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Carnegie Hill is a neighborhood within theUpper East Side, in theborough ofManhattan inNew York City. Its boundaries are86th Street on the south,Fifth Avenue (Central Park) on the west, with a northern boundary at 98th Street that continues just pastLexington Avenue and turns south to96th Street and proceeds east up to, but not including,Third Avenue.[1][2] The neighborhood is part ofManhattan Community District 8.
In the 2000s, the perceived northern boundary on Park Avenue has edged over 96th Street into what was traditionallySpanish Harlem,[3] leading to that area sometimes being called Upper Carnegie Hill, especially by real-estate brokers.[4] According to the official Carnegie Hill Neighbors website, the Carnegie Hill neighborhood extends from 86th to 98th Streets, from Fifth Avenue up to, but not including, Third Avenue.[5]
The neighborhood is named afterthe mansion thatAndrew Carnegie built in 1901 at Fifth Avenue and91st Street.[6] Today the mansion is the home of theCooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, a branch of theSmithsonian Institution. Facing it across 91st Street is the Italian palazzo-styleOtto H. Kahn House, currently the home of theConvent of the Sacred Heart, a Roman Catholic girls' school. Several townhouses in the area have been converted to schools, including theWilliam Goadby Loew House on93rd Street (formerly the Smithers Alcoholism Center), currently occupied by theSpence School, and next door, theVirginia Graham Fair Vanderbilt House, converted to a school by theLycée Français, but sold in 2005 to a private owner.The architecture of the neighborhood includesapartment buildings along Park Avenue andFifth Avenue,brownstones (withstoops) andtownhouses on the side streets,condos,co-ops and a handful of mansions, of which some are now used by theCooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum,The Jewish Museum, theNational Academy of Design, theDalton School and other organizations.[7] From the 1950s to 1971, theNational Audubon Society was housed in theWillard Straight House, a red brickColonial Revival townhouse at 1130 Fifth Avenue.[8] When it moved toNoHo, theInternational Center of Photography moved in but later consolidated its operations inMidtown nearBryant Park. In 2001, it again became a private residence.[9]
In 1989, the Jewish Museum demolished its 1963modernist addition and courtyard, replacing it with a new extension opened in 1993 that mimics theFrench Gothic details of theWarburg Mansion, the museum's home since 1947. The limestone was crafted inMorningside Heights at the Cathedral Stoneworks.[10]Frank Lloyd Wright's originally maligned and now celebratedGuggenheim Museum opened on Fifth Avenue in 1959.[11][12] TheNew York Road Runners occupies a townhouse around the corner at 9 East 89th Street, a block informally known asFred Lebow Place.[13]
Similar to the official lines of the historic district, the borders of the neighborhood form an irregular rectangle[7] and the northern boundary, which traditionally was 96th Street, has on Park Avenue edged into what was traditionallySpanish Harlem.[3]
The northern section neighborhood was once seen as a less fashionable end of the East Side, but is now prized for its aesthetic sensibility, museums, schools, restaurants and neighborhood feel.[14] Besides, Andrew Carnegie,Marjorie Merriweather Post,Margaret Rockefeller Strong andJohn Hay Whitney all made their homes north of 90th Street.
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TheCarnegie Hill Historic District, designated as such by theLandmarks Preservation Commission on July 23, 1974, and then expanded on December 21, 1993, runs from86th Street in the south to just north of 98th Street in the north. Its western boundary isCentral Park, and its eastern boundary varies fromMadison Avenue in some parts toLexington Avenue farther east in others.[15] There are efforts to expand this district to protect structures not designated as landmarks, including 179 East93rd Street, where theMarx Brothers were raised.[16] Proponents include the 93rd Street Beautification Association[17] and Carnegie Hill Neighbors,[18] organizations which, seeking to preserve the village-like environment, spurred the creation of the historic district and actively monitor its well being.[19] In its more than thirty years of operation, its well-publicized battles have included advocating against an adult education center near the92nd Street Y, plans for more high rise apartments and additions to existing brownstones.[7][20]
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Hunter College High School, a highly selective nationally ranked high school, is located at the corner of 94th Street and Park Avenue.
TheNew York City Department of Education operates public schools such as Lower Lab, one of three gifted and talented programs in NYC.
The main campus of theLa Scuola d'Italia Guglielmo Marconi Italian international school is in Carnegie Hill at 12 East 96th Street.
Bibliography
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Media related toCarnegie Hill, Manhattan at Wikimedia Commons40°47′05″N73°57′22″W / 40.784726°N 73.956070°W /40.784726; -73.956070