in honor of Charles, Duke of Brunswick, brother-in-law to George III. Despite contrary beliefs, the King's Bridge and the Dyckman Free Bridge served as escape routes for the retreating American forces after the Battle of Fort Washington on November 16, 1776. The latter of these bridges was destroyed during the war. In January 1777, an American attack was made in the Marble Hill area against the Hessian occupiers. This particular raid was under the command of General William Heath, which, when the cannons opened up, forced the Hessians to retreat from the tavern to the fort to return fire.
19th century Hyatt's Tavern remained in the Hyatt family until 1807, when it was leased to James Devoe. The building was eventually razed, succeeded by the Kingsbridge Hotel on the east side of Broadway at 226th Street. The hotel had a mansard roof and a central turret. It catered to the anglers and sportsman who came to the area either by the Hudson River Railroad Company or boat service up the Harlem River. One of the meals served at the hotel was turtle dinner, which became a favorite of the guests. The hotel's business declined when Broadway was widened and interest was lost in the community. The hotel eventually fell into disrepair and was torn down in 1917.
Philipse Manor was forfeited to the state legislature after the war. Afterward, the King's Bridge was free. In 1817, Curtis and John Bolton purchased land in the area, laying a road called Bolton Road. Their home was on the south side of the community and included a marble mill.
The name of Marble Hill was conceived by Darius C. Crosby in 1891 from the deposits of marble underlying it. Dolomite marble is a relatively soft rock that crops out in Inwood and Marble Hill, known as Inwood marble. The marble was quarried for the federal buildings in lower Manhattan when New York was the capital of the United States in the 1780s.
Separation from Manhattan Island
Marble Hill formed Manhattan island's northernmost tip. The Spuyten Duyvil Creek flowed to the neighborhood's north, connecting the Hudson and Harlem Rivers. The creek separated Marble Hill from the Bronx, and by extension, the North American mainland. Marble Hill became an island in its own right in 1817, when two small streams were dug up to form a 30-foot-wide canal. This waterway ran 1500 feet east–west from the Spuyten Duyvil Creek to the Harlem River at approximately 222nd Street, cutting off Marble Hill from Manhattan Island. Known at different times as Dyckman's Canal, Boltons’ Canal, or Nichols’ Canal, the waterway once powered Curtis and John Bolton's marble mill, which sat alongside it.Multiple sources:
After an increase in ship traffic in the 1890s, the United States Army Corps of Engineers determined that a wide canal was needed for a shipping route between the Hudson and Harlem rivers. Such a canal had been proposed since the early 19th century. Construction of such a waterway, the Harlem River Ship Channel, finally started in January 1888. The canal was to be in width and had a depth of to . It would be cut directly through the rock of Dyckman's Meadow, making a straight course to the Hudson River.
The first section of the canal, the cut at Marble Hill, was completed in 1895 and opened on June 17 of that year. Several festivities including parades were held to commemorate the occasion. This rendered Marble Hill an island bounded by the canal to the south and the original course of the Harlem River to the north. The Greater New York Charter of 1897 designated Marble Hill as part of the Borough of Manhattan.
20th century A bridge opened over the former Marble Hill alignment of the creek in 1900, carrying Broadway. The bridge's superstructure was moved to be used on the 207th Street bridge about a mile south on the Harlem River, with the construction of the IRT subway above Broadway in 1904.
Connection to the Bronx
Marble Hill remained an island until 1913, when it was physically connected to the Bronx. At that time, the old Spuyten Duyvil Creek was filled in with rocks that were removed to build Grand Central Terminal in central Manhattan.Multiple sources:
Tax Block & Tax Lot Base Map Files on CD-ROM , New York City Department of City Planning. Accessed July 26, 2007. "Marble Hill is a neighborhood that is part of the borough of Manhattan but is administratively often included with neighboring areas of the Bronx. Parts of Marble Hill are within Bronx Community District 7; the rest is within Bronx Community District 8." Both the King's and Dyckman Free Bridges were covered over with landfill. The bridge carrying Broadway over the former alignment of the creek at 230th Street was destroyed in the late 1920s. At 210 West 230th Street (at the southwest corner with Broadway) is a plaque designating the area as the site of the King's Bridge. The site of the Dyckman Free Bridge is located on the grounds of the Marble Hill Houses.
On January 1, 1914, following passage of an act of the New York State Legislature, Bronx County was created, but Marble Hill remained part of New York County.New York. Laws of New York. 1912, 135th Session, Chapter 548, Section 1. p.1352.
Geography Marble Hill is the northernmost neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is part of the borough of Manhattan and was once the northernmost tip of the island of Manhattan. Because of the rerouting of the Spuyten Duyvil Creek from the northern to the southern boundary of Marble Hill in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it is no longer part of the island of Manhattan. Rather, it is physically connected to the borough of the Bronx. The neighborhood is bordered by Johnson Avenue on the west, by 230th Street on the north, by Broadway on the east, and by Spuyten Duyvil Creek to the south.
Marble Hill gained its name from the Inwood marble deposits discovered underneath the neighborhood.
Character Architecture Saint Stephen's United Methodist Church, built in 1898, is located at 228th Street and Marble Hill Avenue. It is the third structure of the same name, as well as one of the oldest remaining buildings in Marble Hill. The congregation was founded on Mosholu Parkway in 1826 and was incorporated a decade later, making it one of the earliest religious institutions in the area. It moved to another structure in Riverdale in 1876. The church building was restored in the 1950s, and again in 2010. One of its corners, the one closest to the intersection, has a tall bell tower. There are circular stained glass windows facing both streets. Inside is an Akron Plan-inspired setup with balconies and an auditorium that is laid out like an amphitheater. One of the pastors of St. Stephen's was Reverend William Tieck, who served the church from 1946 to 1977. Tieck was the official Bronx County historian from 1989 to 1996, authoring several books about the Bronx.
Six-story apartment houses were constructed in the 20th century, and in the early 1950s urban renewal came to the area. A complex was built bounded by Broadway, Exterior Street and 225th Street and was called the Marble Hill Houses. This property was acquired by New York City on August 26, 1948. The houses were completed in 1952. Part of the acquisition became the Marble Hill Playground, which is located on Marble Hill Avenue between 228th and 230th Streets. Despite the name, only seven of the 11 towers are actually in Marble Hill; the other four are in Kingsbridge.