Harlem Civil Rights Virtual Tour

9. Langston Hughes House

New York, NY

Book Now

The brownstone at 20 East 127th Street was the once ivy-clad residence of celebrated Harlem Renaissance poet, writer, and civil rights activist Langston Hughes. The 1869 brownstone was designed by architect Alexander Wilson and constructed as part of the post–Civil War building boom in the district by two real estate developers, James Meagher and Thomas Hanson; the row house eventually passed into the hands of Eino and Alina Lehto, who were among the last survivors of what had once been a thriving Finnish community. Hughes purchased the property in 1947 with funds he earned as a lyricist of Street Scene, a Broadway opera that was based on Elmer Rice’s play about the pungent life of people living in a Manhattan tenement, which won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1929. Rice collaborated with German-born composer Kurt Weill and they surprisingly invited Hughes to work on this project as the lyricist. This was the only home Hughes ever owned. It was designated a New York City Landmark on April 11, 1981, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 29, 1982.