The street was created by theCommissioners' Plan of 1811 as one of 16 north-south streets specified as 100 feet (30 m) in width, including 12 numbered avenues and four designated by letter located east ofFirst Avenue.[1] In 1824, prior to any construction, its width was reduced to 60 feet (18 m), the standard for cross-streets, by taking 40 feet (12 m) from the east side.[2] The city reasoned that the lettered avenues were "incapable of use as thoroughfares to and from the City" and could not "be considered as avenues in the proper Sense of the term."[3]
On theUpper East Side, Avenue B reappears asEast End Avenue; principally residential in character, it runs only from East79th Street to East90th Street through theYorkville neighborhood. It was called Avenue B under the original Commissioners' Plan of 1811, but is no longer given that designation.Carl Schurz Park, the location ofGracie Mansion, is adjacent to the avenue at this point. In 1928, theNew York City Board of Estimate ruled that development below East 84th Street was restricted to residential use.[4]
Currently, there is no bus that travels on Avenue B. The M9 bus formerly used this street from East Houston Street to 14th Street. The M79 bus travels along East End Avenue from 80th Street to 79th Street.
A song byThe Fleshtones entitledTake a Walk with the Fleshtones on their albumBeautiful Light describes the street scene, starting at "Eleven Eleven" with the chorus repeating "...on Avenue B"
Several scenes from the 1986 film "Crocodile Dundee" were filmed in and around a bar located at 108 Avenue B where that street intersects withEast 7th Street, otherwise known asTompkins Square.
OnLou Reed's 1989 albumNew York, the song "Halloween Parade" includes the line "The boys from Avenue B, the girls from Avenue D, a Tinkerbell in tights." The song is about the ravages of AIDS, using the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade as a backdrop.
OnCop Shoot Cop's 1994Release, the song "It Only Hurts When I Breathe" references the corner of Avenue B and 3rd Street.
^Post, John J. (1882).Old streets, roads, lanes, piers and wharves of New York showing the former and present names, together with a list of alterations of streets, either by extending, widening, narrowing or closing. R.D. Cooke. p. 67.OCLC1098350361.
