![888 Madison Avenue](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/888_Madison_Avenue.jpg)
72nd Street is one of the major bi-directional crosstown streets in
New York City's borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle A ...
of
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 ...
. The street primarily runs through the
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...
and
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...
neighborhoods. It is one of the few streets to go through
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...
via Women's Gate, Terrace Drive, and Inventors Gate, though Terrace Drive is often closed to vehicular traffic.
History
The street was designated by 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 as one of 15 east-west streets that would be in width (while other streets were designated as in width).
On October 11, 2006, the
Belaire Apartments
Belaire Apartments (also known as the Belaire Condominiums and The Belaire) is a mixed-use high-rise condominium apartment building in Manhattan, New York City. The 42-story building is located at 524 East 72nd Street between York Avenue
...
, a 50-story apartment complex located at 524 E. 72nd Street between
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 ...
and the
FDR Drive, was the site of
a plane crash involving
Cory Lidle
Cory Fulton Lidle (March 22, 1972 – October 11, 2006) was an American professional baseball player. A right-handed pitcher, Lidle played in Major League Baseball with the New York Mets, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Oakland Athletics, Toronto Blue Jay ...
'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.
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
Rosario Candela (March 7, 1890 – October 3, 1953) was an Italian American architect who achieved renown through his apartment building designs in New York City, primarily during the boom years of the 1920s. He is credited with defining the cit ...
.). 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
907 Fifth Avenue is a luxury residential housing cooperative in Manhattan, New York City, United States.
The 12-story, limestone-faced building is located at Fifth Avenue and 72nd Street on a site once occupied by the 1893 residence of James ...
.
West Side
The Dakota apartment building is located on the northwest corner of West 72nd Street and
Central Park West
Eighth Avenue is a major north–south avenue on the west side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic below 59th Street. It is one of the original avenues of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 to run the length of Manhattan, ...
.
The Park & Tilford Building, on the southwest corner 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.
At 72nd Street,
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
crosses
Amsterdam Avenue, creating a small triangular space,
Verdi Square; across the street to the south lies
Sherman Square.
The
Eleanor Roosevelt Monument
The Eleanor Roosevelt Monument is a memorial located in New York City's Riverside Park, whose centerpiece is a statue of Eleanor Roosevelt, said to be the first monument dedicated to an American president's wife. Hillary Clinton (First Lady at the ...
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.
Transportation
72nd Street has three
New York City Subway stops along its length:
*
72nd Street at
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
and
Amsterdam Avenue served by the
*
72nd Street at
Central Park West
Eighth Avenue is a major north–south avenue on the west side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic below 59th Street. It is one of the original avenues of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 to run the length of Manhattan, ...
served by the
*
72nd Street at
Second Avenue served by the
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
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...
's
72nd Street station previously existed on
Park Avenue
Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Av ...
, which now carries the
Park Avenue main line of the
Metro-North Railroad. The station closed in approximately 1901, and an emergency exit is the only vestige of the station's existence.
Notable residents
![Margaux Hemingway](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Margaux_Hemingway.jpg)
*
Manny Acta
Manuel Elias Acta (born January 11, 1969) is a Dominican former professional baseball manager who is currently the Third Base coach for the Seattle Mariners, and formerly a broadcast analyst for ESPN and ESPN Deportes. He has served as manager f ...
, major league baseball manager,
524 East 72nd Street
*
Robert Agostinelli, self-made billionaire financier,
36 East 72nd Street
*
Allan Arbus
Allan Franklin Arbus (February 15, 1918 – April 19, 2013) was an American actor and photographer. He was the former husband of photographer Diane Arbus. He is known for his role as psychiatrist Dr. Sidney Freedman on the CBS television series ...
, actor, 319 East 72nd Street
*
Arthur Ashe
Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an American professional tennis player who won three Grand Slam singles titles. He started to play tennis at six years old. He was the first black player selected to the Un ...
, tennis player, 360 East 72nd Street
*
Lauren Bacall, actress, 1 West 72nd Street
*
Ivan Boesky
Ivan Frederick Boesky (born March 6, 1937) is a former American stock trader who became infamous for his prominent role in an insider trading scandal that occurred in the United States during the mid-1980s. He was charged and pled guilty to insi ...
, stock trader, 524 East 72nd Street
*
Carol Higgins Clark
Carol Higgins Clark (born July 28, 1956) is an American mystery author and actress. She is the daughter of suspense writer Mary Higgins Clark, with whom she co-authored several Christmas novels, and the former sister-in-law of author Mary Jane ...
, mystery author, 524 East 72nd Street
*
Thomas E. Dewey, two-time Governor of New York, 141 East 72nd Street
*
Marc Eidlitz, builder, 123 East 72nd Street
*
Joan Fontaine
Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland (October 22, 1917 – December 15, 2013), known professionally as Joan Fontaine, was a British-American actress who is best known for her starring roles in Hollywood films during the "Golden Age". Fontaine appeared ...
, British-American actress, 160 East 72nd Street
*
Alex Gard
Alex Gard (born Alexei Mikhailovich Kremkov, russian: Алексе́й Миха́йлович Кремко́в; also tr. Kremkoff; June 17, 1898 – June 1, 1948) was a Russian American cartoonist. He was a regular cartoonist for newspapers, mag ...
, cartoonist
*
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...
, composer and pianist, 132 East 72nd Street
*
Hugh J. Grant, mayor of New York City, 20 East 72nd Street
*
Margaux Hemingway, model and actress, 12 East 72nd Street
*
Louise Huff, actress, 155 East 72nd Street
*
John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...
, musician, songwriter, 1 West 72nd Street
*
Barbara Margolis, prisoners' rights advocate, 30 East 72nd Street
*
David Margolis, industrialist, 30 East 72nd Street
*
Louis Marshall
Louis Marshall (December 14, 1856 – September 11, 1929) was an American corporate, constitutional and civil rights lawyer as well as a mediator and Jewish community leader who worked to secure religious, political, and cultural freedom for a ...
, lawyer, 47 East 72nd Street
*
James Merrill
James Ingram Merrill (March 3, 1926 – February 6, 1995) was an American poet. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1977 for ''Divine Comedies.'' His poetry falls into two distinct bodies of work: the polished and formalist lyri ...
, poet, author o
"164 East 72nd Street"*
Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野 洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking.
Ono grew up i ...
, artist, activist, 1 West 72nd Street
*
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles.
From a conflicted and unhap ...
, writer, satirist, 214 West 72nd Street
*
George Plimpton
George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American writer. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found ''The Paris Review'', as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. He was also known for " ...
, writer, editor, New York City fireworks commissioner, 541 East 72nd Street
*
Lee Radziwill
Caroline Lee Bouvier ( ), later Canfield, Radziwiłł (), and Ross (March 3, 1933 – February 15, 2019), usually known as Princess Lee Radziwill, was an American socialite, public-relations executive, and interior decorator. She was the y ...
, actress and socialite, 160 East 72nd Street
*
Jason Robards, Jr., actor, 1 West 72nd Street
*
Marvin R. Shanken, publisher, 524 East 72nd Street
*
Winthrop H. Smith, investment banker
*
Harold Stanley, cofounder of
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...
, 4 East 72nd Street
*
John Steinbeck, writer, 190 and 206 East 72nd Street
*
James Stillman
James Jewett Stillman (June 9, 1850 – March 15, 1918) was an American businessman who invested in land, banking, and railroads in New York, Texas, and Mexico. He was chairman of the board of directors of the National City Bank. He forged alli ...
, businessman, 9 East 72nd Street
*
Aileen Osborn Webb, patron of crafts
Notes
{{Streets of Manhattan
072
Upper West Side
Upper East Side