72nd Street (Manhattan)

72nd Street is one of the major bi-directional crosstown streets in New York City's borough of Manhattan. The street primarily runs through the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods. It is one of the few streets to go through Central Park via Women's Gate, Terrace Drive, and Inventors Gate, though Terrace Drive is often closed to vehicular traffic.

72nd Street
The Dakota Apartments, located at 1 West 72nd Street
Maintained byNYCDOT
Length1.6 mi[1] (2.6 km)
Width100 feet (30.48 m)
LocationManhattan
Postal code10023 (west), 10021 (east)
Coordinates40.7721°N 73.9662°W / 40.7721; -73.9662
West end NY 9A / Henry Hudson Parkway / Riverside Boulevard in Riverside South
East endDead end in Upper East Side
North73rd Street
South71st Street
Construction
Commissioned1811
The Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo House, 72nd Street and Madison Avenue.
The Henry T. Sloane House and Oliver Gould Jennings House on 7–9 East 72nd Street
888 Madison Avenue at East 72nd Street, constructed for Ralph Lauren in 2010

History

The street was designated by the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 that established the Manhattan street grid as one of 15 east-west streets that would be 100 feet (30 m) in width (while other streets were designated as 60 feet (18 m) in width).[2]

On October 11, 2006, the Belaire Apartments, a 50-story apartment complex located at 524 E. 72nd Street between York Avenue and the FDR Drive, was the site of a plane crash involving Cory Lidle's aircraft.

Landmarks

East Side

At Third Avenue, the Tower East apartment block (1960) set a new model for high-rise residences: a slab tower set back from the street front and isolated on a low base.[3]

The architects McKim, Mead & White’s mansion for Charles L. Tiffany, built in 1882 at the northeast corner of Madison Avenue, was demolished in 1936 and replaced by an apartment block (19 East 72nd Street) designed by the architects Mott B. Schmidt and Rosario Candela.[4]). The Rhinelander Mansion, on the southeast corner, is now occupied by Ralph Lauren.

The mansion that once stood at the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue was the first of the Gilded Age mansions to be replaced by an apartment block, 907 Fifth Avenue.

West Side

The Dakota apartment building is located on the northwest corner of West 72nd Street and Central Park West.

The Park & Tilford Building, on the southwest cornet of West 72nd St and Columbus Avenue, built by the eponymous retailer, was designed by McKim Mead and White. The New York Times observed that the opening in September 1893, "was attended by hundreds, who admired the building and the artistic display of goods." The article added "There is no business building more handsome on the west side" and the New-York Tribune called it "a decided architectural ornament to the neighborhood." The building was converted into residential apartments in 1972.[5]

At 72nd Street, Broadway crosses Amsterdam Avenue, creating a small triangular space, Verdi Square; across the street to the south lies Sherman Square.

The Eleanor Roosevelt Monument at the southern tip of Riverside Park marks the intersection of 72nd Street and Riverside Drive. The Chatsworth Apartments (344 West 72nd Street), a designated landmark designed by the architect John E. Scharsmith, sits at 72nd Street's western end, where it curves into Riverside Boulevard.[6]

Transportation

72nd Street has three New York City Subway stops along its length:

The M72 provides crosstown bus service to Upper East Side – York Avenue (eastbound) or West Side – Freedom Place (westbound) via 72nd Street. The M72 bus crosses Central Park at 65th Street, because Terrace Drive within the park is often closed to vehicular traffic.

The New York Central Railroad's 72nd Street station previously existed on Park Avenue, which now carries the Park Avenue main line of the Metro-North Railroad. The station closed in approximately 1901,[7] and an emergency exit is the only vestige of the station's existence.

Notable residents
George Gershwin
Margaux Hemingway

Notes
  1. Google (January 8, 2017). "72nd Street" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  2. Morris, Gouverneur, De Witt, Simeon, and Rutherford, John [sic] (March 1811) "Remarks Of The Commissioners For Laying Out Streets And Roads In The City Of New York, Under The Act Of April 3, 1807", Cornell University Library. Accessed June 27, 2016. "These streets are all sixty feet wide except fifteen, which are one hundred feet wide, viz.: Numbers fourteen, twenty-three, thirty-four, forty-two, fifty-seven, seventy-two, seventy-nine, eighty-six, ninety-six, one hundred and six, one hundred and sixteen, one hundred and twenty-five, one hundred and thirty-five, one hundred and forty-five, and one hundred and fifty-five--the block or space between them being in general about two hundred feet."
  3. The upper East Side Book: Tower East
  4. The Upper East Side Book: 19 East 72nd Street.
  5. ‘The Park & Tilford Building - 100 West 72nd Street’, Tom Miller, http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-park-tilford-bld, June 20, 2017. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  6. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2011-10-27.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Landmarks Preservation Commission: Chatsworth Apartments
  7. "Railroad Projects Heard: Harlem Road to Abandon Seventy-second and Eighty-sixth Street Stations". The New York Sun. April 30, 1901. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
  8. Patrick Bunyan (1999). All Around the Town: Amazing Manhattan Facts and Curiosities. Fordham University Press. p. 324. Retrieved March 17, 2014. lives east 72nd street.
  9. Don Bachardy (6 February 2011). Stars in My Eyes. ISBN 9780299167332. Retrieved March 17, 2014.
  10. Howard Pollack (2006). George Gershwin: His Life and Work. University of California Press. p. 194. Retrieved March 17, 2014. lives east 72nd street.
  11. http://dorothyparker.com/dorothy-parker-homes/childhood-home-214-w-72nd-street
  12. "Harold Stanley, 77, is Dead". The New York Times. May 15, 1963. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
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