“We went on, cutting back again over the Park towards the West Hundreds. At 158th Street the cab stopped at one slice in a long white cake of apartment-houses. Throwing a regal homecoming glance around the neighborhood, Mrs. Wilson gathered up her dog and her other purchases, and went haughtily in" (Page 24).
"The apartment was on the top floor — a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom, and a bath. The living-room was crowded to the doors with a set of tapestried furniture entirely too large for it, so that to move about was to stumble continually over scenes of ladies swinging in the gardens of Versailles" (Page 24).
The Great Gatsby mentions that West 158th Street in Harlem was where Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson kept an urban pied-à-terre love nest apartment. It seems a incongruous location for Tom Buchanan to own an apartment in this section of Washington Heights, but it makes a lot of sense. Tom Buchanan belongs to an upscale social circle with members who do not frequent neighborhoods in Harlem. Having an apartment on West 158th Street would probably be the best way to keep his clandestine love relationship with Myrtle incognito. Nobody in that neighborhood would know who Tom Buchanan is, and nor would they care.
The apartment that Tom and Myrtle keep is located on the top floor of "a long white cake of apartment houses." It was decorated with oversized tapestried furniture. Nick Carraway narrates that Tom, Myrtle, her sister, and the McKees (neighbors) get wildly drunk in the middle of the afternoon, all the while the apartment remains "fill of cheerful sun" until 8 p.m.
As I drove through the neighborhood, the buildings were mainly brownstone apartments. There were no "long white cake(s) of apartment-houses." However, the neighborhood did seem out of character for somebody with the description of Tom Buchanan.
This is a photo carousel slide show.
West 158th Street