York Avenue and Sutton Place

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York Avenue/Sutton Place

Seen from the top of the Queensboro Bridge
Owner	City of New York
Maintained by	NYCDOT
Length	2 mi (3.2 km)
Location	Manhattan, New York City
South end	53rd Street in Midtown East
Major junctions	FDR Drive in Lenox Hill
North end	FDR Drive / 92nd Street in Yorkville
East	FDR Drive (53rd–79th Streets) East End Avenue (79th–90th Streets) FDR Drive (90th–92nd Streets)
West	First Avenue
Construction
Commissioned	March 1811

York Avenue, Sutton Place, and Sutton Place South are the names of segments of a north–south thoroughfare in the Yorkville, Lenox Hill, and Sutton Place neighborhoods of the East Side of Manhattan, in New York City. York Avenue runs from 59th to 92nd Streets through eastern Lenox Hill and Yorkville on the Upper East Side. Sutton Place and Sutton Place South run through their namesake neighborhood along the East River and south of the Queensboro Bridge. Sutton Place South runs from 57th to 53rd Streets. Unlike most north–south streets in Manhattan, building address numbers along Sutton Place South increase when headed south. Sutton Place runs from 57th to 59th Streets. The streets are considered among the city's most affluent, and both portions are known for upscale apartments, much like the rest of the Upper East Side.

Addresses on York Avenue are continuous with that of Avenue A in the Alphabet City neighborhood, starting in the 1100 series and rising to the 1700 series. Addresses on Sutton Place and Sutton Place South do not follow the usual pattern in Manhattan.

The greater Sutton Place neighborhood, which sits north of the neighborhood of Turtle Bay, runs from 53rd Street to 59th Street and is bounded on the east by the East River and on the west by either First Avenue or Second Avenue. Sutton Square is the cul-de-sac at the end of East 58th Street, just east of Sutton Place; Riverview Terrace is a row of townhouses on a short private driveway that runs north from Sutton Square.

History

Townhouses line the east side of Sutton Place between 58th and 57th Streets

"Avenue A Estate" of New York & Suburban Homes Company, named before the Avenue was renamed

Early years

The street that became York Avenue and Sutton Place was proposed as an addition to the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 for Manhattan, which designated 12 broad north–south avenues running the length of the island. The geography of Manhattan left a large area on the Upper East Side east of First Avenue without a major north–south thoroughfare, so Avenue A was added to compensate. Sutton Place, the name that applied to the whole street at the time, was originally one of several disconnected stretches of Avenue A built where space allowed, east of First Avenue.

In 1875, Effingham B. Sutton constructed a group of brownstones between 57th and 58th Streets. The earliest source found by The New York Times using the term Sutton Place dates to 1883. At that time, the New York City Board of Aldermen approved a petition to change the name from "Avenue A" to "Sutton Place", covering the blocks between 57th and 60th Streets. The block between 59th and 60th Streets is now considered a part of York Avenue.

Sutton Place first became fashionable around 1920, when several wealthy socialites, including Anne Harriman Vanderbilt and Anne Morgan, built townhouses on the eastern side of the street, overlooking the East River. Both townhouses were designed by Mott B. Schmidt, launching a career that included many houses for the wealthy. Very shortly thereafter, developers started to build grand co-operative apartment houses on Sutton Place and Sutton Place South, including several designed by Rosario Candela. Development came to an abrupt halt with the Great Depression, and the luxury apartment buildings on the lower part of Sutton Place South (below 57th Street) and the northernmost part of Sutton Place (adjacent to the Queensboro Bridge) were not developed until the 1940s and 1950s.

Gates of The Rockefeller University on York Avenue

In 1906, The Rockefeller Institute (the predecessor to The Rockefeller University) moved its laboratories to the site of the former Schermerhorn farm at York Avenue (then called Avenue A) and 66th Street. John D. Rockefeller purchased the land from the Schermerhorn estate between Avenue A and the East River extending from 64th Street to 67th Street in 1903 The Rockefeller Institute Hospital opened in 1910.

In 1912, New York Hospital became affiliated with the Cornell University Medical College and in 1932 moved to its current location, a joint facility, the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, on York Avenue between East 67th and 68th Streets. In 1998, NY Hospital merged with Presbyterian Hospital to become NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital (NYP) and the site functions as one of the main campuses of NYP. In 2019, NYP was ranked as 5th Best Hospital in the United States. On the west side of Avenue A, across the street from the Rockefeller Institute, in 1925, the Rockefeller Garden Apartments opened. These were meant to be affordable housing, "good homes for low rents" for people with children.

In 1928, a one-block section of Sutton Place north of 59th Street, and all of Avenue A north of that point, was renamed York Avenue to honor U.S. Army Sergeant Alvin York, who received the Medal of Honor during World War I's Meuse-Argonne Offensive. York, commanding only a few men took over 125 German soldiers as prisoners. York's feat made him a national hero and international celebrity among allied nations.

In 1932, New York Hospital and Cornell University Medical College (which affiliated in 1913) moved to its current location, a joint facility, the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, on York Avenue at 68th Street. In 1998, NY Hospital merged with Presbyterian Hospital to become NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital (NYP) and the site functions as one of the main campuses of NYP.

In 1939, the Memorial Hospital opened on York Avenue, between 67th and 68th Streets, on land donated by John D. Rockefeller Jr.

Park controversy

Sutton Place encompasses two public parks overlooking the East River, one at the end of 57th Street and another at the end of 53rd Street. The 57th Street park, named Sutton Place Park, is separated by an iron fence from the landscaped grounds behind One Sutton Place South, a neo-Georgian apartment building designed by Rosario Candela. The property behind One Sutton Place South was the subject of a dispute between the building's owners and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Like the adjacent park, the rear garden at One Sutton Place South is, in fact, cantilevered over the FDR Drive, a busy parkway at Manhattan's eastern edge that is not visible from most of Sutton Place.

Sutton Place Park at the end of 57th Street, with the Queensboro Bridge in the background

In 1939, city authorities took ownership of the property behind One Sutton Place South by eminent domain in connection with the construction of the FDR Drive, then leased it back to the building for $1 a year. The building's lease for its backyard expired in 1990. The co-op tried unsuccessfully to extend the lease, and later made prospective apartment-buyers review the legal status of the backyard and sign a confidentiality agreement. In June 2007, the co-op sued the city in an attempt the keep the land, and on November 1, 2011, the co-op and the city reached an agreement in which the co-op ended its ownership claim to the eastern 6,000 square feet and the city relinquished its claim to the western 4,000 square feet (the land closest to the building). Each side also agreed to contribute $1 million toward the creation of a public park on the city’s portion.

Notable residents

Former and current residents of Sutton Place include architect I. M. Pei; socialite Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan of the Vanderbilt family; French-American writer, journalist and pianist Eve Curie; cabaret singer and pianist Bobby Short; rock stars Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson; actor Peter Lawford and his wife Patricia Kennedy Lawford of the Kennedy family; Ziegfeld Girl and businesswoman Irene Hayes; actresses Lillian Gish, Joan Crawford, Mildred Natwick, Maureen O'Hara, Sigourney Weaver, and Marilyn Monroe and her then-husband Arthur Miller; actress and interior decorator Elsie de Wolfe and actress, fashion designer and socialite C. Z. Guest; clothing designers Bill Blass and Kenneth Cole and interior designer Valerian Rybar; shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis; banker Richard Jenrette; hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam; Steven Hoffenberg, founder of Towers Financial Corporation, a debt collection agency; John Fairchild, publisher of Women’s Wear Daily; politician and business leader Percy Sutton; "Preppy Killer" Robert Chambers and his ex-girlfriend, Shawn Kovell; former New York Governor Mario Cuomo; and all UN Secretaries-General since Kurt Waldheim.

Points of interest

Auction house Sotheby's headquarters on York Avenue between 71st and 72nd Streets

One Sutton Place North, a townhouse at the northeast corner of Sutton Place (dead end) and East 57th Street, was built as a residence for Anne Harriman Vanderbilt, widow of William K. Vanderbilt. Next door, the official residence of the Secretary-General of the United Nations is a four-storey brick townhouse that was built in 1921 for Anne Morgan, daughter of financier J.P. Morgan, and donated as a gift to the United Nations in 1972 by industrialist Arthur A. Houghton Jr. The Secretary's home is 0.6 miles (0.97 km) from the UN Headquarters. These townhouses have a park at the rear with FDR Drive running below (Sutton Place Tunnel) along the East River.

The auction house Sotheby's is headquartered on York Avenue until its planned 2025 departure for the former Whitney Art Museum Breuer building.

See also

• 2006 New York City Cirrus SR20 crash, a plane crash just off of York Avenue/Sutton Place on October 11, 2006
• Beekman Place
• Pleasant Avenue

External links

• Sutton Place Park