Morningside Heights Tour + Optional Live Jazz Outdoors Afterwards

**Note change of meeting place: 125th Street & Broadway inside The Forum at Columbia University.** RSVPs begin Wednesday, July 29th at 9:00pm. Space is set aside for new members and first and 2nd timers who land on the waiting list **Email me at hankorenstein@gmail.com if you would like a spot.** This is the last in a series of three tours to raise awareness and money for a very special non-profit called the Broadway Mall Association (BMA), which helps keeps Broadway beautiful from 72nd Street to 168th Street with plantings, landscaping and art exhibits. Read more about BMA: here: http://broadwaymall.org/ **Cost: $10:00 payable in cash at the tour. All proceeds to the BMA.** **Estimated walking distance: 2.5 Miles**. There is uphill walking during the first 1/2 mile of the tour. **Schedule:** **5pm - 6pm**: Optional social hour at Dear Mama Cafe, located a 2 minute walk from our meeting place which is inside The Forum at Columbia University. **If you wish to eat, have a drink and/or use the restroom be sure to arrive early!** There are public restrooms at The Forum downstairs and also in the building where Dear Mama Cafe is located at 611 West 129th Street. https://www.dearmamacoffee.com/ **Schedule:** **6pm - 7:45pm**: Guided Walking Tour **7:45pm - 8:30pm**: Optional live jazz outdoors at Grant's Tomb (free), courtesy of Harlem's Jazzmobile. Music starts at 7pm. Artist description below. *Note: Limited seating - there are some benches and grassy areas.* **Tour ends at Grant's Tomb, 122nd Street & Riverside Drive**, convenient to the #1 subway at 125th or 116th Streets and Broadway, M4, M5, M104 buses. **Overview** Morningside Heights is a unique neighborhood due to its co-existence of residential and institutional buildings. In addition to some distinctive pre-war apartment buildings designed by the most prominent architects of that era, the neighborhood boasts seven colleges and universities including Columbia University, Bank Street College of Education, Manhattan School of Music and Barnard College. Europeans first knew Morningside Heights as Vandewater Heights after 17th century Dutch farmer and landowner, Harmon Vandewater. After several centuries of agriculture in the 1800s as part of the village of Bloomingdale, several institutions were built including the Leak and Watts Orphan Asylum and the Blooming Insane Asylum. The opening of the subway into Morningside Heights in 1904, coupled with the neighborhood’s magnificent parks and prestigious institutions, led to a building boom of speculative apartment house construction, attracting middle-class residents who could now commute directly downtown to work. In addition, Morningside Heights offers historic and monumental houses of worship – The Cathedral of St. John The Divine (the world’s largest Gothic Cathedral), and The Riverside Church which has the tallest bell tower in North America. Grant’s Tomb National Memorial includes the largest mausoleum in the U.S. and is the only place in NYC of a final resting place of a U.S. President. Some 19th century scholars called Morningside Heights the “Acropolis of the New World.” **This Evening's Jazzmobile Musician:** Steve Oquendo Nonet playing Latin Jazz. A trumpeter and band leader, of Puerto Rican and Dominican ancestry, Oquendo has toured all parts of the globe, including Africa, Europe, South America and the Caribbean. He has recorded and performed with a wide and diverse range of artists, which include collaborations with, Destiny’s Child, Big Pun, Swiss Beatz, Angie Martinez, Juan Luis Guerra, and Mana. He has also performed with Celia Cruz, Ruben Blades, Cheo Feliciano, Wynton Marsalis, Jon Faddis, Arturo Sandoval, India, George Lamond, Eddie Palmieri, Ray Santos, Milly Quezada, The Tito Rodriguez Orchestra, The Machito Orchestra, and many more. (Pictured above: The Peace Fountain, outside of The Cathedral of St. John The Divine).