Our timeline lists significant events in the history of Manhattanville, together with a listing of selected national and world events that provide context for Manhattanville's development.
Juan Rodriguez, born in Santo Domingo (now known as the Dominican Republic) to a Portuguese sailor and an African woman is considered the first immigrant, the first person of African heritage, the first merchant, the first Latino, and the first Dominican to settle in Lower Manhattan.
The English capture New Amsterdam from the Dutch and rename the city New York.
Bill of Rights is adopted.
George Washington elected 1st president of the United States.
Gradual emancipation of slaves is declared in New York State. Several decades will pass before slavery is finally and totally abolished.
The Village of Manhattanville is founded by merchant Jacob Schieffelin, local Quakers and others.
The Grid Plan for Manhattan calls for the gradual development of orderly construction as far north as 155th Street.
The first stage coach line opens in New York, running from near City Hall to a stop at 129th Street.
Harriet Tubman is born. Born into slavery, she escaped to Philadelphia in 1849, and subsequently became one of the most successful "conductors" on the Underground Railroad. She is credited with leading more than 300 slaves to freedom.
Manhattanville’s population booms to 500 residents.
The Hudson River Railroad is completed, connecting Manhattanville to the downtown area.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, is published. It becomes one of the most influential works to stir anti-slavery sentiments.
James Buchanan is inaugurated as the 15th president.
Dred Scott v. Sandford: Landmark Supreme Court decision holds that Congress does not have the right to ban slavery in states, and that slaves are not citizens.
Manhattanville’s streets are partly paved. Its first library opens.
The American Civil War begins.
The process of pasteurization is discovered in France.
13th Amendment is ratified abolishing slavery.
14th Amendment is ratified granting citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” and overturns Dred Scott v. Sandford.
15th Amendment is ratified giving African American men the right to vote.
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, emigrates from Puerto Rico to New York. He is considered by many to be the “Father of Black History.”
Ten years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation a former slave, John Roy Lynch is elected Speaker of the House for the State of Mississippi becoming the first African-American in the U.S. elected to this position.
Nearly all of Manhattan’s milk supply arrives by railroad. The 130th Street depot is a major hub.
The Statue of Liberty is dedicated.
Ellis Island opens to immigrants.
The Sheffield Farms company opens the first milk pasteurization plant in the nation.
Spain cedes Puerto Rico to the United States under the Treaty of Paris, concluding the Spanish-American War.
The subway opens, leading to a building boom, and finally connecting the neighborhood seamlessly into the rest of the city.
Ford introduces the Model T.
Sheffield Farms works with reformers to supply healthy, inexpensive milk to the city’s poor.
The Sheffield Farms dairy company builds a new processing plant and six–story stable in Manhattanville.
The International Pure Milk League is founded by two women who live on Riverside Drive.
New York City mandates that all milk sold to children must be pasteurized.
Panama Canal completed.
Thomas Edison shoots a film in front of the entrance to the Claremont Theatre at 135th Street.
Sheffield Farms supplies 20 percent of the city’s milk.
United States enters World War I
Puerto Ricans are granted U.S. citizenship.
Prohibition Era begins.
19th Amendment grants women the right to vote.
The Harlem Renaissance leads to a flowering of arts and letters among African Americans in upper Manhattan.
Sheffield Farms becomes the largest dairy products company in the world.
Charles Lindbergh flies solo across the Atlantic.
Stock Market crashes, the Great Depression begins.
The Empire State Building opens to the public.
The George Washington Bridge opens to traffic, lots of traffic.
Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected 32nd president, institutes the New Deal to end the Depression.
Sheffield Farms hires African–American foremen at its 125th Street plant.
The last milk–delivery horses in Manhattanville are replaced by trucks.
Charles R. Drew received a Doctorate in Medical Science from Columbia University, the first African American to do so. Dr. Drew, whose research focused on blood plasma was responsible for the “Blood for Britain” project which collected blood plasma donations from thousands of civilians and sent across the Atlantic to aid the Allied effort. In 1941, Dr. Drew became the first director of the American Red Cross Blood Bank, the first national blood bank in the country.
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. The United States enters World War II.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas declares that racial segregation in schools is unconstitutional.
General Grant Houses open.
John F. Kennedy elected 35th president.
Manhattanville Houses open.
President Kennedy is assassinated.
Voting Rights Act passed to prevent states from disfranchising minority voters.
Malcolm X, black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, is assassinated.
Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African–American nominated and confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.
Robert F. Kennedy, candidate for U.S. president is assassinated.
Commemorating the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots, thousands of members of the LGBT community march through New York into Central Park in what is considered America's first gay pride parade.
Sandra Day O’Connor becomes the first woman nominated and confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
David N. Dinkins is elected as the first African–American mayor of New York City.
MTA opens Manhattanville Bus Depot.
Vermont becomes the first U.S. state to legalize civil unions.
On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with Al–Qaeda hijack four airliners and carry out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two planes crash into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, a third plane hits the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashes in a field in Pennsylvania.
Lee C. Bollinger is inaugurated as the 19th president of Columbia University. During his inauguration speech, President Bollinger identifies the need to find space for the University to continue to meet its mission.
The Supreme Court rules in the Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger that the use of affirmative action in school admission is constitutional if it treats race as one factor among many.
NYC breaks ground on West Harlem Piers Park.
Hurricane Katrina devastates New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
The West Harlem Local Development Corporation is formed.
Columbia University begins the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure in June and finishes in December.
General Project Plan Adopted and Affirmed.
Pat Jones becomes CB9 Chairperson.
Former CB9 Chair Jordi Reyes Montblanc dies after battle with cancer.
Barack Obama is elected 44th president the first African–American president of the United States.
West Harlem Community Benefits Agreement signed by President Lee C. Bollinger and WHLDC President Julio Batista.
Sonia Sotomayor becomes the third female and first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice.
U.S. Senate confirms Columbia Trustee Eric H. Holder, Jr. United States Attorney General.
Columbia University holds a groundbreaking ceremony for the Manhattanville Campus.
The Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions is signed by Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger.
Former CB9 Chair and West Harlem Local Development Corporation President Pat Jones dies.
Columbia earns first LEED–ND Platinum certification in New York City, and first Platinum certification for a university campus plan nationally.
President Barack Obama re–elected.
Manhattanville Campus Dedication.