HARLEM’S STREET PARTY FALLS SILENT

After 61 years in business, a Harlem landmark is gone.

Webster’s Dictionary describes the word “gentrify” as follows: “to convert (an aging area in a city) into a more affluent middle-class neighborhood, as by remodeling dwellings resulting in increased property values and in displacement of the poor.”

Jane Jacobs’ comprehensive book on city planning, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” speaks of the importance of the social structure of city sidewalks and public characters stating that, “The social structure of sidewalk life hangs partly on what can be called self-appointed public characters.

A public character is anyone who is in frequent contact with a wide circle of people.”

Since 1946, one such important public character owned and operated a Harlem mainstay. Bobby Robinson owned Bobby’s Happy House, once located at 2335 Frederick Douglass Blvd. Bobby’s was a neighborhood hot spot for music for 61 years and became nearly as much of an important Harlem landmark as the Apollo Theater.

Bobby’s Happy House turned the neighborhood into a daily street party as the sounds of oldies but goodies poured into the street. You’d be hard pressed to walk past Bobby’s and not break into a happy dance or at least strut in time to the music.

Sadly, it all came to an end on Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday. The building that housed the shop was sold to make room for a yet unnamed chain store and Robinson was forced to pack up more than half a century’s worth of history and move away.

Not just another local store to fall victim to the changing times, Bobby’s Happy House was an important piece of history.

Robinson’s was the first black-owned business on Harlem’s 125th Street. Today, less than 5 percent of the businesses on the commercial strip are black-owned.

Bobby’s Happy House featured music from the likes of Marvin Gaye, Otis Reading, Tyrone Davis, San Cooke, Wilson Pickett, Shirley Caesar and the Dixie Hummingbirds, all of whom Robinson counted as personal friends. The walls in the shop were covered with photos of Robinson from his music heyday with the likes of James Brown, Isaac Hayes, Nat King Cole, Muhammad Ali and Bobby Womack.

In the later years, the store became more of a meeting place for long time Harlemites – a place to chill. Locals stopped by to reminisce. Youngsters stopped by to learn about music that their grandparents grew up on.

Ninety one year-old Robinson, handsome, dapperly dressed and sporting a head of long, snow white hair was a neighborhood legend.

In addition to running the Happy House, Robinson was also a record producer and had his own record labels; Fire and Fury, Whirling Disc, Enjoy Music and Red Robin.

Robinson was one of the first to produce the new genre of music called Hip-Hop.

Robinson’s music career started during his three-year stint in the army during World War II.

“I could sing and dance but I was mostly in charge of getting entertainment for the guys who were going out on the frontline,” he recalled.

“I had three guys from New York that became my first group. When I came to 125th Street, no one had record labels. But once the records came out, everybody who had a

quarter bought one. The wholesalers wouldn’t sell to me because I was black. Sam Goody was the first one,” he said.

Robinson’s daughter Denise, is determined to preserve her father’s life work and is looking for a new location for the store. She reflected on the change in the neighborhood.

“The change is good but it’s sad that everyone is being put out of the neighborhood. After you’ve stood the test of time, they make you leave,” she said.

Harlem is certainly less happy without Bobby’s.

Other great Harlem spots that are long gone include Mart 125 (260-262 W. 125), a popular community meeting place that also housed a collection of fine Black-owned businesses and eateries; Georgie’s Pastries (50 W. 125th St.), once voted to have the nation’s best donuts which you could see being made on the spot; and Wells Supper Club (2247 7th Ave.) the birthplace of Chicken and Waffles.

ACTIVITIES

MOST neighborhoods fall to gentrification. Discuss the pros and cons of this urban

phenomenon.

HAVE you noticed changes in your own neighborhood? Have they made things better or worse? Draw a picture of your block. Include important landmarks and businesses. What things should stay and what should go?

ASK your parents or grandparents about how your neighborhood was when they were younger. Do you wish things were as they once were or are you happy with how things are now?

Today’s lesson fulfills the following New York standards: ELA 1c, 3c, 3d, 4a, 4b, 5a Social Studies 1 Art Standards 2 and 4