Compare Constellations

Edward Allen Jennings was a physician in New York City. He received his medical degree from Columbia University in 1913 and then served as a first lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps during World War I. He later worked on the staffs of the Harlem, Fordham, and St. Luke's hospitals. Jennings had a lifelong interest in the history of New York City and church architecture. He amassed a collection of old photographs from which he made over 150 lantern slides. After extensive research at the New York City Department of Records, Jennings also wrote Manhattanville, an architectural retrospect, which remains unpublished. Jennings died on September 11, 1958, at the age of 76.

Laid out in 1806 by Jacob Schieffelin and John B. Lawrence, the New York City community of Manhattanville existed during the first half of the nineteenth century as a sparsely populated rural village in the northwest section of Manhattan. Surrounded by hilly, open land and large country residences, the neighborhood was centered in the valley bordered by what is now 123rd Street to the south, 140th Street to the North, and west and east by the Hudson River and Convent Avenue. With the arrival of the Industrial Revolution came the completion of the Hudson River Railroad in 1851, which linked Manhattanville with the rest of the city. The village began to change into a bustling enclave of German and Irish laborers who found employment in the woolen mill, brewery, and Hudson River ferry terminal in the area. Streets were paved; churches, schools, and a dispensary were built to serve the population, which grew from 500 residents in mid century to 14,675 in 1900. The institutional predecessors of Manhattanville College -- the Academy of the Sacred Heart and the Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart -- were located in the Manhattanville section from 1847 to 1952.