Above: Jazz great Duke Ellington toasts with Emperor Haile
Selassie after receiving Ethiopia’s Medal of Honor in 1973.
(Photo: Ethiopiancrown.org)

Columbia Spectator.
Historic Boulevard Boasts of a Jazzy Past
By Rosie DuPont
Published January 23, 2009

To the average Morningside Heights resident, 106th Street may seem pretty ordinary.

Maybe you’ve had a consultation with Joshua the Psychic on 106th Street and Columbus Avenue, or perhaps you’ve wandered past Innovation Bike Shop on 106th Street after eating delicious Ethiopian food at Awash. If you search “106th Street NYC” on Google, you’ll find a link to “The Bedbug Registry: Bed Bug Report 61 West 106th Street” and “Gypsy-Cab Driver Slain on E. 106th Street.”
Just an average New York City block, right? Think again.

One-hundred-and-sixth Street was once home to the renowned jazz musician Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington. Ellington lived in a townhouse on 333 Riverside Dr. and 106th Street for a number of years, and owned two other houses on the block where his sister Ruth Ellington Boatwright and his son, Mercer, lived.

In honor of Ellington’s memory, 106th Street was officially renamed Duke Ellington Boulevard in 1977, three years after his death. Read more at Columbia Spectator.