Editing Washington Heights, Manhattan (section)

===20th century===
[[File:The Riviera at 790 Riverside Drive (Manhattan).jpg|thumb|A 1910 photograph of The Riviera at 156th Street and Riverside Drive]]
In 1915, the tavern was demolished again to build the 3,500-seat [[Coliseum Theatre (Washington Heights)|Coliseum Theatre]], which was demolished in 2021 after denial of its landmark status.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nypl.org/blog/2012/01/13/ghost-light-illuminating-our-citys-theatres-rko-coliseum-edition|title=Ghost Light: Illuminating Our City's Theatres: RKO Coliseum|publisher=[[New York Public Library]]|first=Jeremy|last=Megraw|date=January 13, 2012|access-date=April 11, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://patch.com/new-york/washington-heights-inwood/washington-heights-theater-could-be-demolished-soon-report-says|work=[[Patch (website)|Patch]]|date=August 9, 2018|access-date=April 11, 2020|title=Washington Heights Theater Could Be Demolished Soon, Report Says|first=Brendan|last=Krisel}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thecuriousuptowner.com/post/the-100-year-old-coliseum-theater-in-washington-heights-is-now-mostly-rubble|access-date=May 30, 2021|date=November 10, 2020|title=See it: the 100-year-old Coliseum theater in Washington Heights is now mostly rubble|website=The Curious Uptowner}}</ref>

Before the apartment development of the 20th century, many wealthy citizens built grand mansions in Washington Heights. The most famous landowner in the southwest part of the neighborhood was ornithologist [[John James Audubon]], whose estate encompassed the {{convert|20|acres}} from 155th to 158th Street west of Broadway.<ref name="audubonparkhd"/>{{Rp|7}} A mystery surrounds his family home by [[Riverside Drive (Manhattan)|Riverside Drive]], which was deconstructed and moved to a city lot to make room for new development in 1931, only for its remnants to vanish without a trace.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/realestate/audubons-home-and-columbus-circles-past.html|title=Audubon's Home, and Columbus Circle's Past|work=The New York Times|access-date=April 11, 2020|date=November 27, 2005|first=Christopher|last=Gray}}</ref>

On the eastern side, by Edgecombe Avenue between 160th and 162nd Streets, the [[Morris–Jumel Mansion]] has been successfully preserved to this day.<ref name="morrisjumelwebsite">{{cite web|url=https://www.morrisjumel.org/history|title=History – Morris-Jumel Mansion|access-date=May 11, 2020|website=www.morrisjumel.org}}</ref> The land of the estate had been owned by Jan Kiersen and her son-in-law Jacob Dyckman before it was bought by British colonel [[Roger Morris (British Army officer)|Roger Morris]] in 1765 and completed the same year.<ref name="heightseventful"/>{{Rp|120}}<ref name="jumelterracehd">{{cite web|url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/0638.pdf|title=Jumel Terrace Historic District|access-date=May 11, 2020|publisher=[[New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission]]|date=August 18, 1970}}</ref>{{Rp|1}} In 1776, the house was commandeered as a headquarters by George Washington, and after changing hands a few times was purchased by Stephen and [[Eliza Jumel]] in 1810.<ref name="greateststreet"/>{{Rp|318}} In 1903, the City bought the mansion and it became a museum, the oldest surviving house in Manhattan.<ref name="Renner"/>{{Rp|11}}<ref name="jumelterracehd"/>{{Rp|1}}

With a picturesque view of [[The Palisades (Hudson River)|the Palisades]], the elevated ridge of northwest Washington Heights became the site of a few modern castles. The first of these was Libbey Castle, built by Augustus Richards after he purchased the land from Lucius Chittenden in 1855.<ref name="heightseventful"/>{{Rp|160}} Located near Margaret Corbin Circle,<ref name="creatingthecloisters">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p5lbloWdrisC|title=Creating the Cloisters|first=Timothy|last=Husband|year=2013|publisher=[[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]|isbn=9781588394880}}</ref>{{Rp|23}} this estate was once owned by [[William "Boss" Tweed]] but got its current name from William Libbey, who purchased it in 1880.<ref name="castlesinthesky">{{cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/features/2013/castles-in-the-sky|title=A Neighborhood of Castles in the Sky: Washington Heights before The Cloisters|publisher=[[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]|access-date=May 12, 2020|date=November 15, 2013|first=Danielle|last=Oteri}}</ref> Even more extravagant, Paterno Castle was situated on the estate of real estate developer [[Charles Paterno]] by the Hudson River at 181st Street.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://forgotten-ny.com/2000/12/postcards-from-the-edge-of-town/|access-date=May 12, 2020|website=[[Forgotten NY]]|date=December 22, 2000|title=Postcards From the Edge of Town}}</ref> Built in 1907, the mansion was demolished thirty years later for Paterno's [[Castle Village]] complex, where pieces of the original structure still remain.<ref name="Renner"/>{{Rp|12}}<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1938/08/07/archives/paterno-castle-to-be-demolished-6000000-apartment-project-planned.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=August 7, 1938|title=Paterno Castle To Be Demolished – $6,000,000 Apartment Project Planned by Dr. Paterno Overlooking Hudson – Five Houses To Be Built – Occupy Seven-Acre Tract on Washington Heights South of Tryon Park Project to Cost $6,000,000 Large Landscape Area|access-date=May 12, 2020}}</ref>

The neighborhood's largest estate was the property of industrial tycoon [[C. K. G. Billings]], taking up {{convert|25|acres}} in the southern part of Fort Tryon Park.<ref name="Renner"/>{{Rp|20}}<ref name="creatingthecloisters"/> Although the [[Louis XIV]]-style mansion at present-day Linden Terrace burned to the ground in 1925, Billings Terrace remains, supported by the elegant stone archway that originally led to the Billings mansion.<ref name="forttryonhd"/>{{Rp|10}}<ref name="castlesinthesky"/>

Initial residential development in Washington Heights began in the late 19th century with the construction of row and wood-frame houses in the southern portion of the neighborhood, particularly near [[Tenth Avenue (Manhattan)|Amsterdam Avenue]].<ref name="jumelterracehd"/>{{Rp|2}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-09f1-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99|title=Atlas of the City of New York – Plate 30: Bounded by W. 166th Street, Croton Aqueduct, Edgecomb Road, W. 155th Street, Exterior Street (Harlem River), W. 147th Street and (Hudson River) Eleventh Avenue|first=E.|last=Robinson|date=1885|access-date=July 23, 2020|publisher=[[New York Public Library]], Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations}}</ref> In 1886, the [[Third Avenue Railway]] was extended from 125th Street to 155th Street along Amsterdam Avenue.<ref>{{cite book|first=Charles L.|last=Ballard|title=Metropolitan New York's Third Avenue Railway System|publisher=[[Arcadia Publishing]]|year=2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IieuDuvtohUC|isbn=9780738538105}}</ref>{{Rp|7}} However, higher residential density would not be supported until the extension of the [[Interborough Rapid Transit Company]] (IRT)'s [[Early history of the IRT subway|first subway line]] (now part of the [[IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line|Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line]]).<ref name=citytrenches/>{{Rp|76}} The IRT built the [[157th Street station|157th Street]], [[168th Street station (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)|168th Street]], [[181st Street station (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)|181st Street]], and [[Dyckman Street station (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)|Dyckman Street]] stations between 1904 and 1906 (the [[191st Street station]] opened as an [[infill station]] in 1911).<ref name="audubonparkhd"/>{{Rp|12}}<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oJ5RAAAAYAAJ|title=Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide|date=November 12, 1904|publisher=F. W. Dodge Corporation|access-date=May 16, 2020}}</ref>{{Rp|1026}}<ref>{{cite book|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112111474968|title=1910–1911 Annual Report of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company For The Year Ended June 30, 1911|publisher=[[Interborough Rapid Transit Company]]|year=1911|access-date=May 16, 2020}}</ref>{{Rp|60}}

Although skyrocketing land values sparked early predictions that upper-class apartment buildings would dominate the neighborhood, such development was limited in the pre-[[World War I]] period to the [[Audubon Park Historic District, New York City|Audubon Park]] area west of Broadway and south of 158th Street.<ref name=CB/>{{Rp|14}}<ref name=citytrenches>{{cite book|title=City Trenches: Urban Politics and the Patterning of Class in the United States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-U3XAAAAQBAJ&q=city+trenches+ira+katznelson+%22the+making+of+northern+manhattan%22&pg=PT107|year=1981|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|first=Ira|last=Katznelson|isbn=9780307833402}}</ref>{{Rp|75}} Buildings such as the 13-story Riviera included elaborate decor and generous amenities to attract higher-paying tenants.<ref name="audubonparkhd"/>{{Rp|15}}

The southern and eastern parts of Washington Heights experienced a construction boom in the years leading up to [[World War I]].<ref name=citytrenches/>{{Rp|77}} The downtown access provided by the IRT prompted a rapid increase in density through the proliferation of five- and six-story [[New Law Tenement]]s, the vast majority of which remain.<ref name=Lowenstein>{{cite book|title=[[Frankfurt-on-the-Hudson|Frankfurt on the Hudson: The German-Jewish Community of Washington Heights, 1933–1983, Its Structure and Culture]]|publisher=[[Wayne State University Press]]|year=1989|first=Steven M.|last=Lowenstein|isbn=978-0814323854}}</ref> Many of the new residents came from crowded immigrant neighborhoods such as the [[Lower East Side]],<ref name=CB/>{{Rp|15}} which saw its density halved between 1910 and 1930.<ref name="pop1890to1930">{{cite book|title=Population of the City of New York, 1890–1930|first=Walter|last=Laidlaw|year=1932|publisher=Cities Census Committee|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x001640473}}</ref>{{Rp|73}}  As a result of the development of new housing, the total population of Manhattan north of 155th Street grew from just 8,000 in 1900 to 110,000 by 1920.<ref name="pop1890to1930"/>{{Rp|53}} The incoming residents of Washington Heights were a diverse group of people of European descent. In 1920, nearly half were [[Protestantism in the United States|Protestant]], most of whom had parents born in the United States; the remainder was split between [[Judaism|Jews]] and [[Catholic Church|Catholics]], typically immigrants or born to immigrant parents.<ref name="pop1890to1930"/>{{Rp|292}}

The next wave of urbanization for Washington Heights came in the 1920s, coinciding with the construction boom occurring across the city.<ref name=citytrenches/>{{Rp|79}} The population increased significantly in the central area west of Broadway, and drastically in the area north of 181st Street, populating the last of the undeveloped areas just south and west of Fort Tryon Park.<ref name="pop1890to1930"/>{{Rp|93}} Transit for new residents was improved with the construction of the [[Independent Subway System]] (IND)'s [[IND Eighth Avenue Line|Eighth Avenue Line]] in 1932, with stops at [[175th Street station (IND Eighth Avenue Line)|175th Street]], [[181st Street station (IND Eighth Avenue Line)|181st Street]], and [[190th Street station (IND Eighth Avenue Line)|190th Street]] along [[Fort Washington Avenue]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Gay Midnight Crowd Rides First Trains in the Subway; Throngs at Stations an Hour Before Time, Rush Turnstiles When Chains Are Dropped. No Official Ceremonies But West Side Business Group Celebrates Midnight Event With Ride and Dinner. Last Rehearsals Smooth Delaney, Fullen and Aides Check First Hour of Pay Traffic From Big Times Square Station. New Subway Opens; Trains Crowded|first=Paul|last=Crowell|date=September 10, 1932|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=August 20, 2020|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1932/09/10/archives/gay-midnight-crowd-rides-first-trains-in-the-subway-throngs-at.html}}</ref>

The demographics of the neighborhood were undergoing significant change. While the [[Protestantism|Protestant]] population remained stagnant, first- and second-generation [[Irish Americans|Irish]] and [[Eastern European Jews]] continued to move in<!-- (the Irish, however, were most concentrated in Inwood)-->.<ref name=citytrenches/>{{Rp|79}} By 1930, nearly a quarter of Manhattan's Jewish residents lived north of 155th Street.<ref name=neighborsinconflict/>{{Rp|152}} The neighborhood also saw an influx of [[German Jew]]s escaping [[Nazism]] in the 1930s and 1940s, a history documented by Steven M. Lowenstein's book ''[[Frankfurt-on-the-Hudson]]'' (a nickname referencing the origin city of many in the diaspora).<ref name=Lowenstein/>{{Rp|25}} One attractive aspect of Washington Heights for German Jews was likely its [[Eastern Europe]]an Jewish presence, but an economic pull was its abundance of housing stock from the 1920s construction boom.<ref name=CB/>{{Rp|16}} Although rents were higher than average, many landlords offered some free rent to draw new tenants, and apartments were nonetheless spacious for their cost.<ref name=Lowenstein/>{{Rp|45}}

In the first half of the 20th century, tensions broke out between Catholics and Jews, who were not very segregated residentially but remained in separate social spheres.<ref>{{cite book|title=The New York Irish|year=1997|publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]]|editor1-first=Ronald H.|editor1-last=Bayor|editor2-first=Timothy|editor2-last=Meager|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WfCmS90xyEIC|isbn=9780801857645}}</ref>{{Rp|439}} Around the start of [[World War II]], Irish groups such as the [[Christian Front (United States)|Christian Front]] arose, drawing large crowds to their [[antisemitism|antisemitic]] rallies, coupled with the vandalism of synagogues and beating of Jewish youth by Irish youth in gangs such as the Amsterdams.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23887201|access-date=February 23, 2021|first=Stephen H.|last=Norwood|publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]]|journal=[[American Jewish History]]|date=June 2003|volume=91|issue=2|title=Marauding Youth and the Christian Front: Antisemitic Violence in Boston and New York During World War II|pages=233–267|doi=10.1353/ajh.2004.0055|jstor=23887201|s2cid=162237834|url-access=subscription}}</ref>{{Rp|236}}<ref name=neighborsinconflict/>{{Rp|155}} After continual charges of police negligence, a committee was created to combat the violence and many members of the Irish gangs were arrested. By 1944, the local Catholic Clergy were pressured to speak out against the prejudice, and Jews, Catholics, and Protestants began working together on solutions to ease the tensions.<ref name=neighborsinconflict/>{{Rp|157}}

Around this time, Washington Heights also gained its first substantial population of black residents, by 1943 numbering around 3,000 and concentrated mainly in the southeastern part of the neighborhood.<ref name=1940swhprofile/> The black population of Washington Heights was dwarfed, however, by that of [[Hamilton Heights]], where white residents were 63% of the population in 1943.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/347374/m21-profile.pdf|title=1943 Profile of the City College, Manhattan area|date=1943|access-date=August 20, 2020|publisher=[[Graduate Center, CUNY]]}}</ref> It was during this period that the popular boundary of Washington Heights shifted from 135th Street to 155th Street, as many residents of European descent refused to include African Americans in their conception of the neighborhood.<ref name=encnyc2/>{{Rp|4585}} This attitude was expressed in a phrase heard in the time period: "Washington Heights begins where Harlem ends."<ref name=CB/>{{Rp|33}}<ref name=citytrenches/>{{Rp|125}} In fact, many of the neighborhood's new Jewish arrivals had left from Harlem as it became increasingly populated by black people from the South during the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]].<ref name=neighborsinconflict/>{{Rp|152}}<ref name=encnyc2/>{{Rp|1890}}

====Segregation and racism====
[[File:555 Edgecombe Avenue from south.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1|[[555 Edgecombe Avenue]]]]
[[File:St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church 124 Wadsworth Avenue.jpg|thumb|upright=1|[[St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church]]]]
Despite the growth of the black population, racial segregation remained very rigid. While in the vast majority of blocks less than 2% of housing units were occupied by non-white residents, nearly every block east of Amsterdam Avenue and south of 165th Street was over 90% non-white by 1950.<ref name=1950manhattanblockstats>{{cite book|title=1950 United States Census of Housing: Manhattan Borough Block Statistics|author=[[United States Census Bureau]]|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office]]|access-date=August 29, 2020|year=1952|url=https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1950/housing-volume-5/15870149v5p6ch03.pdf}}</ref>{{Rp|38}}

The process underlying this segregation is exemplified in the history of one of Washington Heights' most famous apartment buildings: [[555 Edgecombe Avenue]]. Built in 1914, the 14-story building rented to various relatively affluent white people until 1939, when the owner cancelled all the tenants' leases and began renting exclusively to black people.<ref name=555edgecombe>{{cite web|url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1862.pdf|title=555 Edgecombe Avenue Apartments|access-date=August 30, 2020|publisher=[[New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission]]|date=June 15, 1993}}</ref>{{Rp|5}} While organizations like the Neighborhood Protective Association of Washington Heights had kept the neighborhood virtually all-white throughout much of the 20th century,<ref>{{cite book|title=Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto|first=Gilbert|last=Osofsky|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|url=https://archive.org/stream/harlemmakingofgh00osof?ref=ol0|year=1971|isbn=9781566631044}}</ref>{{Rp|248}} the overcrowded conditions of Harlem led to growth in demand for apartments outside the neighborhood.<ref name="Schneider">{{cite book|first=Eric C.|last=Schneider|title=Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings: Youth Gangs in Postwar New York|year=1999|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|access-date=August 20, 2020|isbn=9780691074542|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1NhTzoKrUVkC}}</ref>{{Rp|35}}

Throughout the 1940s, the building had a number of notable black residents, such as [[Paul Robeson]], [[Kenneth Clark (psychologist)|Kenneth Clark]], and [[Count Basie]].<ref name=555edgecombe/>{{Rp|6}} The presence of middle-class black people in 555 Edgecombe and other higher-class buildings in southeast Washington Heights led many to associate it with [[Sugar Hill, Manhattan|Sugar Hill]], the Harlem sub-neighborhood spanning between Edgecombe Avenue and Amsterdam Avenue to its south.<ref name=555edgecombe/>{{Rp|4}}

In addition to segregation, racism also manifested itself in gang culture, where youth often defined themselves by race or ethnicity and violently defended their respective territories. These tensions were brought to a climax in 1957, with the assault of two teenagers of European ancestry, Michael Farmer and Roger McShane, members of the majority-Irish "Jesters" gang.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vsSiXoVuKTIC|year=1970|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|first=Robert|last=Hamlett Bremner|author-link=Robert H. Bremner|isbn=9780674116139|title=Children and Youth in America: A Documentary History, Volumes 2-3}}</ref>{{Rp|1043}}<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/vics-early-gang-violence-beaten-clash-nyc-pool-article-1.3312175|access-date=February 23, 2021|first=Mara|last=Bovsun|title=Two victims of early gang violence pummeled, stabbed by warring factions at NYC pool|date=July 9, 2017|work=[[New York Daily News]]}}</ref> The incident took place in the [[Highbridge Pool]], a [[Works Progress Administration]]-funded pool built in 1936 which had no racial restrictions but was nonetheless an environment of racial hostility in the changing landscape of the neighborhood.<ref name=CB/>{{Rp|48}}

The assault, which ended in Michael Farmer's death, was perpetrated by an alliance of the African-American Egyptian Kings and the Puerto Rican Dragons, both based in West Harlem just south of the Heights. The supposed motive for the attack was to counter the perception that Highbridge Pool was "owned" by the Jesters, and black and Latino youths were often called racial slurs and chased away from the surrounding blocks.<ref name="Schneider"/>{{Rp|79}} As Eric Schneider analyzes in ''Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings: Youth Gangs in Postwar New York,'' the incident illustrated the effects of the neighborhood's demographic shift: The Jesters defined themselves as fighting against black and Latino occupancy of the neighborhood even as they included newly arrived black people in their ranks (similar diversity was seen in the membership of the Dragons and Egyptian Kings).<ref name="Schneider"/>{{Rp|88}}

====White flight and Latino immigration====
While signs were slowly appearing for the first half of the 20th century that Washington Heights would not forever be a neighborhood of European Americans, the 1960s and 1970s featured full force demographic shifts. Washington Heights' upwardly mobile white residents began to leave in great numbers, and lower-income Latino population saw great increases.<ref name=CB/>{{Rp|138}} Apart from the allure of suburban homes and their economic capacity to buy them, white residents were spurred to leave by the demographic changes themselves, increasing negligence of residential buildings, and rising crime (having more than doubled between 1969 and 1982).<ref name=CB/>{{Rp|128}}<ref name=Lowenstein/>{{Rp|224}} Compared to the [[white flight]] occurring in other neighborhoods such as the West Bronx, the process was much slower and less destructive as few buildings were outright abandoned or burned.<ref name=CB/>{{Rp|156}}<ref name=Lowenstein/>{{Rp|216}}

While [[Stateside Puerto Ricans|Puerto Ricans]] had been the dominant Latino group in the 1950s, by 1965 [[Cuban Americans|Cubans]] and [[Dominican Americans|Dominicans]] had overtaken them in number, and by 1970 native [[Spanish language|Spanish]] speakers were the majority group in central-eastern census tracts.<ref name=Lowenstein/>{{Rp|215}} Despite being a smaller group, Cuban immigrants in the Heights had an outsized role in business, owning, according to a 1976 estimate, the majority of Latino-owned stores.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/08/12/archives/spanish-influx-felt-in-washington-heights-spanish-influx-felt-in.html|title=Spanish Influx Felt in Washington Heights|date=August 12, 1976|first=Richard|last=Severo|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=August 12, 2020}}</ref> The neighborhood's black population also increased, numbering over 25,000 by 1980, and residing in all areas of the neighborhood while remaining a plurality in the southeastern section.<ref name=Lowenstein/>{{Rp|215}}

While the overall trend was of exodus among white residents, the rate of this trend varied among different groups. One of the most pronounced changes occurred with [[Greek Americans|Greek]] immigrants, who had reached their peak in the 1950s with the establishment of [[St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church]] and an accompanying school, only to see within two decades nearly all of the congregation had left for the suburbs.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/nyregion/thecity/25gree.html|title=Its Flock Dwindling, a Greek Parish Reaches Out and Spruces Up|date=June 25, 2006|first=Alex|last=Mindlin|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=August 12, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.saintspyridon.net/welcome-to-st.-spyridon/history-of-our-community|title=History of Our Parish|publisher=[[St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church]]|access-date=January 18, 2021}}</ref> On the other hand, the German Jewish exodus was characterized by a decrease in overall population but an increasing presence in the neighborhood's northwestern corner.<ref name=Lowenstein/>{{Rp|216}} By the 1970s, evidence of the exodus of the broader Jewish community was present in the changing landscape of the neighborhood, where [[Kashrut|kosher]] stores and Jewish bakeries were gradually replaced by new small businesses with signs in Spanish.<ref name=Lowenstein/>{{Rp|218}}

While some Dominican immigrants had been arriving in Washington Heights throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the pace increased drastically during the regime of [[Joaquín Balaguer]], who took power in 1966 following the [[Dominican Civil War]].<ref name=dominicanprofile1990>{{cite book|title=Dominican New Yorkers: A Socioeconomic Profile, 1990|year=1995|first1=Ramona|last1=Hernández|first2=Francisco|last2=Rivera-Batiz|first3=Roberto|last3=Agodini|author-link1=Ramona Hernández|publisher=[[CUNY Dominican Studies Institute]]|url=https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=dsi_pubs}}</ref>{{Rp|12}} The combination of the recent passing of the U.S. [[Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965]], Balaguer's policy of freely granting passports, and the Dominican Republic's high unemployment rate created the conditions for growing emigration from the Dominican Republic to the United States.<ref name=mobilityofworkers>{{cite book|first=Ramona|last=Hernández|author-link=Ramona Hernández|year=2002|publisher=[[Columbia University Press]]|title=The Mobility of Workers Under Advanced Capitalism: Dominican Migration to the United States|isbn=9780231505185|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hguAUOXscvwC}}</ref>{{Rp|58}} Some of the initial migrants were left-wing revolutionaries exiled by the Balaguer regime, theorized to have been granted visas through an unwritten agreement with the United States, but the majority of arrivals came for better economic opportunities.<ref name=mobilityofworkers/>{{Rp|58}}<ref>{{cite book|url=https://journals.dartmouth.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Journals.woa/1/xmlpage/2/article/104|access-date=February 9, 2021|publisher=[[Dartmouth College]]|first=Julissa|last=Reynoso|title=Dominican Immigrants and Social Capital in New York City: A Case Study}}</ref>

In ''Quisqueya on the Hudson: The Transnational Identity of Dominicans in Washington Heights,'' Jorge Duany describes how Washington Heights developed as a "transnational community", continually defined by its connection to the [[Dominican Republic]].<ref name=Quisqueya>{{cite book|last=Duany|first=Jorge|year=2008|edition=2nd|title=Quisqueya on the Hudson: The Transnational Identity of Dominicans in Washington Heights|url=https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=dsi_pubs|publisher=[[CUNY Dominican Studies Institute]]}}</ref> The majority of Dominican immigrants viewed their stay in the United States as purely economically motivated while they remained culturally attached to the Dominican Republic; many also sent [[remittance]]s home, imagining an eventual retirement to the island.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Morrison|first1=Thomas K.|last2=Sinkin|first2=Richard|title=International Migration in the Dominican Republic: Implications for Development Planning|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2546161|journal=The International Migration Review|year=1982|volume=16|issue=4|pages=819–836|doi=10.2307/2546161|jstor=2546161|pmid=12265312|access-date=February 2, 2021|url-access=subscription}}</ref>{{Rp|823}}

====School conflicts====
[[File:George Washington Educational Campus from north.jpg|thumb|[[George Washington Educational Campus]]]]
During the 1970s, Washington Heights' School District 6 (including Inwood and Hamilton Heights) was the scene of numerous conflicts over [[de facto]] [[racial segregation]] and unequal resource distribution within the district's schools.<ref name=citytrenches/>{{Rp|156}} The School Decentralization Act, passed by the [[New York State Legislature]] in 1969, set up elected boards for New York City's school districts with limited hiring power and control over [[Title I]] funds.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/144227931.pdf|access-date=April 24, 2021|first=Kenneth R.|last=McGrail|volume=5|issue=2|title=New York City School Decentralization: The Respective Powers of the City Board of Education and the Community School Boards|year=1977|journal=[[Fordham Urban Law Journal]]}}</ref>{{Rp|271}}<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/12/11/archives/a-history-of-decentralization.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=April 1, 2021|date=December 11, 1971|title=A History of Decentralization}}</ref> At the time, District 6's demographics were rapidly changing due to white students' withdrawal from the public school system and the broader trend of white flight, while the black and Latino student population rapidly increased.<ref name=citytrenches/>{{Rp|157}}

This resulted in a stark gap between the district's few racially integrated schools, which enjoyed better academic reputations and access to resources, and the remainder of schools with very few white students and serious overcrowding problems.<ref name=citytrenches/>{{Rp|162}}<ref name=CB/>{{Rp|94}} Fierce competition between different factions for educational funding and new schools was compounded by the disproportionate representation of the majority-white northwestern Heights on the board, creating an environment in which public meetings were plagued by incivility and at times even violence.<ref name=citytrenches/>{{Rp|153}}

George Washington High School, located on 193rd Street and Audubon Avenue near [[Highbridge Park]], faced numerous issues representative of the changes and conflicts of the neighborhood's public schools, which intersected in 1970 to produce a situation of extreme chaos.<ref name=CB/>{{Rp|99}} Located in a grand building with a [[Works Progress Administration]] mural by [[Lucienne Bloch]],<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1991/11/18/music-and-art|first=Mindy|last=Aloff|date=November 10, 1991|title=Music and Art|access-date=April 1, 2021|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]}}</ref> the school was relatively prestigious in the decades after its 1925 founding, graduating people such as [[Alan Greenspan]], [[Henry Kissinger]], and [[Murray Jarvik]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World|last=Greenspan|first=Alan|author-link=Alan Greenspan|publisher=Penguin Press|year=2007|isbn=978-1-59420-131-8|oclc=122973403|title-link=The Age of Turbulence}}</ref>{{Rp|24}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Isaacson|first=Walter|author-link=Walter Isaacson|title=Kissinger: A Biography|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]|date=1992|isbn=978-0-671-66323-0|url=https://archive.org/details/kissinger00walt}}</ref>{{Rp|37}}<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/health/13jarvik.html|first=Bruce|last=Weber|date=May 13, 2008|work=[[The New York Times]]|title=Murray Jarvik, 84, Whose Research Helped Lead to Nicotine Patch, Dies}}</ref> Although George Washington remained racially mixed through the early 1970s, the school had a tracking system that saw white students leave the school better prepared for college, and violence frequently broke out among gangs identifying by race.<ref name=CB/>{{Rp|100}}

Discontent with academics and school policy led to a wave of student demonstrations, supported by a group of parents who pushed to set up an information table in the school's lobby in order to answer questions and hear complaints regarding the school.<ref name=CB/>{{Rp|102}} However, the [[United Federation of Teachers]] – which had also clashed with students and parents over the [[New York City school boycott|1964 school boycott]]<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/02/04/archives/boycott-cripples-city-schools-absences-360000-above-normal-negroes.html|date=February 4, 1964|access-date=April 1, 2021|title=Boycott Cripples City Schools; Absences 360,000 Above Normal; Negroes and Puerto Ricans Unite; School Boycott Keeps Hundreds of Thousands of City Pupils Away; Picketing is Calm in Racial Protest; 2,600 Marchers Show Up at Buildings – Donovan Is Critical of Leaders|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> and the [[New York City teachers' strike of 1968|1968 teachers' strike]]<ref name=citytrenches/>{{Rp|156}} – perceived this as an attempt to subvert teachers' authority, leading them to start a local strike after the administration reached a compromise with parents over the table.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/03/07/archives/head-of-george-washington-high-school-resigns.html|first=Martin|last=Arnold|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=April 1, 2021|date=March 7, 1970|title=Head of George Washington High School Resigns}}</ref>

By the end of 1970, the high school had seen the resignation of three principals and multiple incidents of violence against students, teachers, and security guards;<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/12/03/archives/washington-high-gets-fourth-principal-this-year.html|first=C. Gerald|last=Frase|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=April 1, 2021|date=December 3, 1970|title=Washington High Gets Fourth Principal This Year}}</ref> while many safety improvements were made throughout the 1970s, its academic performance continued to decline.<ref name=CB/>{{Rp|109}}<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/01/archives/washington-high-from-riot-to-hope-washington-high-from-riot-to-hope.html|first=William K.|last=Stevens|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=April 1, 2021|date=June 1, 1971|title=Washington High: From riot to Hope}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/19/nyregion/albany-issues-list-of-schools-in-trouble.html|first=Sam Howe|last=Verhovek|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=April 1, 2021|date=December 19, 1989|title=Albany Issues List of Schools In Trouble}}</ref> In 1999, the school took its present form as the [[George Washington Educational Campus]] composed of four smaller schools.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/26/nyregion/coach-steve-mandls-suspension-erased-by-city-school-officials.html|first=Eric P.|last=Newcomer|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=April 1, 2021|date=June 25, 2012|title=Education Dept. Retracts School Coach's Suspension}}</ref>