Dominican Historic District Proposed For Washington Heights

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — A Dominican Historic District could be coming to Washington Heights, according to a presentation to Upper Manhattan's Community Board 12 last week.

The state-recognized district would go from West 155th Street up to West 200th Street and contain 73 locations that have been marked for having Dominican significance.

• You can check out the interactive map of the proposed Dominican Historic District — here.

The proposed district was presented by Romona Hernandez, a professor of sociology at the City College of New York and the director of the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute. She is also the author of multiple works about Dominican migration, workers' mobility, and economic restructuring.

A pair of younger researchers also helped Hernandez with the community board presentation.

“So many Dominican markers in those blocks," Hernandez said during the meeting. "We have more Dominican markers in that area than any other in the world, besides the Dominican Republic.”

On a practical level, the state historic district would symbolically represent the Dominican contributions in Washington Heights and also make it more challenging for developers to come into certain parts of the neighborhood.

The 73 highlighted spots within the proposed Dominican Historic District include schools, businesses, streets, and churches with Dominican origins and history.

Uptown spots like Quisqueya Playground, the Audubon Ballroom, Club Deportivo Dominicano, and more are marked among the Dominican sites.

The area within the proposed Dominican Historic District already contains three historic districts: Audubon Terrace and Jumel Terrace, which are both part of the National Registry; and the Audubon Park Historic District, which is recognized on the state and city level.s

Hernandez emphasized that making the Dominican Historic District official would not take away from the other history already recognized in the area, nor from future groups creating their own historic districts in Upper Manhattan.

In terms of the response from the community board, Land Use Committee Member Tanya Bonner said that she "was concerned about the expansiveness" of the area and that it would "be a little bit of erasure" of other groups of people on specifically the downtown side of the proposed map.

Bonner highlighted Black people's contributions in the Sugar Hill neighborhood as a specific worry for the map stretching to West 155th Street.

The West 155th Street block is commonly considered the beginning of Washington Heights.

Other board members voiced possible concern over the added regulations for properties that would come with a new Historic District.

Marked buildings within state-certified districts are required to approve certain property changes with the office, making it more time-consuming to do renovation and construction work.

Rep. Adriano Espaillat's former push to rename Inwood, Washington Heights, and Hamilton Heights to Quisqueya Heights was brought up multiple times throughout the meeting — a push that was first reported by Patch.

In 2018, Washington Heights and Inwood were officially designated as Little Dominican Republic with the neighborhood name appearing on Google Maps.

The meeting ended with an agreement to do some more examination of the proposed Dominican Historic District, to double-check with state offices about how a new historic district could change things for property owners within the district, and to have the conversation with a larger group.

Council Member Carmen De La Rosa wrapped up the meeting with praise and a push for the committee's ability to have a conversation that previously turned into shouting matches during past conversations about neighborhood-related renamings.

“There are some conversations we must still have," De La Rosa said. "But I always say, and I maintain, that our struggles unite us more than our differences divide us.”

If the Community Board did agree to support the proposed, it would go to the State Historic Preservation Office for review.

You can watch the full Land Use Committee below, with the conversation about the proposed Dominican Historic District starting around the 1 hour, 24-minute mark.