New York Songlines: Sutton Place

with York Avenue

E 59th | E 58th | E 57th | E 56th | E 55th | E 54th | E 53rd

Sutton Place and York Avenue are really a far-separated stretch of Avenue A, and that's what they were originally named. The stretch between 60th Street and 57th Street was renamed for Effingham B. Sutton, who got rich during the 1849 gold rush, but whose 1875 attempt to develop the neighborhood did not prosper. Later, the avenue from 59th Street northward was renamed not for the old city or duke of York, but for World War I hero Sgt. Alvin York.



West:

Queensboro Oval

A small park next to and underneath a section of the Queensboro Bridge -- featuring baseball diamonds.


























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East:

Queensboro Bridge

Queensboro Bridge by Darks Adria, on Flickr Also known as the 59th Street Bridge. Com- pleted in 1909 to a design by Gustav Lindenthal, the bridge was "the first major structural project to reject the suspension technique in favor of cantilevering." It became an NYC landmark in 1978. Buildings and community spaces built above the Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive by Zach K, on Flickr

This is the bridge that Simon & Garfunkel sing about in "Feeling Groovy"; the bridge is alsomentioned in The Great Gatsby: "The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world." It features as an icon in Woody Allen's Manhattan and the TV series Taxi.


W <===     EAST 59TH STREET     ===> E

West:

40 (corner): A nine-story beige-brick apartment building built in 1954 and converted to condos in 1981, it's been called "the least attractive building on Sutton Place."


30 (corner): A 1928 beaux arts apartment building by Rosario Candela with 14 floors.

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East:

35 (corner): A 21-story cooperative built in 1961




25 (corner): Another 14-story Rosario Candela building from 1928.


W <===     EAST 58TH STREET / SUTTON SQUARE     ===> E

West:

16 (corner): Twenty stories put up in 1959 to a Kokkins & Lyras design

























4 Sutton Place by Dop Deep, on Flickr

4 (corner): A 14-story co-op from 1929, designed by Rosario Candela.

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East:

57th and Sutton Pl by Randy Levine, on Flickr

21 (cor- ner): Most of the brown- stones on this block were built in 1899 and remodeled in the 1920s. This corner house was given a Classical redesign by William Lescaze in 1928, before the architect became famous for his International Style work. Medusa Mascaron (New York, NY) by takomabibelot, on Flickr

19: Has a remarkable Medusa over the front door.

17: Redesigned by Mott Schmidt.

13: Also redesigned by Schmidt. This was the final home of Elizabeth Marbury, who died of a heart attack here on January 22, 1933, at the age of 77. Marbury was the literary agent of Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw and James Barrie, among others.

9: Remodeled by H. Page Cross, this was home to real estate developer Robert Walton Goelet.

7: Refurbished in 1921 by William F. Dominick

3: A 1921 townhouse designed by Mott Schmidt for Anne Morgan, daughter of J.P. Morgan. It was donated to the United Nations in 1972 and now serves as the official residence of the U.N. secretary general.

1 (corner): This neo-Georgian mansion was designed by Mott Schmidt for Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt.


W <===     EAST 57TH STREET     ===> E

West:

2 (corner): A 19-story building from 1938. Writer William Saroyan lived here in the 1940s, his last New York address; actor George Jessel lived here as well.







14 (corner): A 14-story apartment building designed by Rosario Candela, completed 1929.

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East:

1 (block): A 13-story Italian Renaissance-style co-op designed by Rosario Candela and Cross & Cross and completed in 1927. City Review calls it "the finest and most prestigious apartment building on Sutton Place." Residents have included actor Sigourney Weaver, presidential sister Patricia Kennedy Lawford, designer Bill Blass and media billionaire Ann Cox Chambers.







W <===     EAST 56TH STREET     ===> E

West:

20 (corner): A 20-floor apartment building, built in 1953 by the Doelger family, which owned a long-running brewery on this block--this building and its neighbor to the south were both built on its site.


36 (corner): This 17-story building from 1948 housed the apartment of Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable in the 1953 movie How to Marry a Millionaire. Joan Crawford lived here from 1955 to 1957.

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25 (block): A 20-story building from 1959 has been home to Charlotte Ford, an etiquette writer and granddaughter of Henry Ford. Playwright Robert Sherwood, who won four Pulitzer Prizes, lived at an earlier building at this address from 1936 until his death in 1955.








W <===     EAST 55TH STREET     ===> E

West:

50 (block): This 19-story building from 1955 has been home to actor Maureen O'Hara. Some of the film American Gangster was shot here.


W <===         E 54TH ST

60 (block): This 18-story red-brick apartment complex from 1951 features many oddly angled apartments, designed by Arthur Wieser to maximize the project's river views.

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East:

45 (corner): A 1958 building of 20 stories.















W <===     EAST 53RD STREET / FDR DRIVE     ===> E

River House

The River House nextdoor by Randy Levine, on Flickr

435 E 52nd: This 1931, 26-story luxury apartment building by Bottomley, Wagner & White has been called "arguably the city's, if not the world's, finest apartment building." It originally came with its own yacht dock. Edwin Howard Armstrong, the inventor of FM radio, threw himself to his death from his 13th floor apartment here on January 31, 1954, in part due to legal fights over his radio patents. Henry and Clare Booth Luce lived here from 1936-60. Other residents have included Henry Kissinger, Marshall Field, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney and Angier Biddle Duke. Earlier on this site was the Cremo Cigar factory.





What's missing on Sutton Place? Write to Jim Naureckas and tell him about it.

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