85th Street (Manhattan)

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.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TotAQAAMAAJ&q=%2285th+street%22&pg=PA345 |title=Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen – New York (N.Y.). Board of Aldermen|volume=12 |publisher=The Board |year= 1837|page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}}} In 1839, the Board of Aldermen approved the opening of West 85th Street between Fifth Avenue and Ninth Avenue.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tXsWAAAAYAAJ&q=%2285th+street%22+-rockaways+-seattle+-chicago+-brooklyn&pg=PA75 |title=Documents of the Board of Aldermen of the City of New York|volume=5 |publisher= The Board|year= 1839|page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}}}

By the 1840s, a short length designated as West 85th Street had been created as a narrow lane east of Eighth Avenue.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OSAx9tm6hMEC&q=%2285th+street%22+%22central+park%22&pg=PA329 |title=Upper West Side Story: A History and Guide |author =Peter Salwen |year=1989 |page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}|publisher=Peter Salwen |isbn=9780896598942 }} Most of West 85th Street was laid out following the American Civil War.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o8ym5NeiylkC&pg=PA750 |title=The Landmarks of New York, Fifth Edition: An Illustrated Record of the City's Historic Buildings |author =Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel |publisher= SUNY Press|year=2011 |page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}|isbn=9781438437712 }} 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.

No New York City Subway stations are located on the street itself. Several are on nearby 86th Street, however:{{NYCS const|map}}

• 86th Street on the {{NYCS trains|Second}} at Second Avenue
• 86th Street on the {{NYCS trains|Lexington}} at Lexington Avenue
• 86th Street on the {{NYCS trains|Broadway-Seventh local}} at Broadway
• 86th Street on the {{NYCS trains|Eighth center local}} at Central Park West

There are several significant landmarks on 85th Street.

File:Morris-house-100e85.jpg]]

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.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t0gj61QSgk8C&q=%22east+85th+street%22&pg=PA479 |title=AIA Guide to New York City |author1=Norval White |author2=Elliot Willensky |author3=Fran Leadon |publisher=Oxford University Press |year= 2010|page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}|isbn=9780199772919 }} 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.neighborhoodpreservationcenter.org/db/bb_files/NEW-WORLD-BLDG.pdf |title=New World Foundation Building (formerly Louis G. Morris House) |publisher=Landmarks Preservation Commission |date=April 19, 1973 |access-date=June 7, 2014 |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303181749/http://www.neighborhoodpreservationcenter.org/db/bb_files/NEW-WORLD-BLDG.pdf |url-status=dead }}{{NRISref|2009a}}

File:Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, New York, NY.jpg]]

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.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KCAEdI5c8T0C&q=%22kehilath%22+%2285th+street%22&pg=PA40 |title=A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community: Mordecai M. Kaplan, Orthodoxy, and American Judaism |author1=Jeffrey S. Gurock |author2=Jacob J. Schacter |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2013 |page=40|isbn=9780231504492 }} The lower division of the Ramaz School, a coeducational, private Modern Orthodox Jewish prep school, shares a building with the congregation.{{cite web|url=http://www.ramaz.org/about/index.aspx |title=The Ramaz School: About Ramaz |publisher=Ramaz.org |access-date=June 6, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140614021004/http://www.ramaz.org/about/index.aspx |archive-date=June 14, 2014 }}

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.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b5recXjLL2oC&pg=PA278 |title=The Napoleon of New York: Mayor Fiorello La Guardia |author =H. Paul Jeffers |publisher= John Wiley & Sons|year=2002 |page=278|isbn=9780471211037 }}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MvR9Xzq2FIUC&q=%22german+american+bund%22+85th+street&pg=PT48 |title=Historical Cities: New York City |author =Lyn Wilkerson |year=2010 |publisher=Lyn Wilkerson |isbn=9781452413730 }}{{cite web|url=http://vault.fbi.gov/german-american-bund/german-american-federation-bund-part-11-of-10 |author =Special Agent|title=German American Bund |publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation |date= November 17, 1941|access-date=June 10, 2014}}

File:Street clock 1501 3d Av jeh.JPG]]

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.[https://books.google.com/books?id=6_0JCcWDpxAC&pg=PA143 Fodor's New York City 2009]; Page 143, Fodor's Travel Publications (2008){{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A479XLrmk54C&q=%2285th+street%22+%22the+jeffersons%22&pg=PT28 |title=The Indispensable Book of Useless Information: Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get Any More Useless—It Does |author =Don Voorhees |publisher=Penguin |year= 2011|page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}|isbn=9781101514795 }}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M6WOwSZCX5gC&q=%2285th+street%22+%22the+jeffersons%22&pg=PA37 |title=The Surgeon's Wife |author =Kieran Crowley |publisher= Macmillan|year= 2007|page=37|isbn=9781429903318 }}

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.{{cite news|author =Christopher Gray |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/13/realestate/streetscapes-time-alone-will-tell-ownership.html |title=STREETSCAPES; Time Alone Will Tell Ownership |location=Yorkville (Nyc) |work=The New York Times |date=November 13, 1988 |access-date=June 9, 2014}} Constructed to resemble a pocket watch, it is {{convert|15|ft|m}} high including its base.

File:MMPU hall 209 E85 jeh.JPG]]

At 201–203 East 85th Street, the Yorkville Bank Building (1905), a four-story building designed by Robert Maynicke, was designated a landmark in 2012.{{cite web|url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/reports/2510.pdf |author=Landmarks Preservation Commission |title=Yorkville Bank final report |date=June 12, 2012 |access-date=June 7, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103225059/http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/reports/2510.pdf |archive-date=November 3, 2012 |df=mdy }}

Instrument maker Vincent Bach manufactured trumpets and trumpet mouthpieces at 204 East 85th Street in the early 20th century.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3aQ7AQAAIAAJ&q=%22vincent+bach%22+85th+street |title=The heritage encyclopedia of band music: composers and their music |author1=William H. Rehrig |author2=Robert Hoe |publisher= Integrity Press|year= 1991|page=33|isbn=9780918048080 }}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UvwhAQAAMAAJ&q=%22vincent+bach%22+85th+street |title=Metronome |year=1928 |volume = 44|page=46}}{{cite web|url=http://www.bachloyalist.com/history/mfglocations.htm |title=Bach Manufacturing Locations |publisher=BachLoyalist.com |date=December 23, 2006 |access-date=June 8, 2014}}

The building at 209 East 85th Street was constructed in 1919 aS the union hall of the Musical Mutual Protective Union.{{cite news|author =Christopher Gray |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/06/realestate/streetscapes-readers-questions-echoes-of-a-union-hall-artificial-sunlight.html |title=Streetscapes /Readers' Questions; Echoes of a Union Hall; Artificial Sunlight |location=New York City |work=New York Times |date=June 6, 1999 |access-date=June 8, 2014}}

Minnie Marx and Sam Marx, the parents and manager of the Marx Brothers, lived at 330 East 85th Street.{{cite web|url=http://www.marx-brothers.org/biography/parents.htm |title=Parents |publisher=The Marx Brothers |access-date=June 9, 2014}}

The clapboard shingle house at 412 East 85th Street was built around 1855. It was restored in 1988 by architect Alfredo De Vido.

Author Henry Miller, who wrote Tropic of Cancer, was born in 1891 on the top floor of and lived at 450 East 85th Street.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ytpzn0EfA-YC&pg=PA369 |title=All Around the Town: Amazing Manhattan Facts and Curiosities |author =Patrick Bunyan |publisher=Fordham Univ Press |year=2010 |page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}|isbn=9780823231744 }}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=49ErAQAAIAAJ&q=%22henry+miller%22+85th+street+450 |title=Nexus: The International Henry Miller Journal |publisher=Roger Jackson Pub. |year= 2004|page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}}}

Author Louise Fitzhugh lived at 524 East 85th Street, between East End and York Avenues, and her heroine "Harriet" in Harriet the Spy lived in the area.{{cite web|last=Brown |first=Jennifer M. |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/interviews/article/29083-the-booklover-s-big-apple-pw-daily-talks-with-leonard-marcus.html |title=The Booklover's Big Apple: PW Daily Talks with Leonard Marcus |work=Publishers Weekly |date=May 21, 2003 |access-date=June 7, 2014}}

The glassy Modernist building at 525 East 85th Street was built in 1958.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NLn64RtcTO8C&q=525+East+85th+Street&pg=PA146 |title=Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture |author =John Hill |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |year=2011 |page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}|isbn=9780393733266 }} Its architect was Paul Mitarachi.

The 86th Street transverse cuts through Central Park, and is directly below the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U6oBOVB7Z7YC&q=%2285th+street%22+%22central+park%22&pg=PA174 |title=The Unofficial Guide to New York City |author =Eve Zibart |publisher= John Wiley & Sons|year=2010 |page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}|isbn=9780470637234 }} In the early 1880s, most of the cross-town traffic in the area traveled on it. In 1917, New York Railways ran across the traverse road {{convert|0.652|mi|km}} on 85th Street, from Eighth Avenue through Central Park to Madison Avenue.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/documentssenate25senagoog |quote=85th street central park. |title=Street-railway track mileage; Documents of the Senate of the State of New York|publisher=J.B. Lyon Company|author =New York (State). Legislature. Senate |year=1917 |page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}}}

File:SW Reservoir Bridge 27 CP jeh.jpg

Southwest Reservoir Bridge, at 85th Street in Central Park, was designed by Calvert Vaux and is decorated with elegant iron floral scroll ornamentation along its {{convert|38|ft|m}} of railings and spandrels.{{cite web|url=http://www.centralpark.com/guide/attractions/bridges-of-central-park.html |title=Bridges of Central Park |publisher=Centralpark.com |access-date=June 8, 2014}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xKjS342df7YC&pg=PA93 |title=The Complete Illustrated Map and Guidebook to Central Park |author =Raymond Carroll |publisher=Sterling Publishing Company |year= 2008|page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}|isbn=9781402758331 }}{{cite news|author =David W. Dunlap |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/05/arts/small-scale-great-beauty-the-bridges-of-central-park.html |title=Small Scale, Great Beauty: The Bridges of Central Park |location=New York City; Central Park |work=New York Times |date=July 5, 1991 |access-date=June 8, 2014}}

File:Seneca Village-Central Park-Nyc.gif (Egbert Viele, circa 1857)]]

The site of Seneca Village is in Central Park near West 85th Street. The three lots on which the village was established were purchased in 1825 by Andrew Williams for $125 (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|125|1825|r=-2}}}} in current dollar terms), and sold by him to the City of New York three decades later for $2,335 (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|2335|1855|r=-2}}}} in current dollar terms). In the mid-19th century it was a shanty-town, and it may have been populated by free blacks in the early 1800s.{{Cite Central Park History|pages=72–74}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OSAx9tm6hMEC&q=%22west+85th+street%22&pg=PA329 |title=Upper West Side Story: A History and Guide |author =Peter Salwen |year= 1989|page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}|publisher=Peter Salwen |isbn=9780896598942 }} The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was at this location.

The Spector Playground is located in Central Park near West 85th Street.{{cite journal|url=http://nymag.com/urban/guides/family/leisure/listings/playgrounds1.htm |title=New York Kids' Playgrounds – New York Family Guide |journal=New York Magazine |date=Fall 2004 |access-date=June 9, 2014}}

Mariners' Gate is at Central Park and West 85th Street, at an entrance to the park.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/spiritualtravele0000berg |url-access=registration |quote=west 85th street. |title=The Spiritual Traveler: New York City: the Guide to Sacred Spaces and Peaceful Places|publisher=Hidden Spring |author =Edward F. Bergman |year=2001 |page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}|isbn=978-1-58768-003-8 }} The name for the gate was chosen as reflecting one of the types of people it was expected would be enjoying the park, at the time the park was built.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IzGYzUX8jq0C&q=%22west+85th+street%22+mariner%27s+gate&pg=PA20 |title=Where? |author =Erin McHugh |publisher=Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. |year=2005 |page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}|isbn=9781402725722 }}

File:WTM NewYorkDolls 039.jpg]]

Rossleigh Court at 1 West 85th Street, constructed between 1906 and 1907, was designed by Mulliken and Moeller and built by Gotham Building and Construction.New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Upper West Side/ Central Park West District Designation Report, Vol. I: Essay/ Architects' Appendix, April 24, 1990. It followed the popular "French Flat" model in a Beaux-Arts style. Novelist Ellen Glasgow lived in the building for a few months every year in the early 20th century.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HdadFhRiNvUC&q=%22west+85th+street%22&pg=PA114 |title=Ellen Glasgow and a Woman's Traditions |author =Pamela R. Matthews |publisher= University of Virginia Press|year= 1994|page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}|isbn=9780813915395 }}

44 West 85th Street was the location of the Nippon Club of New York City, a private social club founded in 1905 by Jōkichi Takamine for Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals, in the early 20th century.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zpxAAAAAYAAJ&q=%2285th+street%22+%22nippon+club%22&pg=PA26 |title=Japan in New York |publisher=Anraku Publishing Company |year=1908|page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}}}

File:Red-house-nyc.jpg]]

At 140 West 85th Street, a Dawn Redwood (metasequoia glyptostroboides) endangered coniferous tree can be seen.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5X0XvR8CWd4C&q=%22west+85th+street%22&pg=PT288 |title=Field Guide to the Street Trees of New York City |author =Leslie Day |publisher=JHU Press |year= 2013|page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}|isbn=9781421402819 }}

Mannes College of Music is a music school located at 150 West 85th Street, which moved there in 1984 seeking larger quarters.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9rKsR6NeulcC&q=%2285th+street%22+mannes&pg=PA147 |title=Classical |author1=Brad Hill |author2=Richard Carlin |author3=Nadine Hubbs |year=2005 |page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}|publisher=Infobase |isbn=9780816069767 }}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mkH1AgAAQBAJ&q=%2285th+street%22+mannes&pg=PA319 |title=Time Out New York |publisher= Time Out Guides|year= 2010|page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}|isbn=9781846701672 }}

329, 331, 333, 335, and 337 West 85th Street were built in 1890–91.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AwYcSFtdE_AC&q=%22west+85th+street%22&pg=PA148 |title=Guide to New York City Landmarks |author =Andrew Dolkart |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2008 |page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}|isbn=9780470289631 }} They are brownstone and brick Queen Anne-Romanesque Revival architecture.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t0gj61QSgk8C&q=%22west+85th+street%22&pg=PA398 |title=AIA Guide to New York City |author1=Norval White |author2=Elliot Willensky |author3=Fran Leadon |publisher= Oxford University Press|year= 2010|page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}|isbn=9780199772919 }} Journalist Heywood Broun and feminist Ruth Hale lived at 333 West 85th Street.

On the corner of West 85th Street and West End Avenue, a Japanese Maple (acer palmatum) species of woody plant can be seen.

Red House at 350 West 85th Street, between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive, was built in 1903–04, and the six-story French Renaissance/Gothic building was designated a landmark in 1982.{{cite web|url=http://www.neighborhoodpreservationcenter.org/db/bb_files/1982RedHouse.pdf|title=Red House, 350 West 85th Street, Borough of Manhattan|publisher=Landmarks Preservation Commission|date=September 14, 1982|access-date=June 7, 2014|archive-date=March 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303170215/http://www.neighborhoodpreservationcenter.org/db/bb_files/1982RedHouse.pdf|url-status=dead}} It was one of the first apartment buildings in the area, supplanting the earlier row houses. Writer Dorothy Parker lived here at one time.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tm_VaqahyCIC&q=%22west+85th+street%22&pg=PT38 |title=A Journey Into Dorothy Parker's New York |author =Kevin C. Fitzpatrick |year= 2013|page={{page needed|date=June 2014}}|isbn=9781938901096 }}

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Category:Upper West Side

Category:Upper East Side