4. Dorothy Day Apartments

The apartment house located at West 135th Street and Riverside Drive is illustrative of some of the changes Harlem has experienced since the early twentieth century.

St. Francis Court. Via NY Public Library Digital Collections, Irma and Paul Milstein Division of US History, Local History and Genealogy. “Apartment Houses of the Metropolis,” 1908.

It was originally known as St. Francis Court when completed in 1905 for middle class tenants.

By the early 2000s it was abandoned, despite the fact that many Harlemites needed a home. The non-profit organization Broadway Housing Communities, with the help of public and private funds, stepped into to address both problems. BHC converted the building in 2003 to a supportive housing residence for low-income residents with on-site social services and renamed it in honor of famed social worker Dorothy Day.