The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, USA, between Central Park and the East River. The neighborhood, with elegant rows of landmark co-ops and townhouses, once known as the 'Silk Stocking District', has some of the most expensive real estate in the United States. The most expensive Upper East Side penthouse (in the The Pierre Hotel) in the New York Times real estate classifieds is listed for $70 million, and the most expensive townhouse is listed for $75 million.
History
In the 19th century, and until the Park Avenue railroad cut was covered (finished in 1910), rich industrialists including Pittsburghers Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick began building stylish mansions and townhouses on the large lots along Fifth Avenue, abutting Central Park. One of the first sections to be developed was around 86th Street, where several prominent families, including the Astors and the Rhinelanders built (what were then) country estates.
Cornelius Vanderbilt, the tenth wealthiest person in history and patriarch of the prominent Vanderbilt Family of New York, planted his family's roots on the Upper East Side in the 1800s and his descendants went on to build the great ten Fifth Avenue Vanderbilt mansions, which were torn down in the early 1900s as a result of the Fall of the House of Vanderbilt.
Several members of exclusive familes, including the industrial Rockefellers, political Roosevelts, political dynastic Kennedys, thoroughbred racing moneyed Whitneys, and tobacco and electric power fortuned Dukes, have made residences on the Upper East Side.
Yorkville, as it was known, soon moved east past Lexington Avenue and became a suburb of middle-class Germans, many of whom worked in nearby piano factories, stables, and breweries.
A long high bluff fronting the river north of Beekman Place was dotted with fine suburban villas in the 19th century, the last remaining one being Gracie Mansion, now home of New York's mayor.
Geography
The Upper East Side stretches from 59th Street to 106th Street (in the zip codes of 10021, 10022, 10065, 10075, 10028 and 10128). Embedded within the Upper East Side are the neighborhoods of Yorkville, centered on 86th Street and Third Avenue(which is the home to top girl's private schools Chapin, and Brearley), and Carnegie Hill, centered on 92nd Street and Fifth Avenue (Carnegie Hill, running along Central Park and Fifth avenue, is home to many of the city's top private schools such as St. Bernards, Spence, Convent of the Sacred Heart and Nightingale) and Lenox Hill centered on 69th Street and 1st Avenue.
Its north-south avenues are Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, Park Avenue, Lexington Avenue, Third, Second and First Avenues, York Avenue, and East End Avenue (the latter runs only from East 79th Street to East 90th Street).
Cost of living
The Upper East Side maintains one of the highest pricing per square foot in the United States. A 2002 report cited the average cost per square foot as $856; however, that price has noticed a substantial jump, increasing to almost as much as $1,200 per square foot as of 2006. Basic commodities, perhaps partly due to real-estate costs and partly due to New York labor costs, can cost 50-200%+ more than in suburban areas.
Manhattan
- Union Square
- Upper East Side
