55th Street is a two-mile-long, one-way

street A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of di ...

traveling east to west across

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildi ...

Landmarks, east to west

Sutton Place South

*The route officially begins at Sutton Place South which is on a hill overlooking

FDR Drive The Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive, commonly called the FDR Drive for short, is a limited-access parkway on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It starts near South and Broad Streets, just north of the Battery Par ...

. *

Plaza 400 Apartments A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...

, 40-story, 119 m/392 ft apartment building completed in 1967 (north)

First Avenue

*Terrence Cardinal Cook Building (south) *Church of St. John the Evangelist (south) * Bristol Apartments, 33-story apartment building completed in 1973

Second Avenue

Brevard Apartments Brevard is the name of some places in the United States of America: *Brevard, North Carolina **Brevard College ** Brevard Music Center *Brevard County, Florida Brevard County ( ) is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. s ...

, 30-story apartments completed in 1981 *

Marymount Manhattan College Marymount Manhattan College is a private college on the Upper East Side of New York City. As of 2020, enrollment consists of 1,571 undergraduates with women making up 80.1% and men 19.9% of student enrollment. The college was founded in 1936. Hi ...

Dormitory, 48-story, 144 m / 473 ft mixed apartment house and dormitory completed in 2001 (north)

Third Avenue

919 Third Avenue 919 Third Avenue is an office building in New York City, New York, USA, built in 1971, and is located at the intersection of Third Avenue and East 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan. The building is tall with 47 floors, and is tied with four o ...

, 47-story 188 m / 615 ft building completed in 1971 (north) * P. J. Clarke's, antique tavern known for holding its own and remaining intact despite attempts to destroy it for 919 Third. (north)

Lexington Avenue

* Central Synagogue *

DLT Entertainment Donald L. Taffner (November 29, 1930 - September 6, 2011) was an American television producer. Taffner and his wife-business partner Eleanor Bolta were responsible for bringing to the U.S. such television shows as ''Three's Company'', ''Too Close ...

headquarters *

Levin Institute The Neil D. Levin Graduate Institute of International Relations and Commerce (in short form, the Levin Institute) was established by Governor George Pataki and the State of New York. It is located in the Manhattan district of New York City, and is ...

Park Avenue

* Park Avenue Place, 38-story, office tower completed in 2004 (south) *

Park Avenue Tower Park Avenue Tower (also 65 East 55th Street) is a building on Park Avenue, between 55th Street and 56th Street, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The office building developed by Park Tower Realty opened in 1986 and has a height of . Park Ave ...

, 36-story, office tower completed in 1987 with a distinctive pyramid roof (north) *

Heron Tower Salesforce Tower, 110 Bishopsgate (formerly Heron Tower) is a commercial skyscraper in London. It stands tall including its mast making it the second tallest building in the City of London financial district and the fifth tallest in Greater ...

, , 25-story building completed in 1986

Madison Avenue

550 Madison Avenue 550 Madison Avenue (formerly known as the Sony Tower, Sony Plaza, and AT&T Building) is a postmodern skyscraper at Madison Avenue between 55th and 56th Streets in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Philip Johnson ...

, 37-story, building completed in 1984 originally to be the headquarters of

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile ...

and later

Sony USA Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation SONAM, headquartered in New York City, manages the company's US-based businesses. Sony's principal U.S. businesse ...

(north) * Finland House, 38-story, office tower completed in 1970 (north) *

The St. Regis Hotel St. Regis Hotels & Resorts is a luxury hotel chain owned and managed by Marriott International. History In 1904, John Jacob Astor built the St. Regis New York as a sister property to his part-owned Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Exhibiting luxury and t ...

Fifth Avenue

The Peninsula New York The Peninsula New York is a historic luxury hotel at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 55th Street in Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1905 as the Gotham Hotel, the structure was designed by Hiss and Weekes in the neo-classical style. The hote ...

, 21-story, hotel completed in 1905 (south) *

Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) church in New York City. The church, on Fifth Avenue at 7 West 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan, has approximately 2,200 members and is one of the larger PCUSA congregations. The ...

(north) *

MGM Building Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

, 35-story, office tower completed in 1966 (south) *

Rockefeller Apartments The Rockefeller Apartments is a residential building at 17 West 54th Street and 24 West 55th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Wallace Harrison and J. André Fouilhoux in the International Style, the ...

(south) * 46 West 55th Street (south), a landmarked house

Sixth Avenue

Robert Indiana Robert Indiana (born Robert Clark; September 13, 1928 – May 19, 2018) was an American artist associated with the pop art movement. His iconic image LOVE was first created in 1964 in the form of a card which he sent to several friends and acq ...

Love (sculpture) ''Love'' is a pop art image by American artist Robert Indiana. It consists of the letters L and O over the letters V and E in bold Didone type; the O is slanted sideways so that its oblong negative space creates a line leading to the V. Th ...

(south) *

Capitol-EMI Building Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

34-story, building (north) *

1345 Avenue of the Americas 1345 Avenue of the Americas, also known as the Building, is a -tall, 50-story skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Located on Sixth Avenue between 54th and 55th Streets, the building was built by Fisher Brothers and designed by Em ...

, 50 story, building completed in 1969 (south) *

125 West 55th Street 125 West 55th Street, also known as Avenue of the Americas Plaza, is a 23-story, office building located on 55th Street between the Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) and Seventh Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building al ...

(north) *

New York City Center New York City Center (previously known as the Mecca Temple, City Center of Music and Drama,. The name "City Center for Music and Drama Inc." is the organizational parent of the New York City Ballet and, until 2011, the New York City Opera. and t ...

, theatre at 131 West 55th Street (north) *

55th Street Playhouse The 55th Street Playhouse—periodically referred to as the 55th Street Cinema and Europa Theatre—was a 253-seat movie house at 154 West 55th Street, Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that opened on May 20, 1927. Many classic art and foreign- ...

, theatre at 154 West 55th Street * CitySpire Center (north), 75-story, tower (tallest on street), north *

The London NYC ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

54-floor, tower completed in 1990 (south) *

Hotel Wellington A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

(north)

Seventh Avenue

Park Central Hotel The Park Central Hotel is a 25-story, 935-room hotel located across the street from Carnegie Hall at 870 7th Avenue (between West 55th and 56th Streets) in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was designed in the Renaissance Revival style ...

, 25-story, tower completed in 1926 most famous for mafia execution in the barber shop (north) * Dream Hotel (south) * Mutual of New York Building, 27-story, building completed in 1950 whose sign inspired the song Mony, Mony

Broadway

* Random House Tower, 52-story, tower (north) *Former original location of

Soup Nazi "The Soup Nazi" is the 116th episode of the NBC sitcom ''Seinfeld'', which was the sixth episode of the seventh season. It first aired in the United States on November 2, 1995. The Soup Nazi is also the nickname of the eponymous character, Yev K ...

from

Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as a fictionalized version of himself and ...

Eighth Avenue

The Starwood Apts. at 321 West 55th Street was built in 1907. It is one of the oldest apartment buildings on the west Side of New York. Over the years it has been the residence of such theater luminaries as Tony Award winners Jane Alexander (former head of the National Endowment for the Arts) and Michael Stewart, librettist of Hello, Dolly!

Ninth Avenue

Alvin Ailey Alvin Ailey Jr. (January 5, 1931 – December 1, 1989) was an American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Alvin Ailey American Dance Center ...

Dance Hall (north) * Julia Miles Theatre (

Off Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...

venue) (south) *Independent High School (north)

Tenth Avenue

Clinton Towers Apartments Clinton is an England, English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton, Cambridgeshire, Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton ha ...

39-story apartment completed in 1974

Eleventh Avenue

Twelfth Avenue/
West Side Highway The Joe DiMaggio Highway, commonly called the West Side Highway and formerly the Miller Highway, is a mostly surface section of New York State Route 9A (NY 9A), running from West 72nd Street along the Hudson River to the southern t ...

The road crosses a

pedestrian island A refuge island, also known as a pedestrian refuge or pedestrian island, is a small section of pavement or sidewalk, surrounded by asphalt or other road materials, where pedestrians can stop before finishing crossing a road. It is typically u ...

separating 12th Avenue from the West Side Highway (one of the few places where 12th and the West Side Highway are not the same). The route concludes at the West Side Highway (

New York Route 9A New York State Route 9A (NY 9A) is a state highway in the vicinity of New York City in the United States. Its southern terminus is at Battery Place near the northern end of the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel in New York City, where it inters ...

). Opposite the intersection is the

Hudson River Park Hudson River Park is a waterfront park on the North River (Hudson River) that extends from 59th Street south to Battery Park in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The park, a component of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, stretches and ...

and

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

References

Notes

External links

55th Street: A New York Songline
- virtual walking tour {{Manhattan streets, state=collapsed 055 Midtown Manhattan