85th Street

85th Street is a westbound-running street, running from East End Avenue to Riverside Drive in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.

At Fifth Avenue, the street feeds into the 86th Street transverse, which runs east–west through Central Park and heads from the Upper East Side (where it is known as East 85th Street) to West 86th Street on the Upper West Side. West 85th Street resumes one block south of the transverse's western end. It includes landmarks such as the Lewis Gouverneur and Nathalie Bailey Morris House at 100 East 85th Street, the sidewalk clock at East 85th Street and Third Avenue, the Yorkville Bank Building at 201–203 East 85th Street, Red House at 350 West 85th Street, and
Regis High School.

History

In 1837, the Board of Aldermen of New York City initially voted not to approve, but subsequently approved, the opening of East 85th Street between Third Avenue and Fifth Avenue, which the Committee on Roads and Canals had offered up as a resolution on the petition of owners of property on the street. In 1839, the Board of Aldermen approved the opening of West 85th Street between Fifth Avenue and Ninth Avenue.

By the 1840s, a short length designated as West 85th Street had been created as a narrow lane east of Eighth Avenue. Most of West 85th Street was laid out following the American Civil War. However, until the 1880s the rate of development on the street was slow. At that time, following an improvement in public transportation, people began to speculate on the property on the street.

In 1971, John Corry of the ''Times'' wrote a series of stories about life on West 85th Street between Central Park and Columbus Avenue.

Transportation

No New York City Subway stations are located on the street itself. Several are on nearby 86th Street, however:
* 86th Street on the at Second Avenue
* 86th Street on the at Lexington Avenue
* 86th Street on the at Broadway
* 86th Street on the at Central Park West

Notable places and residents

There are several significant landmarks on 85th Street.

East Side

The building at 100 East 85th Street, originally known as Lewis Gouverneur and Nathalie Bailey Morris House, is a large brick red townhouse that was built in 1913–14 in a neo- Federal style. Its architect was Ernest Flagg. It was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1973, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun (originally "Anshe Jeshurun"), a Modern Orthodox synagogue founded by Russian Jewish immigrants in 1872, is located at 125 East 85th Street, between Park Avenue and Lexington Avenue, in a building built in 1902. The lower division of the Ramaz School, a coeducational, private Modern Orthodox Jewish prep school, shares a building with the congregation.

The German American Bund, an American Nazi organization, had its national headquarters at 178 East 85th Street from 1936 through the early 1940s, and occasionally paraded in the neighborhood in Nazi uniforms.

Park Lane Tower, the 35-story L-shaped high-rise apartment building shown in the opening credits of the television show ''The Jeffersons'' (1975-1985), is located at 185 East 85th Street and Third Avenue. Designed by architect Hyman Isaac Feldman and completed in 1967, the beige-brick structure features distinctive rounded balconies at its corners and angled balconies on its sides.

The sidewalk clock at East 85th Street and Third Avenue, dating from the late 1800s and likely produced by E. Howard & Co., was designated a landmark in 1981. Constructed to resemble a pocket watch, it is high including its base.

At 201–203 East 85th Street, the Yorkville Bank Building (1905), a four-story building designed by Robert Maynicke

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