Eleventh Avenue (Manhattan)

Route map: Bing / Google

Eleventh Avenue

Other name(s) West End Avenue (59th – 108th Streets)
Owner City of New York
Maintained by NYCDOT
Length 6.1 mi[1] (9.8 km)
Location Manhattan, New York City
South end West Street
North end Broadway (Manhattan)
East Tenth Avenue (Gansevoort to 59th Streets)
West Twelfth Avenue (22nd to 59th Streets)
Henry Hudson Parkway (above 59th Street)
Construction
Commissioned March 1811

Eleventh Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the far West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, located near the Hudson River. Eleventh Avenue originates in the Meatpacking District in the Greenwich Village/West Village neighborhoods at Gansevoort Street, where Eleventh Avenue, Tenth Avenue, and West Street intersect. It is considered part of the West Side Highway between 22nd and Gansevoort Streets.

Between 59th and 107th Streets, the avenue is known as West End Avenue. Both West End Avenue and Eleventh Avenue are considered to be part of the same road.[2]

Description

Jean Nouvel's Nouvel 100
Straus Park and the upper end of West End Avenue

Between Gansevoort Street and West 22nd Street, Eleventh Avenue is part of the West Side Highway, a very wide expressway. At a split with Twelfth Avenue/West Side Highway at West 22nd Street, Eleventh Avenue continues as a standard-width avenue.

Following the split, Eleventh Avenue is two-way traffic for access to 23rd Street, as well as for 24th Street to access Chelsea Piers. North of 24th Street, Eleventh Avenue is one-way southbound from 24th to 44th Streets, where two-way traffic resumes. Formerly, there was two-way traffic between 34th Street and 40th Street for access to the Lincoln Tunnel, but recent construction has made that segment of Eleventh Avenue southbound-only, except for the block above 39th Street. The segment between approximately 39th and 59th Streets is home to the largest concentration of auto dealerships in Manhattan. Two-way traffic resumes at 44th Street.

The portion north of 59th Street is called West End Avenue, which has mixed commercial and residential use. The northern 2 miles (3.2 km) are a sedate Upper West Side residential street ending at Straus Park, 107th Street, and Broadway. Traffic is bidirectional, except for the northernmost block, north of 106th Street.

History

The West Side Line of the New York Central Railroad once had on-street running along part of Eleventh Avenue, popularly called "Death Avenue" because of the large number of deaths that occurred due to train–pedestrian collisions.[3] In 1934, a bill was passed for the Henry Hudson Parkway to be constructed, meant to be an alternative route to "Death Avenue".

Meanwhile, the avenue's West End Avenue section was originally created in the 1880s as the northern extension of Eleventh Avenue, and was intended to be a commercial street serving the residents of the mansions to be constructed along Riverside Drive.[4] When West End Avenue was named in the 1880s, the Upper West Side was fairly sparsely populated, and that upper portion of the avenue, subsequently, was called the "West End" because of its separation from the core of the city. Seeking to distinguish the area from the factories and tenements below 59th Street, a group of real estate developers renamed the northern portions of the West Side's avenues.[5]

Portions of both West End Avenue and Eleventh Avenue were run down in the mid-20th century, with single room occupancy hotels, prostitutes and drug addicts a common sight.[2][6] The city's economic comeback in the 1980s brought recovery and gentrification.[4][7]

The upper portion of the avenue retains stretches of late nineteenth-century town houses and several handsome churches and synagogues, but is almost entirely made up of handsome residential buildings about twelve stories tall built in the first decades of the twentieth century. The near total absence of retail on that part of the street marks its quiet, residential character,[4] as opposed to the high-traffic, noisy character of Eleventh Avenue.

Architecture

The Apthorp and 79th Street

The architecture of buildings on Eleventh and West End Avenues differs significantly. West End Avenue is noteworthy for its almost unbroken street wall of handsome apartment buildings punctuated by brief stretches of nineteenth-century townhouses and several handsome churches and synagogues. Notable architecturally historicist houses of worship include:

Among the more notable apartment buildings are:

Eleventh Avenue, meanwhile, is lined with new-age residential buildings – such as 100 Eleventh Avenue – adjacent to warehouses and car dealerships.

Between 34th and 59th Streets there are a lot of car dealerships: Mercedes-Benz is located across from the westbound Lincoln Tunnel portal, and BMW and Lexus at the intersection with West 57th Street. Manhattan Motorcars at 270 Eleventh Avenue sells many brands of luxury and sports cars. Other companies with dealerships on the avenue include Audi, Honda, Jaguar, Jeep/Chrysler/Dodge, Mazda, Nissan, Toyota. As well, numerous vehicle service stations, car washes, and car rental lots are found along this stretch.

381 to 389 West End Avenue, north end of Riverside-West End Historic District

This area has served the transport trade for more than a hundred years; most of the stables for New York's remaining horse cabs are located on its side streets, though many now store taxis and pedicabs. It is not uncommon to hear the clip clop of horses in the vicinity, as a result. The carriage horses live in historic stables originally built in the 19th century, but today boast the latest in barn design, such as fans, misting systems, box stalls, and state-of-the-art sprinkler systems. As horses always have in densely populated urban areas, the carriage horses live upstairs in their stables while the carriages are parked below on the ground floor.[15][16]

Historic districts

One historic district lies on Eleventh Avenue, the West Chelsea Historic District, designated in 2008.[17]

Two segments of West End Avenue lie within designated New York City historic districts: both sides of the avenue from West 87th to West 94th Streets can be found in the Riverside-West End Historic District.[18] The west side of the avenue from West 75th Street through mid-block between West 78th and West 79th streets and the east side between West 76th and West 77th streets are contained within the West End-Collegiate Historic District.[19] Concern over building demolition filings for the demolition of three row houses and a six-story elevator apartment building at the southwest corner of West End Avenue and West 86th Streets spurred a grassroots effort to seek historic district designation for the entire stretch north of Lincoln Towers from West 70th to West 107th streets. On March 18, 2009, the West End Avenue Preservation Society[20] formally submitted a request for evaluation to the chair of the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission along with a 260-page survey prepared by Andrew Dolkart.[21]

Starrett-Lehigh Building
Whitney Museum of American Art at Gansevoort Street and Eleventh Avenue under construction in 2013
The IAC Building with Jean Nouvel's 100 Eleventh Avenue (behind and to the left) in 2010
Eleventh Avenue, looking south at 26th Street
Silver Towers

Points of interest

Points of interest on or within one block of Eleventh Avenue include:

Points of interest on or within one block of West End Avenue include:

Mass transit

Eleventh Avenue has been served by the New York City Subway's 7 <7> trains, built as part of the 7 Subway Extension, at a station under the avenue at 34th Street, since September 2015.[22]

The New York City Bus's M12 route has served the avenue since September 2014;[23] plans for the bus route were formulated in early 2014.[24][25]

Notable residents

Notable current and former residents include:

In popular culture

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Google (December 1, 2015). "Tenth Avenue / Amsterdam Avenuet " (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  2. 1 2 Hughes, C.J. (September 10, 2013). "West End Avenue: Prospects of a Singular Thoroughfare". The New York Times. Retrieved July 29, 2014.
  3. ↑ Staff. (May 20, 1911) "State may regulate tracks in 11th Ave.; Court Denies Right of City to Disturb New York Central in Use of the Street.", The New York Times Accessed August 7, 2009. "...the way had been opened through the decision for settling the so-called 'Death Avenue' problem".
  4. 1 2 3 4 Jackson, Nancy Beth. (February 23, 2003) "If You're Thinking of Living On/West End Avenue; Quiet, Convenient, Diverse and Involved", The New York Times Accessed August 4, 2008.
  5. ↑ Gray, Christopher. "How the West Side Was Won", The New York Times, May 13, 2007. Accessed August 4, 2008.
  6. ↑ Read, Max. (February 1, 2013) "15 Photos (and Two Videos) from the Gritty 1980s New York of Ed Koch" Gawker
  7. ↑ Strausbaugh, John. (August 17, 2007) "Turf of Gangs and Gangsters" The New York Times
  8. ↑ New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Postal, Matthew A. (ed. and text); Dolkart, Andrew S. (text). (2009) Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.) New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-28963-1, p. 142
  9. ↑ White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot with Leadon, Fran (2010). AIA Guide to New York City (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195383867., pp. 380–81
  10. ↑ Brockmann, Jorg et al. (2002). One Thousand New York Buildings, p. 350, at Google Books
  11. ↑ Gray, Christopher (November 21, 2008). "Homage to the Humdrum". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
  12. ↑ Dunlap, David W. (1987-04-30). "Panel Declares Landmark Site at Town House". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
  13. ↑ Dunlap, David W. (1988-06-15). "Judge Overturns Landmark Status of Town House on Upper West Side". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
  14. ↑ Staff (August 15, 1988). "Town House Made A Landmark Again". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
  15. ↑ Young, Michelle (2014-04-28). "Behind the Scenes in the Clinton Park Horse Stables for the Central Park Carriages". Untapped Cities. Retrieved 2014-05-06.
  16. ↑ Staff (June 4, 2012). "The Stables Where Central Park Carriage Horses Live". Business Insider. Retrieved 2014-05-06.
  17. ↑ Brazee, Christopher D. and Most, Jennifer L. "West Chelsea Historic District Designatin Report". New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (July 15, 2008)
  18. ↑ Riverside-West End Historic District
  19. ↑ West End-Collegiate Historic District
  20. ↑ WEPS – About
  21. ↑ Dolkart, Andrew (February 2009) "West End Survey: A Proposal for Historic District Designation" West End Preservation Society
  22. ↑ "Subway Map" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority. September 2015. Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  23. ↑ Rivoli, Dan (September 2, 2014). "MTA adds bus service around city". AM NY. Retrieved September 13, 2014.
  24. ↑ Matz, Matthew (2014-02-10). "MTA's Far West Side Bus Route Redrawn as Locals Call for More Buses – Hell's Kitchen & Clinton". DNAinfo.com. Retrieved 2014-06-06.
  25. ↑ "MTA – Public Hearings". MTA at Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on April 30, 2014. Retrieved 2014-06-06.
  26. 1 2 Staff. (December 21, 2010) "Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban buy apartment with 'sky garage'", The Canberra Times
  27. ↑ Homes of popular TV shows Yahoo real estate Archived May 17, 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  28. ↑ Stolberg, Sheryl; Seelye, Katharine Q.; and Foderaro, Lisa W. (2010-05-10). "A Climb Marked by Confidence and Canniness". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-15.
  29. ↑ "601 West End Avenue" on the City Realty website. Quote: "According to Peter Salwen, the author, Jesse L. Lasky, the theatrical and burlesque producer, lived here. In his fine book, "Upper West Side Story, A History and Guide" (Abbeville Press, 1989)"...]
  30. ↑ Ohrstrom, Lysandra (July 3, 2008). "West End Home of A Wrinkle in Time Author Sells for $4 M.". New York Observer. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
  31. ↑ Mises' letter to Ayn Rand on Atlas Shrugged, dated January 23, 1958, contains address 777 West End Avenue. Source: website Mises Institute.
  32. ↑ Анна Нетребко: И тут выхожу я (Anna Netrebko: And Then I Appear) (2014 documentary) at 1:18 on YouTube, English subtitles
  33. ↑ Lian, Nancy (2002-12-08). "Celebrity Sightings" (PDF). West 104th Street Block Association Newsletter. Retrieved 2010-05-07.
  34. ↑ Staff (April 11, 1992). "Rachmaninoff, Buried in New York, May Return to Russia". The New York Times.
  35. ↑ Gray, Christopher (August 23, 1998) "Streetscapes/Straus Park, 106th Street and West End Avenue; A Restored Memorial to 2 Who Died on the Titanic", The New York Times
  36. ↑ Rayner, Gordon; Furness, Hannah; and Sherwell, Philip. (March 17, 2014) "Mick Jagger's girlfriend L'Wren Scott found dead in apartment" The Daily Telegraph (London)
  37. ↑ Edmiston, Susan; Cirino, Linda D. (1976). Literary New York: A History and Guide. Houghton Mifflin. p. 268. ISBN 978-0395243497.

External links

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