Brick and brownstone rowhouses line Strivers' Row and Astor Row, and the Apollo Theater's marquee marks 125th Street.
What Harlem looks like
125th Street is the commercial spine of the area, lined with prewar retail buildings four to six storeys tall and large storefront windows at street level. The Apollo Theater's vertical red sign and marquee rise over the sidewalk near Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, newer glass fronted chain stores and older hand painted signage sitting side by side along the block.
On the side streets, 's rowhouses line three blocks of West 138th and 139th Streets, red brick and brownstone built between 1891 and 1893 in three distinct facades that repeat down each row. , on West 130th Street, is unusual for Manhattan. Its three storey brick houses are set back behind small front yards with wooden porches, built in the 1880s.
Between those rows, quiet tree lined streets cross the wide commercial boulevards at regular intervals. Stoops, wrought iron fences and fire escapes run along the mid rise apartment buildings, and brick public housing towers stand beside the older rowhouse blocks in several spots.
Large institutional buildings break up the residential blocks. Gothic Revival and Romanesque stone churches sit behind iron fences on the side streets, and the Harlem YMCA's dark brick tower carries its rooftop lettering over West 135th Street. , a courtyard apartment building near West 116th Street, wraps a full block around a central interior court.
Shot in Harlem
Shaft used the Apollo Theater marquee on 125th Street as itself in 1971, and the Netflix series Marvel's Luke Cage shot Pop's Barbershop's exterior on Malcolm X Boulevard across its first two seasons. Malcolm X filmed the Lenox Lounge, on Lenox Avenue near 125th Street, as the film's fictional Paradise Bar in 1992. The lounge closed in 2012 and was demolished in 2017, so none of it survives to be scouted today.
Shaft, 1971
The marquee and vertical APOLLO sign anchor the block on 125th Street near Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard. The theater plays itself in the film, the same facade and signage still standing on the block today. Street View
Marvel's Luke Cage, 2016 to 2018
The Netflix series shot Pop's Barbershop's storefront exterior at this corner for its first two seasons. The photograph on this page shows a different stretch of Malcolm X Boulevard's storefronts rather than this exact corner. Street View
What Harlem can double for
Stuyvesant Heights in Brooklyn, New York
Four blocks of Italianate, Neo-Grec and Romanesque Revival brownstones went up in Stuyvesant Heights between the 1870s and 1890s, the same material and scale as Strivers' Row. MacDonough and Decatur Streets carry the stoops, cornices and carved lintels a Harlem rowhouse block needs. Stuyvesant Heights has no enclosed rear mews or private carriage alley, so a wide shot needing Strivers' Row's own back lane would give the location away. Try searching Stuyvesant Heights brownstones now.
Romanesque Revival greystone rowhouses went up in Bronzeville between 1890 and 1905, limestone fronted rows on the same grand scale as Strivers' Row's architect designed blocks. The pale grey limestone fronts read lighter than Harlem's red brick and brownstone, so a color accurate shot needs grading or an overcast sky. Try searching Bronzeville greystone rowhouses now.
Three storey red brick rowhouses with symmetrical door and window bays line Bolton Hill's blocks, built across the late nineteenth century on roughly the same scale as Strivers' Row. Bolton Hill's white marble front steps are a giveaway in close shots, unlike Harlem's brownstone stoops. Try searching Bolton Hill rowhouses now.
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