On 16 September 1776 American troops under George Washington’s command fought British forces on the heights above the village: the Battle of Harlem Heights, an early morale-boosting success for the Continental Army. In 1802 Alexander Hamilton built his country house, the Grange, on land nearby.
From the 1880s elevated railways and new streets turned farmland into rows of townhouses for prosperous New Yorkers. That building boom is why Harlem still has so many handsome brownstones, and why it later became available to new residents.