 Seen from the top of theQueensboro Bridge | |
 Interactive map of York Avenue / Sutton Place | |
| Owner | City of New York |
|---|---|
| Maintained by | NYCDOT |
| Length | 2 mi (3.2 km)[1] |
| Location | Manhattan,New York City |
| Coordinates | 40°45′29″N73°57′37″W / 40.758094°N 73.960180°W /40.758094; -73.960180 |
| South end | 53rd Street inMidtown East |
| Major junctions |  FDR Drive inLenox Hill |
| North end | FDR Drive /92nd Street inYorkville |
| 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, andSutton Place South are the names of segments of a north–south thoroughfare in theYorkville,Lenox Hill, andSutton Place neighborhoods of theEast Side ofManhattan, inNew York City. York Avenue runs from59th to 92nd Streets through eastern Lenox Hill and Yorkville on theUpper East Side. Sutton Place and Sutton Place South run through their namesake neighborhood along theEast River and south of theQueensboro Bridge. Sutton Place South runs from57th to53rd 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 theUpper East Side.
Addresses on York Avenue are continuous with that ofAvenue A in theAlphabet 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 ofTurtle Bay, runs from 53rd Street to 59th Street and is bounded on the east by the East River and on the west by eitherFirst Avenue[2] orSecond Avenue.[3]Sutton Square is the cul-de-sac at the end ofEast 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.
The street that became York Avenue and Sutton Place was proposed as an addition to theCommissioners' 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 ofFirst 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 ofFirst Avenue.
In 1875,Effingham B. Sutton constructed a group of brownstones between 57th and 58th Streets.[4] The earliest source found byThe 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.[5][6] The block between 59th and 60th Streets is now considered a part of York Avenue.
At the turn of the 20th century new taller 6-floor apartment buildings started to be built in the neighborhood, with two survivingBeaux Arts architecture styled buildings designed byGeorge F. Pelham still in place:422 East 58th Street from 1900 and444 East 58th Street from 1901.
In 1906, The Rockefeller Institute (the predecessor toThe Rockefeller University) moved its laboratories to the site of the former Schermerhorn farm at York Avenue (then called Avenue A) and 66th Street.[7] 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[8]
The Rockefeller Institute Hospital opened in 1910.[7]In 1912,New York Hospital became affiliated with theCornell University Medical College and in 1932 moved to its current location, a joint facility, theNew York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, on York Avenue betweenEast 67th and68th Streets. In 1998, NY Hospital merged withPresbyterian Hospital to becomeNewYork–Presbyterian Hospital (NYP) and the site functions as one of the main campuses of NYP.[9]
On the west side of Avenue A, across the street from the Rockefeller Institute, in 1925, the Rockefeller Garden Apartments opened.[10] These were meant to be affordable housing, "good homes for low rents" for people with children.[10]
Sutton Place first became fashionable around 1920, when several wealthy socialites, includingAnne Harriman Vanderbilt andAnne Morgan, built townhouses on the eastern side of the street, overlooking the East River. Both townhouses were designed byMott B. Schmidt, launching a career that included many houses for the wealthy.[11] Very shortly thereafter, developers started to build grand co-operative apartment houses on Sutton Place and Sutton Place South, including several designed byRosario Candela such asOne Sutton Place South,4 Sutton Place,14 Sutton Place South, and30 Sutton Place.Stonehenge 58[12] designed byGeorge F. Pelhamin 1928[13] is also a notable building from that era.
In 1928, a one-block section of Sutton Place north of 59th Street, and all ofAvenue A north of that point, was renamed York Avenue to honor U.S. Army SergeantAlvin York, who received theMedal of Honor during World War I'sMeuse-Argonne Offensive.[6][14][15] 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.
Lafayette A. Goldstone designed444 East 57th Street. The 14-story condominium building was completed in 1929, and was later home toMarilyn Monroe and playwrightArthur Miller.[16]
Development in Sutton Place came to an abrupt halt with theGreat Depression.
The 26-storyRiver House was architected in 1929[13] and constructed in 1931 on the site of a former cigar factory and designed byWilliam Lawrence Bottomley in theArt Deco style.[17][18][19]
In 1932,New York Hospital andCornell University Medical College (which affiliated in 1913) moved to its current location, a joint facility, theNew York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, on York Avenue at68th Street. In 1998, NY Hospital merged withPresbyterian Hospital to becomeNewYork–Presbyterian Hospital (NYP) and the site functions as one of the main campuses of NYP.[9]
In 1938Emery Roth designed2 Sutton Place South.[13]
In 1939, theMemorial Hospital opened on York Avenue, between 67th and 68th Streets, on land donated by John D. Rockefeller Jr.[20]
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. These include:
Sutton Place encompasses two public parks overlooking the East River, one at the end of57th Street and another at the end of53rd Street. The 57th Street park, named Sutton Place Park, is separated by an iron fence from the landscaped grounds behindOne Sutton Place South, a neo-Georgian apartment building designed byRosario Candela. The property behind One Sutton Place South was the subject of a dispute between the building's owners and theNew 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.
In 1939, city authorities took ownership of the property behind One Sutton Place South byeminent 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.[22][23] 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.[24] In June 2007, the co-op sued the city in an attempt the keep the land,[24] 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.[25]
Former and current residents of Sutton Place include architectI. M. Pei;[26] socialiteConsuelo Vanderbilt Balsan of theVanderbilt family; French-American writer, journalist and pianistEve Curie; cabaret singer and pianistBobby Short;[26] rock starsFreddie Mercury[27] andMichael Jackson; actorPeter Lawford and his wifePatricia Kennedy Lawford of theKennedy family;Ziegfeld Girl and businesswomanIrene Hayes; actressesLillian Gish,Joan Crawford,[27]Mildred Natwick,Maureen O'Hara,Sigourney Weaver,[27][26][28] andMarilyn Monroe[27] and her then-husbandArthur Miller;[27] actress and interior decoratorElsie de Wolfe and actress, fashion designer and socialiteC. Z. Guest; clothing designersBill Blass[28] andKenneth Cole and interior designerValerian Rybar;[29] shipping magnateAristotle Onassis; bankerRichard Jenrette;hedge fund managerRaj Rajaratnam;Steven Hoffenberg, founder ofTowers Financial Corporation, a debt collection agency; John Fairchild, publisher ofWomen's Wear Daily; politician and business leaderPercy Sutton; "Preppy Killer"Robert Chambers and his ex-girlfriend, Shawn Kovell; former New York GovernorMario Cuomo; and allUN Secretaries-General sinceKurt Waldheim.
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 ofWilliam K. Vanderbilt. Next door, theofficial residence of theSecretary-General of theUnited Nations is a four-story brick townhouse that was built in 1921 forAnne Morgan, daughter of financierJ.P. Morgan, and donated as a gift to the United Nations in 1972 by industrialistArthur A. Houghton Jr.[30] The Secretary's home is 0.6 miles (0.97 km) from the UN Headquarters. These townhouses have a park at the rear withFDR Drive running below (Sutton Place Tunnel) along the East River.
Theauction houseSotheby's is headquartered on York Avenue until its planned 2025 departure for the former Whitney Art Museum Breuer building.[31]
...Sutton Place, a tidy and somewhat out-of-the-way Manhattan enclave that runs from 53rd to 59th Streets between First Avenue and the East River.
...the name [Sutton Place] reflects its glow south to 53d Street, west to Second Avenue and even a bit farther west on 57th Street.
