Listed to the National Register of Historic Places in August 2019, the Dorrance Brooks Square Historic District encompasses 120 buildings and a public square on seven blocks in Central Harlem. More than just an architecturally distinctive late 19th-century residential neighborhood, the district is significant for its association with numerous voices of the Harlem Renaissance and symbolic events that helped set the stage for the Civil Rights movement.

The square, dedicated in 1925, is the first public space in the city to honor a Black serviceman, Dorrance Brooks, a soldier who died on the battlefield during WWI while serving with his segregated military regiment, the 369th, aka the Harlem Hellfighters. The square’s symbolic significance made it a frequent site of protests, marches, commemorations, and political rallies, not least on two occasions—on October 30, 1948 and October 11, 1952—when President Harry Truman delivered campaign speeches there before massive, predominantly Black audiences.

The residential blocks adjacent to the square were home to accomplished individuals during the Harlem Renaissance. It was effectively an extension of the elite Striver’s Row just one block east. A’Lelia Walker, the daughter of the beauty product magnate Madame C.J. Walker, maintained a pied-à-terre at 80 Edgecombe Avenue where she hosted a who’s who of Harlem society. The Civil Rights leaders Walter F. White and W.E.B. DuBois resided with their families at 90 and 108 Edgecombe Avenue, respectively. Regina Anderson Andrews, who, through her role as a librarian at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library, brought many writers, artists, and intellectuals of the Renaissance together, hosted literary salons in her apartment at 580 St. Nicholas Avenue with her two roommates, Ethel Ray Nance and Louella Tucker. They affectionately called it “Dream Haven.” The sculptress Augusta Savage operated a neighborhood art school in a rear building at 321 W. 136th Street. There she mentored young Harlem artists, including Robert Blackburn, Norman Lewis, and Jacob Lawrence. Among the early tenants of the Art Deco apartment building at 574 St. Nicholas Avenue—named “The Dorrence Brooks” [sic]—were bandleaders Cab Calloway and Lionel Hampton, as well as the singer, composer, and music critic Nora Holt.

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission subsequently designated Dorrance Brooks Square a local historic district in June 2021 with slightly modified boundaries.