York Avenue is a short north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It runs from 59th Street north to 91st Street on the Upper East Side. It is known for its upscale apartments, much like the rest of the Upper East Side. York Avenue runs through eastern Yorkville.
In 1928, a one-block section of Sutton Place north of 59th Street, and all of Avenue A north of that point, was renamed York Avenue in honor of World War I US Army Sergeant Alvin York, who won the Medal of Honor for an attack in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive on October 8, 1918. He received The Medal for attacking a German machinegun nest and capturing 4 German officers and 128 men and several guns.
York Avenue was proposed as an addition to the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 for Manhattan, which designated 12 broad north-south Avenues running the length of the island. The geography of Manhattan left a large area on the Upper East Side east of First Avenue without a major north-south thoroughfare, so Avenue A, later called York Avenue and Pleasant Avenue, was added to compensate. The address numbering on York Avenue are continuous with that of Avenue A in Alphabet City, starting in the 1100 series and rising to the 1700 series.
At its south end, York Avenue becomes Sutton Place (for two blocks), then Sutton Place South (for four blocks), before ending. Other streets that lie east of First Avenue include Beekman Place between 49th and 51st Streets, and Asser Levy Place (itself a former part of Avenue A before being severed by the construction of Stuyvesant Town in the 1940s) between 23rd Street and 25th Street. Between 1st Street and 14th Street, Alphabet City, consisting of Avenue A through Avenue D, lies east of First Avenue.
From 79th to 90th streets, East End Avenue lies east of York Avenue. FDR Drive runs along the East River shore, east of both York and East End Avenues.
Famous quotes containing the words york and/or avenue:
“For most visitors to Manhattan, both foreign and domestic, New York is the Shrine of the Good Time. “I don’t see how you stand it,” they often say to the native New Yorker who has been sitting up past his bedtime for a week in an attempt to tire his guest out. “It’s all right for a week or so, but give me the little old home town when it comes to living.” And, under his breath, the New Yorker endorses the transfer and wonders himself how he stands it.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“Only in America ... do these peasants, our mothers, get their hair dyed platinum at the age of sixty, and walk up and down Collins Avenue in Florida in pedalpushers and mink stoles—and with opinions on every subject under the sun. It isn’t their fault they were given a gift like speech—look, if cows could talk, they would say things just as idiotic.”
—Philip Roth (b. 1933)