Avenue A is a north–south avenue located in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, east of First Avenue and west of Avenue B. It runs from

Houston Street Houston Street ( ) is a major east–west thoroughfare in Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs the full width of the island of Manhattan, from FDR Drive along the East River in the east to the West Side Highway along the Hudson River i ...

to 14th Street, where it continues into a loop road in

Stuyvesant Town Stuyvesant may refer to: People * Peter Stuyvesant (1592–1672), the last governor of New Netherland * Peter Gerard Stuyvesant (1778–1847), lawyer, landowner and philanthropist. * Rutherfurd Stuyvesant (1843–1909), socialite and land develope ...

, connecting to Avenue B. Below Houston Street, Avenue A continues as

Essex Street Essex Street is a north-south street on the Lower East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. North of Houston Street, the street becomes Avenue A, which goes north to 14th Street. South of Canal Street it becomes Rutgers Street, the ...

. It is considered to be the western border of

Alphabet City Alphabet City is a neighborhood located within the East Village in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its name comes from Avenues A, B, C, and D, the only avenues in Manhattan to have single-letter names. It is bounded by Houston St ...

in the East Village. It is also the western border of

Tompkins Square Park Tompkins Square Park is a public park in the Alphabet City portion of East Village, Manhattan, New York City. The square-shaped park, bounded on the north by East 10th Street, on the east by Avenue B, on the south by East 7th Street, and on ...

Sections

Under the

Commissioners' Plan of 1811 The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 was the original design for the streets of Manhattan above Houston Street and below 155th Street, which put in place the rectangular grid plan of streets and lots that has defined Manhattan on its march uptown ...

that established the Manhattan street grid, the avenues would begin with First Avenue on the east side and run through

Twelfth Avenue 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 ...

in the west. East of First Avenue the plan provided four additional lettered avenues running from Avenue A eastward to Avenue D wherever they could be fitted. While First Avenue was the easternmost avenue in most of Manhattan, several discontinuous sections were designated as ''Avenue A'' north of present-day Alphabet City. Asser Levy Recreation Center

Asser Levy Place

A short section of Avenue A from 23rd to 25th Streets in

Kips Bay, Manhattan Kips Bay, or Kip's Bay, is a neighborhood on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by East 34th Street to the north, the East River to the east, East 27th and/or 23rd Streets to the south, and Third Avenu ...

, was cut off from the existing section in 1947 with the construction of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. The two-block section was renamed in 1954 after

Asser Levy Asser Levy (died early 1680s), also known as Asser Levy van Swellemhttps://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9876-levy-asser-asser-levy-van-swellem Solomon Grayzel, ''A History of the Jews'', The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philade ...

, one of the first

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

citizens of New York City, and a strong and influential advocate for civil liberties. The eastern side of Asser Levy Place contains the Asser Levy Recreation Center, which includes the

Asser Levy Public Baths The Asser Levy Recreation Center is a recreational facility in Kips Bay, Manhattan, New York City, composed of the Asser Levy Public Baths and Asser Levy Playground. It is bounded by East 23rd Street to the south, East 25th Street to the nort ...

, built in 1905-08. Asser Levy Place closed in October 2013 to become part of the Recreation Center The park now contains concrete Ping-Pong tables, a track and field, exercise equipment, and painted children's games such as hopscotch. It is being built by

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also called the Parks Department or NYC Parks, is the department of the government of New York City responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecolog ...

to replace the western end of the

Robert Moses Playground Robert Moses Playground is a playground and park in Manhattan, New York City. It is located in the Murray Hill neighborhood on First Avenue between 41st and 42nd streets, immediately south of the headquarters of the United Nations. The park ...

at 42nd Street and FDR Drive being sold to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

, in preparation for a future

East River Greenway The East River Greenway (also called the East River Esplanade) is an approximately foreshoreway for walking or cycling on the east side of the island of Manhattan on the East River. It is part of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway. The largest po ...

phase on the FDR Drive, underneath the

United Nations headquarters zh, 联合国总部大楼french: Siège des Nations uniesrussian: Штаб-квартира Организации Объединённых Наций es, Sede de las Naciones Unidas , image = Midtown Manhattan Skyline 004.jpg , im ...

between East 38th and 60th Streets. AvenueA2

Beekman Place

Beekman Place, located at the

headquarters of the United Nations zh, 联合国总部大楼french: Siège des Nations uniesrussian: Штаб-квартира Организации Объединённых Наций es, Sede de las Naciones Unidas , image = Midtown Manhattan Skyline 004.jpg , im ...

, runs as a short street between Mitchell Place/49th Street and 51st Street. Though not part of the original Avenue A in the 1811 plan, it is named after the Beekman family (members of whom include

Wilhelmus Beekman Wilhelmus Hendricksen Beekman (April 28, 1623 – September 21, 1707) — also known as William Beekman and Willem Beekman (or Beeckman) — was a Dutch immigrant to America who came to New Amsterdam (now New York City) from the Netherlands in the ...

, whose namesakes also include downtown's Beekman Street and William Street), who were influential in New York City's development.

Sutton Place and York Avenue

Sutton Place was also formerly designated as Avenue A; in its original length it ran between East 53rd and 92nd Streets. Effingham B. Sutton constructed a group of brownstones in 1875 between 57th and 58th Streets, and is said to have lent the street his name, though the earliest source found by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' dates back to 1883. The

New York City Board of Aldermen The New York City Board of Aldermen was a body that was the upper house of New York City's Common Council from 1824 to 1875, the lower house of its Municipal Assembly upon consolidation in 1898 until the charter was amended in 1901 to abolish ...

approved a petition to change the name from "Avenue A" to "Sutton Place", covering the blocks between 57th and 60th Streets.Gray, Christopher
" Streetscapes/Sutton Place, Sutton Place South and One Sutton Place North; A Prestigious Enclave With a Name in Question"
''

'', September 21, 2003. Accessed December 27, 2007. In 1928, a one-block section of Sutton Place north of East 59th Street, and all of Avenue A north of that point, was renamed

York Avenue York Avenue and Sutton Place are the names of a relatively short north-south thoroughfare in the Yorkville, Lenox Hill, and Sutton Place neighborhoods of the East Side of Manhattan, in New York City. York Avenue runs from 59th to 92nd Streets ...

in honor of World War One US Army Sergeant

Alvin York Alvin Cullum York (December 13, 1887 – September 2, 1964), also known as Sergeant York, was one of the most decorated United States Army soldiers of World War I. He received the Medal of Honor for leading an attack on a German machine ...

, who won the

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valo ...

for an attack in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive on October 8, 1918. This section is the only former section of Avenue A to still use the Avenue A address system (as it only has four-digit building numbers).

Pleasant Avenue

The northernmost section of Avenue A, stretching between East 114th and 120th Streets in East Harlem, was renamed Pleasant Avenue in 1879.De-Classified 4-A
Forgotten NY. Accessed January 1, 2008.Pollak, Michael

''

'', December 12, 2004. Accessed January 1, 2008. The addresses on Pleasant Avenue are not continuous with those on Avenue A (which would be in the 2000-series if they were continuous).

References

External links

New York Songlines: Avenue A
a virtual walking tour
East Harlem Giglio Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Avenue A (Manhattan) East Village, Manhattan Italian-American culture in New York City *A