UPTOWNflavor

Once-Heralded Address Lags Behind Rest of Harlem

By JULIA VITULLO-MARTIN – Special to the Sun
January 19, 2006

At 9 o’clock on a recent Friday morning, a big guy in a scruffy blue coat stood dealing drugs in front of the main gate to the Graham Court, an Italian Renaissance palazzo called the most luxurious apartment house in Harlem by the AIA guide book. In its 1984 designation, the Landmarks Commission said the Graham Court reflected a “conscious effort to evoke an image of luxury,” and is “one of the premier reminders of the urban development of Harlem at the turn of the century.” Developed by William Waldorf Astor and designed by architects Charles Clinton and Hamilton Russell in 1898-1901, the Graham Court spans the block between 116th and 117th streets on the east side of Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard.That same morning, an elderly man who looked like he could be an oldtime jazz musician walked frantically in a series of half-circles down 117th Street, slashing the air with a knife he held in his right hand. Spotting the open service entrance to the Graham Court, which was untended, he peered in cautiously then disappeared underground, a part of the building that had been one of the engineering marvels of its day, built to hold the carriages and the horses of the wealthy.

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