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Former resident1939–1941Jumel Terrace & Edgecombe Ave

Paul Robeson

Robeson and his family lived at 555 Edgecombe Avenue from 1939 to 1941, in a building that is now a National Historic Landmark.

555 Edgecombe Avenue

Black-and-white portrait photograph of Paul Robeson in a suit, taken in 1942 by Gordon Parks for the Office of War Information.
Gordon Parks, Office of War Information (cropped by Beyond My Ken) (opens in a new tab)Public domain
Paul Robeson photographed by Gordon Parks in 1942
Gordon Parks, Office of War Information; cropped by Beyond My Ken 07:13, 3 February 2011 (UTC) (opens in a new tab)Public domain
555 Edgecombe Avenue, Paul Robeson's former residence
Beyond My Ken (opens in a new tab)CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab)

The National Park Service says Paul Robeson and his family lived in an apartment at 555 Edgecombe Avenue from 1939 to 1941, after he returned from living and performing in Europe. The building is a National Historic Landmark and is not open to the public.

Wikipedia’s Washington Heights article places the building at the corner of Edgecombe Ave and W 160th St. It says the building rented only to Black tenants starting in 1939, and that during the 1940s its notable Black residents included Robeson, Kenneth Clark, and Count Basie. Because of the concentration of middle-class Black residents in southeast Washington Heights, the article says, many associated the building with Sugar Hill, the Harlem neighborhood to the south.