Running down Convent Avenue to City College in the 130s, the Hamilton Heights Historic District was populated during the Depression by black professionals, who looked down on lesser Harlemites. The Heights' greatest historic lure is the 1798 house of Alexander Hamilton, flamboyant first Secretary to the Treasury. Hamilton Grange National Memorial (daily 9am-5pm; free; tel 212/666-1640), at 287 Convent Ave, at 142nd St, may soon be moved to a site in nearby St Nicholas Park. For now, the Federal-style mansion sits uncomfortably between the fiercely Romanesque St Luke's Church and an apartment building.

The northernmost part of Manhattan island, Washington Heights , offers only a couple of stop-offs. The Hispanic Society of America , on Audubon Terrace between 155th and 156th streets (Tues-Sat 10am-4.30pm, Sun 1-4pm; free; tel 212/926-2234), contains one of the largest collections of Hispanic art outside Spain, with works by Spanish masters such as Goya, El Greco and Velázquez, and more than 6000 decorative works of art.

The Morris-Jumel Mansion , at 65 Jumel Terrace, between 160th Street and Edgecombe Avenue (Wed-Sun 10am-4pm; $3, $2 students and seniors; tel 212/923-8008), is another uptown surprise. Cornered in its garden, the mansion, with its proud Georgian outlines faced with a later Federal portico, somehow survived the destruction all around.

Hamilton and Washington Heights

• Hamilton and Washington Heights

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