Philip A. Payton, Jr.’s house as it looks currently at 13 West 131st Street (between 5th and Lenox) just west of Fifth Avenue has windows that look like a Jack O’Lantern face but is also notable for being the former home of the Father of Harlem. Phillip A. Payton, Jr. founded the Afro-American Realty Company during a time when the financial market crashed in 1904 and would bring the black community uptown to brand new homes that were built in a speculative boom when the subways were constructed. Desperate developers could not refuse the opportunity and African-Americans who formerly lived in the gritty Tenderloin section of midtown saw an opportunity to live in a brownstone neighborhood which was not accessible previously.
Written by Dianne Washington