I walked by Masjid Aqsa Mosque in Harlem yesterday and noticed there was no activity going on inside. When I walked closer to the building, I noticed the mosque was boarded up with an eviction notice slapped on the outside for all to see.
A few years back the mosque tried moving to a new location on Manhattan Avenue, but that failed for some reason. Yesterday, I asked on the street what happened? Why the eviction notice? Someone blurted out, the mosque got behind on their rent.
If anyone has any other details on Masjid Aqsa Mosque in Harlem, please chime in!
HarlemGal Inc. 
The New York Times had a story about the mosque closing because of rent trouble about 6+ months ago.
Thanks for commenting. The last NY Times article on the mosque I saw was in December 2012. I thought there may have been new issues, but clearly not. It’s obvious the landlord finally took over. Too bad both parties could not work it out.
It’s been closed since over a week ago, apparently they are holding their prayers on W116th St.
Here is NY times the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/nyregion/in-a-changing-harlem-a-mosque-struggles-to-pay-rent.html?_r=0
Thank goodness this place closed… I have nothing against a mosque being there, but the building looked so low brow and third world… that type of structure does not belong there..
More exciting news! Hopefully a good developer will come in and build a fantastic building in that spot! What a great location right next to the train , proximity to two parks and all of the great restaurants! Hopefully getting rid of this eyesore will also mean a lot of the low brow stores that are on 116th between Lenox and FDB will follow due to lack of patronage… 116th street is seriously lacking in quality retail.
oh fantastic! what a horrible building to look at! certainly not in keeping with the rest of lower FDB… now all that is left is the Antlers apartments and that project looking building across the street from them! Those 2 buildings create a mini dead zone – though certainly not on the scale of the dead zone on Lenox from 112th to 115th caused by those massive projects over there.. The fabulous mexican restaurant Lolita’s is the only shining point on that whole stretch… The rest is just dead, depressing and downtrodden until you get to 116th..
The mosque bought a much larger place in the Bronx. They wanted to maintain a Harlem location to serve the core community but were not willing to pay market rate. The owner is a developer and will likely build.