A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from January 19, 2005
Quisqueya Heights (Washington Heights)
Washington Heights (in upper Manhattan) has so many residents from the Dominican Republic that it is often called "Quisqueya Heights." "Quisqueya" is an informal nickname of the Dominican Republic. The nickname has been cited in print since at least 1991.

Both the Washington Heights and Inwood neighborhoods were named the "Little Dominican Republic" in 2018.


Wikipedia: Washington Heights, Manhattan
Washington Heights is a neighborhood in the northern portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan. The area, with over 150,000 inhabitants as of 2010, is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest point on the island of Manhattan by Continental Army troops during the American Revolutionary War, to defend the area from the British forces. Washington Heights is bordered by Harlem to the south, along 155th Street, Inwood to the north along Dyckman Street or Hillside Avenue, the Hudson River to the west, and the Harlem River and Coogan's Bluff to the east.
(...)
Ethnic makeup
Today the majority of the neighborhood's population is of Dominican birth or descent (the area is sometimes referred to as "Quisqueya Heights"), and Spanish is frequently heard spoken on the streets.[99] Washington Heights has been the most important base for Dominican accomplishment in political, non-profit, cultural, and athletic arenas in the United States since the 1960s. Most of the neighborhood businesses are locally owned. Many Dominican immigrants come to network and live with family members.

5 August 1991, New York (NY) Times, pg. B3:
It is Sunday afternoon at the Tamboril Community Center in Washington Heights - ir, as people at the club call it "Quisqueya Heights," the name that Indians native to the Dominican Republic give their country.

29 October 2000, New York (NY) Times, pg. CY8:
Most students are Dominican-American, and hundreds move each year between Quisqueya, as the Caribbean nation is informally known, and Quiqueya Heights, the Dominican nickname for Washington Heights.
Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityNeighborhoods • Wednesday, January 19, 2005 • Permalink


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