Welcome to my “hood”–Inwood district, Manhattan

A woman across the street anwers her phone. Her voice is a blend of banshee and bullhorn: “Hiya, GAW-jess. How AAH ya? TAWK to me, Baby.”

Could I be anywhere but New York City?

For the past three weeks, I’ve been living a block off Broadway (yes, THAT Broadway) at the tip of Manhattan Island. This is the Inwood District. No tourists come here because there is nothing to attract them. Since you’ve probably never been here, either, let me show you around.

way, WAY off-Broadway

This northernmost bit of Manhattan is surrounded on three sides by water (it’s an island–really!)—the majestic Hudson River to the west and the Harlem River to the north and east. It’s bisected by THAT Broadway, which looks much different here. (What a difference a few miles make!) On the west side of Broadway are lovely 1930s-style buildings that  have attracted young families, creative types–basically, people looking for lower rents and easy access to downtown Manhattan. I can personally attest to this, having seen lots of strollers and pregger bellies on the street and having been entertained every afternoon by an operatic baritone somewhere in the building. Even more entertaining is the woman who thinks she’s an opera singer. A few of the old lace-curtain Irish still live here, too. Like Mary in the next apartment.

ginkgo trees and 1930s buildings

Inwood Hill Park dominates this area west of Broadway. The park comprises almost 200 acres that somehow escaped development and, unlike Central Park, is a remnant of unplanned, untampered-with nature in Manhattan.

I tried to reach the Hudson River on the west boundary of the park and got so lost that I began to think I’d emerge in the Bronx. I could have been on a hike in a remote forest but for the noise of tires on the parkway and the occasional glimpse of high-rise buildings.

remnant

A path through Inwood. Does this look like Manhattan?

glimpse across the Hudson-Inwood Hill Park

Other attractions in Inwood west of Broadway (I’ll explore the east side in the next post):

• Dyckman Farmhouse. Perched on the corner of Broadway and 204^th is an old farmhouse. I overlooked it at first, and then saw the roof peeking through the shrubbery behind the stream of buses, taxis, pedestrians and traffic.
  

  Dyckman House, corner of Broadway and 204th

The Dyckman House is one of the original Dutch farmhouses on Manhattan that has survived since the Revolutionary War. Successive generations of Dyckmans lived in the house until the 1870s when the 250-acre farm was sold, probably in bits and pieces, by the heirs (cha-ching!). The crumbling house was later rescued by the scions of the family and was left to the city in 1910.

• Good Shepherd Church. Originally attended by the neighborhood’s Irish population, the Franciscans who run it now say as many masses in Spanish as in English. Perched grandly on Broadway across from Isham Park, the church is always open, and a steady stream of people come and go, some for a quick visit, some with apparently heavy burdens, some just to find respite from the street.
  

  Good Shepherd Church

Beside the church is an iron cross salvaged intact from Ground Zero and installed at the church as a memorial to 23 parishioners who died there.

I-beam cross salvaged from Ground Zero