Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)
was headquartered in Harlem from 1918 to 1927. The organization
generally appears in accounts of Harlem on parade, on the
occasion of its conventions. However, the UNIA occupied more
than the streets. Its headquarters was on West 135th Street, as
were the offices of a number of the organizations it
established. Liberty Hall, the site of weekly meetings and the
annual convention, was on West 138th Street, while a range of
UNIA owned and operated businesses occupied buildings in the
heart of Harlem. Garvey purchased Liberty Hall in 1919. The
single level hall with low ceilings had previously been home to
the Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle. From 1922 the hall bordered
the grand new home of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, meaning
that the UNIA met adjacent to the largest African American
church in New York City, one of the bastions of the Harlem
establishment with which Garvey was frequently at odds. Although
the UNIA’s home had a far less impressive