| 85th Street Transverse | |
 Looking south onSecond Avenue from East 85th Street in 2005 | |
 | |
| Maintained by | NYCDOT |
|---|---|
| Length | 2.2 mi (3.5 km)[1] |
| Width | 60 feet (18.29 m) (west of Central Park West and east of Madison Avenue) |
| Location | Manhattan |
| Postal code | 10024 (west), 10028 (east)[2] |
| Coordinates | 40°46′50″N73°57′37″W / 40.7806°N 73.9604°W /40.7806; -73.9604 |
| West end | Riverside Drive inUpper West Side |
| East end | East End Avenue inYorkville |
| North | 86th Street |
| South | 84th Street |
| Construction | |
| Commissioned | 1811 |
| Construction start | 1837 (1837) |
85th Street is a westbound-running street, running fromEast End Avenue toRiverside Drive in theborough ofManhattan inNew York City, United States.
At Fifth Avenue, the street feeds into the 86th Street transverse, which runs east–west throughCentral Park and heads from theUpper East Side (where it is known as East 85th Street) to West 86th Street on theUpper West Side. West 85th Street resumes one block south of the transverse's western end.[3] It includes landmarks such as theLewis Gouverneur and Nathalie Bailey Morris House at 100 East 85th Street, the sidewalk clock at East 85th Street andThird Avenue, theYorkville Bank Building at 201–203 East 85th Street,Red House at 350 West 85th Street, andRegis High School.
In 1837, theBoard of Aldermen of New York City initially voted not to approve, but subsequently approved, the opening of East 85th Street betweenThird Avenue andFifth Avenue, which the Committee on Roads and Canals had offered up as a resolution on the petition of owners of property on the street.[4] In 1839, the Board of Aldermen approved the opening of West 85th Street between Fifth Avenue andNinth Avenue.[5]
By the 1840s, a short length designated as West 85th Street had been created as a narrow lane east ofEighth Avenue.[6] Most of West 85th Street was laid out following theAmerican Civil War.[7] However, until the 1880s the rate of development on the street was slow.[7] At that time, following an improvement in public transportation, people began to speculate on the property on the street.[7]
In 1971, John Corry of theTimes wrote a series of stories about life on West 85th Street between Central Park andColumbus Avenue.[6]
NoNew York City Subway stations are located on the street itself. Several are on nearby86th Street, however:[8]
There are several significant landmarks on 85th Street.
The building at 100 East 85th Street, originally known asLewis Gouverneur and Nathalie Bailey Morris House, is a large brick red townhouse that was built in 1913–14 in a neo-Federal style. Its architect wasErnest Flagg.[9] It was designated a landmark by theNew York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1973, and added to theNational Register of Historic Places in 1977.[10][11]
Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun (originally "Anshe Jeshurun"), aModern Orthodoxsynagogue founded by Russian Jewish immigrants in 1872, is located at 125 East 85th Street, betweenPark Avenue andLexington Avenue, in a building built in 1902.[12] The lower division of theRamaz School, a coeducational, private Modern Orthodox Jewish prep school, shares a building with the congregation.[13]
TheGerman American Bund, an AmericanNazi organization, had its national headquarters at 178 East 85th Street from 1936 through the early 1940s, and occasionally paraded in the neighborhood inNazi uniforms.[14][15][16]
Park Lane Tower, the 35-story L-shaped high-rise apartment building shown in the opening credits of the television showThe Jeffersons (1975-1985), is located at 185 East 85th Street andThird Avenue. Designed by architectHyman Isaac Feldman and completed in 1967, the beige-brick structure features distinctive rounded balconies at its corners and angled balconies on its sides.[17][18][19]
Thesidewalk clock at East 85th Street andThird Avenue, dating from the late 1800s and likely produced byE. Howard & Co., was designated a landmark in 1981.[20] Constructed to resemble a pocket watch, it is 15 feet (4.6 m) high including its base.[20]
At 201–203 East 85th Street, theYorkville Bank Building (1905), a four-story building designed byRobert Maynicke, was designated a landmark in 2012.[21]
Instrument makerVincent Bach manufactured trumpets and trumpet mouthpieces at 204 East 85th Street in the early 20th century.[22][23][24]
The building at 209 East 85th Street was constructed in 1919 aS the union hall of theMusical Mutual Protective Union.[25]
Minnie Marx andSam Marx, the parents and manager of theMarx Brothers, lived at 330 East 85th Street.[26]
Theclapboardshingle house at 412 East 85th Street was built around 1855. It was restored in 1988 by architectAlfredo De Vido.[9]
AuthorHenry Miller, who wroteTropic of Cancer, was born in 1891 on the top floor of and lived at 450 East 85th Street.[27][28]
AuthorLouise Fitzhugh lived at 524 East 85th Street, between East End andYork Avenues, and her heroine "Harriet" inHarriet the Spy lived in the area.[29]
The glassyModernist building at 525 East 85th Street was built in 1958.[9][30] Its architect was Paul Mitarachi.[9]
The86th Street transverse cuts throughCentral Park, and is directly below theJacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir.[31] In the early 1880s, most of the cross-town traffic in the area traveled on it.[32] In 1917,New York Railways ran across the traverse road 0.652 miles (1.049 km) on 85th Street, from Eighth Avenue through Central Park toMadison Avenue.[33]
Southwest Reservoir Bridge, at 85th Street in Central Park, was designed byCalvert Vaux and is decorated with elegant iron floral scroll ornamentation along its 38 feet (12 m) of railings andspandrels.[34][35][36]
The site ofSeneca Village is in Central Park near West 85th Street. The three lots on which the village was established were purchased in 1825 by Andrew Williams for $125 ($3,500 in current dollar terms), and sold by him to the City of New York three decades later for $2,335 ($78,800 in current dollar terms). In the mid-19th century it was a shanty-town, and it may have been populated byfree blacks in the early 1800s.[32][37] TheAfrican Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was at this location.[37]
TheSpector Playground is located in Central Park near West 85th Street.[38]
Mariners' Gate is at Central Park and West 85th Street, at an entrance to the park.[39] The name for the gate was chosen as reflecting one of the types of people it was expected would be enjoying the park, at the time the park was built.[40]
Rossleigh Court at 1 West 85th Street, constructed between 1906 and 1907, was designed byMulliken andMoeller and built by Gotham Building and Construction.[41] It followed the popular "French Flat" model in aBeaux-Arts style. NovelistEllen Glasgow lived in the building for a few months every year in the early 20th century.[42]
44 West 85th Street was the location of theNippon Club of New York City, a private social club founded in 1905 byJōkichi Takamine for Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals, in the early 20th century.[43]
At 140 West 85th Street, aDawn Redwood (metasequoia glyptostroboides) endangeredconiferous tree can be seen.[44]
Mannes College of Music is amusic school located at 150 West 85th Street, which moved there in 1984 seeking larger quarters.[45][46]
329, 331, 333, 335, and 337 West 85th Street were built in 1890–91.[47] They arebrownstone and brickQueen Anne-Romanesque Revival architecture.[47][48] JournalistHeywood Broun and feministRuth Hale lived at 333 West 85th Street.[49]
On the corner of West 85th Street andWest End Avenue, aJapanese Maple (acer palmatum) species of woody plant can be seen.[44]
Red House at 350 West 85th Street, between West End Avenue andRiverside Drive, was built in 1903–04, and the six-storyFrench Renaissance/Gothic building was designated a landmark in 1982.[7][50] It was one of the firstapartment buildings in the area, supplanting the earlierrow houses.[47] WriterDorothy Parker lived here at one time.[49]
85th street central park.
west 85th street.
