The Upper East Side at Sunset
View from 96th Street looking south
The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River.
Once known as the 'Silk Stocking District', it has some of the most expensive real estate in the United States. The most expensive Upper East Side penthouse (in The Pierre Hotel) was listed in the classifieds for approximately $70 million, and the most expensive townhouse was listed for $75 million.[1]
History
In the 19th century[2] the farmland and market garden district of what was to be the Upper East Side was still traversed by the Boston Post Road and, from 1837, the New York and Harlem Railroad, which brought straggling commercial development around its one station in the neighborhood, at 86th Street, which became the heart of German Yorkville. The area was defined by the attractions of the bluff overlooking the East River, which ran without interruption from James William Beekman's "Mount Pleasant", north of the marshy squalor of Turtle Bay, to Gracie Mansion, north of which the land sloped steeply to the wetlands that separated this area from the suburban village of Harlem. By the mid-19th century the farmland had been subdivided, with the exception of the 150 acres of Jones' Wood.[3]
Before the Park Avenue railroad cut was covered (finished in 1910), fashionable New Yorkers shunned the smoky railroad trench up Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue), to build stylish mansions and townhouses on the large lots along Fifth Avenue, facing Central Park, and on the adjacent side streets, north of the Vanderbilt family's favored stretch of Fifth Avenue in the 50s.[4] The latest arrivals were the rich Pittsburghers Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. The first apartment house to replace a private mansion on upper Fifth Avenue was 907 Fifth Avenue (1916), at 72nd Street, the neighborhood's grand carriage entrance to Central Park.[5]
Most members of New York's upper-class families have made residences on the Upper East Side, including the oil-rich Rockefellers [1], political Roosevelts [2], political dynastic Kennedys [3][4], thoroughbred racing moneyed Whitneys [5][6], and tobacco and electric power fortuned Dukes. [7]
Construction of the 3rd Avenue El, opened from 1878 in sections, followed by the 2nd Avenuel El, linked the Upper East Side's middle class and skilled artisans closely to the heart of the city. From the 1880s Yorkville, as it was known, extended east past Lexington Avenue and became a suburb of middle-class Germans, many of whom worked in nearby piano factories, stables, and breweries.
Gracie Mansion, the last remaining suburban villa overlooking the East River, became the home of New York's mayor in 1942.
Geography
The Metropolitan Museum of Art at 5th Ave and 81st St.
The Upper East Side stretches from 59th Street to 96th Street (in the zip codes of 10021, 10022, 10065, 10075, 10028 and 10128).[6] Along 5th Avenue and Central Park, the Upper East Side actually extends past Mount Sinai Medical Center to around 110th Street, but as you move East toward the East River, the Upper East Side technically ends at 97th Street. Embedded within the Upper East Side are the neighborhoods of Yorkville, centered on 86th Street and Third Avenue and Carnegie Hill, centered on 94th Street and Fifth Avenue and Lenox Hill centered on 69th Street and 1st Avenue.
Its north-south avenues are Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, Park Avenue, Lexington Avenue, Third, Second and First Avenues, York Avenue, and East End Avenue (the latter runs only from East 79th Street to East 90th Street).
Demographics
As of the 2000 census, there were 207,543 people residing in the Upper East Side. The population density was 118,184 people per square mile (45,649/km²). The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 88.25% White, 6.14% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 2.34% African American, 0.09% Native American, 1.39% from other races, and 1.74% from two or more races. 5.62% of the population were Hispanic of any race. 21% of the population was foreign born; of this, 45.6% came from Europe, 29.5% from Asia, 16.2% from Latin America and 8.7% from other. The female-male ratio was very high with 125 females for 100 males.[7]
Given its very high population density and per capita income ($85,081 in 2000), the neighborhood is believed to be the greatest concentration of individual wealth in the nation. As of 2000, 75.6% of adults (25+) had attained a bachelor's degree or higher.
Politics
The Upper East Side is one of few areas of Manhattan where Republicans constitute more than 20% of the electorate. In the southwestern part of the neighborhood Republican voters equal Democratic voters (only such area in Manhattan), whereas in the rest of the neighborhood Republicans are between 20 and 40% of the registered voters.[8]
The Upper East Side is also notable as a significant location of political fundraising in the United States. Four of the top five zip codes in the nation for political contributions are in Manhattan. The top ZIP Code, 10021, is on the Upper East Side and generated the most money for the 2004 presidential campaigns of both George W. Bush and John Kerry.[9]
Cost of living
The Upper East Side maintains one of the highest pricing per square foot in the United States. A 2002 report cited the average cost per square foot as $856; however, that price has noticed a substantial jump, increasing to almost as much as $1,200 per square foot as of 2006.[10][11] Basic commodities, perhaps partly due to real-estate costs and partly due to New York labor costs, can cost 50-200%+ more than in suburban areas.
Transportation
The Upper East Side is currently served by one subway line, the four-track IRT Lexington Avenue Line (4 5 6 <6>), and local bus routes. Due to severe congestion on the subway and buses, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is currently building a new subway line, the Second Avenue Subway, along Second Avenue. The first phase will run from 96th Street to 63rd Street, where it will physically connect with the BMT Broadway Line; service will be provided by a northern extension of the Q train. In later phases, the line will be extended north to 125th Street/Park Avenue in Harlem and south to Hanover Square in the Financial District, and a new T service will run its entire length.
Landmarks and cultural institutions
The new Roman Gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The area is host to some of the most famous museums in the world. The string of museums along Fifth Avenue fronting Central Park has been dubbed "Museum Mile." It was once named "Millionaire's Row." Among the cultural institutions on the Upper East Side:
- Political institutions
Educational institutions
Primary and secondary schools
Private Schools
- Girls' schools
- Boys' schools
- Coeducational schools
Public schools
- Public lower and middle schools
- Public high schools
Colleges and universities
In popular culture
The Upper East Side has been a setting for many movies, television shows, and many other media due to its world-class museums, expensive restaurants and boutiques, proximity to Central Park, elite schools, and influential residents.
Movies
TV
Books
Fictional places
Famous residents
The neighborhood has a long tradition of being home to some of the world's most wealthy, powerful and influential families and individuals. Some of the notables who have lived here include:
- Actors, artists, musicians, and writers
- Athletes
- Business moguls
- Journalists
- Political figures
- Socialites
The Upper East Side is also the location of Sutton Place, Manhattan Sutton Place. It is the site of a four-story townhouse built for Anne Morgan, daughter of financier J. P. Morgan, and now the official residence of the United Nations Secretary-General.
See also
References
- ^ Manhattan (New York ), New York Real Estate - Sales, Rentals, Homes, Apartments, Open Houses, FSBO - New York Times
- ^ The history of the Upper East Side, in broader citywide context,<is in Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham (1999).
- ^ Jones' Wood, owned by the Joneses and their Schermerhorn cousins and operated as a popular beer-garden resort, was briefly touted as a possible location for a public park before Central Park was established.
- ^ Fortune's Children Vanderbilt
- ^ The Upper East Side Book: 907 Fifth Avenue
- ^ Malbin, Peter. " If You're Thinking of Living On/Fifth Avenue; Culture, Convenience and Central Park", The New York Times, August 11, 2002. Accessed September 23, 2007. "North of 106th Street (from Lexington Avenue East), the traditional, if fuzzy, boundary between the Upper East Side and East Harlem, rents, like purchase prices, are often less stratospheric."
- ^ Social Explorer 2000 Comprehensive Demography Report: Upper East Side
- ^ Who Are NYC's Republicans?
- ^ Big Donors Still Rule The Roost, accessed July 18, 2006.
- ^ Hevesi, Dennis. " Residential Real Estate; TriBeCa Is Priciest Neighborhood", The New York Times, May 17, 2002. Accessed June 7, 2007.
- ^ Miller Samuel | Charts
- ^ Day, Sherri. "Disappointment for Woody Allen, but Not at Box Office", The New York Times, March 26, 2004. Accessed November 30, 2007. "The state's highest court yesterday dismissed an effort to halt construction of a 10-story building on the Upper East Side, ending a six-year battle that pitted Woody Allen and a group of fellow Upper East Siders against the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission."
External links
Community interest sites
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