Named after the famous poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, the Dunbar Apartments, also known as the Paul Laurence Dunbar Garden Apartments and Dunbar Garden Apartments, is a complex of ten separate U-shaped buildings centered around an interior garden courtyard with a total of 511 apartments. The apartment complex is located on West 149th and West 150th Streets between Frederick Douglass Boulevard, Macombs Place, and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. They occupy an entire city block.
The complexes, some rental, some owner-occupied, were the model for the New York City public housing projects in the 1930s but initially they were built for middle class African Americans. The apartments were financed in 1926 by John D. Rockefeller Jr., who purchased five one-acre blocks in Harlem from William Vincent Astor for $500,000. Rockefeller then contacted Architect Andrew J. Thomas to design the structures.
The primary goal of this housing complex was to create a social and physical environment for African Americans that would be less susceptible to decay and deterioration than most apartments then available to them. The Dunbar apartments, which included hardwood flooring, exposed brick, and large windows that filled the rooms with natural light, were a marvel of architectural design for the period. Initially they were only available to tenant stockholders in the Paul Laurence Dunbar Corporation, a cooperative for African Americans.
Apartments could be purchased with a $50 down payment followed by monthly installment payments over a three-year period. Owners paid $14.50 per room in monthly maintenance charges, covering taxes, upkeep, and utilities. By mid-1928, all of the units were sold to middle class African Americans.
The Dunbar Apartments were home to some of the most influential African Americans of the time. Notable residents included W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Robeson, A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), Matthew Alexander Henson, the first African American to reach the North Pole, and the dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. Their presence added to the cultural and historical significance of the Dunbar Apartments. Partly for that reason the Dunbar Apartments were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The complex has been renovated multiple times, with significant attention toward the practical necessities of modern living without compromising the aesthetics and detail of the Dunbar Apartment’s historical Harlem roots. These renovations include the addition of self-closing cabinetry, stainless steel appliances, stone counters, subway tile backsplash, full-time maintenance staff, virtual doorman, security presence, and retail stores, all while maintaining the original architectural features and historical significance.