Morningside Heights Historic District

Morningside Heights Historic District. New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation. The Morningside Heights Historic District is a distinctive neighborhood of fine apartment buildings constructed in the first decades of the 20th century. Long an isolated plateau, Morningside Heights became the "Acropolis of New York" in the late 19th century with the arrival of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and Columbia University. These institutions attracted residential development, which intensified after the opening of the IRT subway in 1904. Speculative developers constructed apartment houses marketed to the middle and upper middle classes. These buildings were designed by New York City's leading architects in an array of popular revival styles with artistic use of materials and ornamentation. By the 1930s, rapid development in the area had created a cohesive neighborhood of handsome apartment buildings, row houses, and institutional buildings with a distinct character that remains today.