Inwood is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, at the northern tip of Manhattan Island. It is bounded by the Hudson River to the west, Spuyten Duyvil Creek and Marble Hill to the north, the Harlem River to the east, and Washington Heights to the south.
Inwood is part of Manhattan Community District 12, and its primary ZIP Code is 10034. It is served by the 34th Precinct of the New York City Police Department and Engine Company 95/Ladder Company 36 of the New York City Fire Department. Politically, it is part of the New York City Council's 10th district.
History
Lenape history The north end of Manhattan, with its clam beds, cornfields, and annual fish runs, was described by the National Museum of the American Indian as the "best place to live" on the island before the Dutch and British colonists arrived in the 17th century. There was a large Lenape town straddling the Manhattan and Bronx sides of what is now called the Harlem River. Shorakapkok means 'sitting-down place' in the Munsee language.
Colonial history
On May 24, 1626, according to legend, Peter Minuit, the director general of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, bought the island from the indigenous Lenape people for 60 Dutch guilders and, the story goes, some trinkets. On the southern tip of the island Minuit founded New Amsterdam. A plaque (on a rock) marking what is believed to be the spot of the sale is in Inwood Hill Park, the only natural forest left in Manhattan.Inwood Hill Park, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Accessed December 29, 2023. "Inwood Hill Park contains the last natural forest and salt marsh in Manhattan, attracting over 150 species of birds. Glaciers left behind dramatic caves, valleys, and ridges that still remain today, as do traces of Native American encampments and pre-Revolutionary European colonies."
During the British occupation of Manhattan in the American Revolutionary War, there was an encampment containing more than 60 huts occupied by Hessian troops between 201st and 204th Streets along Payson Avenue. The camp was discovered in 1914 by local archeologist and historian Reginald Bolton after a series of digs around the neighborhood.
19th century to present The area between 190th and 192nd Streets was occupied by the Fort George Amusement Park, a trolley park/amusement park, from 1895 to 1914. Its site is now a seating area in Highbridge Park, which itself was laid out in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Inwood was a very rural section of Manhattan well into the early 20th century. Once the New York City Subway's IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, the modern , reached Inwood in 1906, speculative developers constructed numerous apartment buildings on the east side of Broadway. Construction continued into the 1930s, when the IND Eighth Avenue Line, the modern , reached Dyckman and 207th Streets along Broadway and the large estates west of Broadway (Seaman, Dyckman, Isham, etc.) were sold off and developed. Many of Inwood's impressive Art Deco apartment buildings were constructed during this period. The area around Dyckman Street and 10th Avenue formerly contained a stadium called the Dyckman Oval, with a capacity of 4,500 spectators, which hosted football games, boxing matches, and Negro league baseball games until it was demolished in 1938 and replaced by the Dyckman Houses public housing development in 1951.Goldman, Jonathan. "Revisiting Dyckman Oval, A Lost Landmark From the Heyday of Black Baseball", Atlas Obscura, October 1, 2021. Accessed December 29, 2023. "Dyckman Oval was just 50 blocks north of the Polo Grounds, where, 100 years ago, the World Series was held entirely in New York City for the first time. But while the Giants and Yankees faced off, Black teams were at Dyckman and all over the city.... Starting in the mid-1920s, Dyckman served as home of numerous Negro League teams, including the Black Yankees, the Cuban All-Stars, and the New York Cubans.... The city demolished the park in 1938.... The Dyckman Houses, a massive housing project, has occupied the southwestern portion of the expanse, adjacent to the park, since 1951."
The last family-owned farm in Manhattan is believed to have been in Inwood, close to the intersection of Broadway and 214th Street. It was operated by the Benedetto family and occupied an entire city block. The farm site was developed after being sold in 1954.
Demographics For census purposes, the New York City government classifies Inwood as part of a larger neighborhood tabulation area called Inwood and Marble Hill.New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010 , Population Division – New York City Department of City Planning, February 2012. Accessed June 16, 2016. Based on data from the 2010 United States census, the population of Inwood and Marble Hill was 46,746, a change of −2,341 (−5%) from the 49,087 counted in 2000. Covering an area of , the neighborhood had a population density of .Table PL-P5 NTA: Total Population and Persons Per Acre – New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010 , Population Division – New York City Department of City Planning, February 2012. Accessed June 16, 2016. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 15.1% (7,060) White, 9.1% (4,239) African American, 0.1% (64) Native American, 1.9% (884) Asian, 0% (5) Pacific Islander, 0.4% (179) from other races, and 1% (458) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 72.4% (33,857) of the population.Table PL-P3A NTA: Total Population by Mutually Exclusive Race and Hispanic Origin – New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010 , Population Division – New York City Department of City Planning, March 29, 2011. Accessed June 14, 2016.
The racial composition of Inwood and Marble Hill changed moderately from 2000 to 2010, with the most significant changes being the Black population's decrease by 13% (661) and the Hispanic/Latino population's decrease by 5% (1,880). Meanwhile, the White population grew by 5% (335) and remained a minority, as with the Asian population which grew by 11% (86); the small population of all other races decreased by 24% (221).
The entirety of Community District 12, which comprises Inwood and Washington Heights, had 195,830 inhabitants as of NYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 81.4 years. This is about the same as the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are children and middle-aged adults: 33% are between the ages of 25 and 44, while 25% are between 45 and 64, and 19% are between 0 and 17. The ratio of college-aged and elderly residents was lower, at 10% and 13% respectively.
As of 2019, the median household income in Community District 12 was $42,000, compared to $73,000 in Manhattan and $53,000 in the entire city. In 2019, an estimated 25% of Community District 12 residents lived in poverty, compared to 18% in all of Manhattan and 21% in all of New York City. One in eight residents (12%) were unemployed, compared to 7% in Manhattan and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 53% in Community District 12, compared to the boroughwide and citywide rates of 45% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation, , Community District 12 is considered to be gentrifying: according to the Community Health Profile, the district was low-income in 1990 and has seen above-median rent growth up to 2010.
Trends The residents of Inwood were substantially of Irish descent for much of the 20th century. The neighborhood exhibited a strong Irish identity with many Irish shops, pubs, and even a Gaelic football field in Inwood Hill Park. The second-largest group during this time was Jewish, an extension of the large Jewish population of Washington Heights. However, in the 1960s through the 1980s, many Irish and Jewish residents moved out to adjoining areas in other boroughs of New York City (such as the Riverdale and Spuyten Duyvil sections of the Bronx) and the suburbs (including communities in nearby Bergen County, New Jersey; Westchester County, New York; and Rockland County, New York) in a pattern consistent with overall trends in the city at that time. During the same period, there was a rise in the number of Dominican immigrants to the area.
Today, Inwood has a predominantly Dominican population, especially in the areas east of Broadway; it has the highest concentration of residents of Dominican descent in New York City. Hispanic residents made up 74% of Inwood's population as a whole, according to census data reported in 2009. Nearly half of the residents were born outside the US.Mays, Jeffrey C., "Before Rezoning Vote, Residents Ask: 'Where Will We Go?'," The New York Times, August 8, 2018, A17.
Land use and terrain Geography Inwood is physically bounded by the Harlem River to the north and east, and the Hudson River to the west. It extends southward to Fort Tryon Park and alternatively Dyckman Street or Fairview Avenue farther south, depending on the source.Jackson, Nancy Beth. "If You're Thinking of Living In/Inwood; Away From Manhattan Without Leaving" , The New York Times, December 15, 2002. Accessed October 23, 2008. "The neighborhood's southern boundary with Washington Heights depends on who's defining. Residents line up in two camps: Fairview Avenue as described in the Encyclopedia of New York City and Dyckman Street( Most Common), about a half-dozen blocks to the north, on Department of City Planning maps. Real estate agents seem to agree with the encyclopedia."Russo, Francine. "Close Up On: Inwood" , The Village Voice, October 15, 2002. Accessed October 23, 2008. "Boundaries: Fairview Avenue to the south, Dyckman Street to the west, and the Harlem River to the north and east (Inwood is bisected by Broadway)."
While Inwood is the northernmost neighborhood on the island of Manhattan, it is not the northernmost neighborhood of the entire borough of Manhattan. That distinction is held by Marble Hill, a neighborhood situated just north of Inwood, on what is properly the North American mainland bordering the Bronx. Marble Hill was isolated from Inwood and the rest of Manhattan in 1895 when the route of the Harlem River was altered by the construction of the Harlem River Ship Canal.
Geology Inwood marble, a soft, white, metamorphic rock found in northern Manhattan, takes its name after the neighborhood. From the mid-17th to the late 18th century, commercial quarries dotted the area as the material was used for building construction. However, due to its susceptibility to erosion, builders eventually used alternate construction materials. "Secrets of New York" Podcast, "Facelift: Inwood Hill, Harlem River Ship Canal, Secret of Marble Hill Episode" Inwood marble was quarried for government buildings in lower Manhattan and Washington, D.C. Small pieces of marble can still be seen in the stone retaining walls around Isham Park.
The development of Inwood in the early 20th century resulted in the demolition of many rock outcroppings. However, several outcroppings still exist, including on Cooper Street between 204th and 207th Streets; at Broadway and West 216th Street; and in the garden of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church at Seaman Avenue and Cumming Street. The rock on Cooper Street contains a garden maintained by a nearby housing cooperative at 60 Cooper Street, which owns half of the rock.
The seismologically active Dyckman Street Fault runs east–west beneath the Dyckman Valley. As recently as 1989, activity of this fault caused a magnitude 2 earthquake.
Land use