Duffy's Hill

Duffy's Hill is a hill located on Lexington Avenue between 102nd and 103rd Streets in the East Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was named for Michael James Duffy, a Tammany Hall Alderman who spent $250,000 to build 26 rowhouses on the south side of 101st Street between Lexington and Park Avenues in 1894.[2] He continued building between Third Avenue and Lexington Avenue up to 104th Street, a section of the city sometimes known at the time as "Duffyville".[3]

The Hellenic Orthodox Church of Sts. George and Demetrios, originally built in 1891 as the Blinn Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, sits at the base of the hill at 103rd Street[1]

The hill marked the site of cable car accidents by 1897, as the cars had to quickly accelerate and decelerate at this point.[4] The New York Railways Corporation had a 24-hour guard stationed at the base of the hill at 103rd Street by 1937 to watch over streetcar incidents related to the hill.[5] At one time, Lexington Avenue buses would detour onto Park Avenue to avoid the hill.[6]

The National Board of Fire Underwriters noted that Lexington Avenue's grade of 12.6% was the steepest of any "important localit[y]" in Manhattan.[7] The entrances to the 103rd Street station of the New York City Subway, served by the 6 and <6>​ trains, are located at the bottom of the hill.[8]

References

Notes

  1. Dunlap, David W. (2004). From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-12543-7., p.205<
  2. Gray, Christopher (June 19, 2005). "A Street of Bright Colors, Mixed With Natural Brick". New York Times. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
  3. "Michael J. Duffy Dead" New York Times (January 5, 1903)
  4. "A Cable Car Accident" New York Times (June 4, 1897}
  5. Cooke, Charles; Lockridge, Richard & Ross, Harold (February 11, 1933). "The Talk of the Town: "Duffy's Hill"". New Yorker. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
  6. "Woman is Killed by Bus" New York Times (January 13, 1937)
  7. National Board of Fire Underwriters "Report on the City of New York" (1905) p.5
  8. "MTA Neighborhood Maps: Upper East Side" (PDF). mta.info. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 2016. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
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