Sutton Place, Manhattan
Sutton Place is the name given to one of the most affluent streets (and surrounding enclave) in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States, situated on the border between the Midtown and Upper East Side neighborhoods. In the strictest sense, Sutton Place is the wide (north/south) avenue that runs only two blocks, from 57th Street to 59th Street, along the East River and south of the Queensboro Bridge. The stretch that continues below 57th Street down to 53rd Street is called Sutton Place South. North of 59th Street, the road continues as York Avenue. The greater "Sutton Place area" is bounded on the east by the East River and on the west by Second Avenue, and is coextensive with Sutton Place and Sutton Place South (i.e., 53rd Street to 59th Street). Sutton Square is the cul-de-sac at the end of East 58th Street, just east of Sutton Place; and Riverview Terrace is a row of townhouses on a short private driveway that runs north from Sutton Square. The neighborhood is located in the 10022 ZIP code.
Sutton Place was originally one of several disconnected stretches of Avenue A, where space allowed, east of First Avenue. Effingham B. Sutton constructed a group of brownstones in 1875 between 57th and 58th Streets, and is said to have lent the street his name, though the earliest source found by The New York Times dates back only to 1883. At that time, the New York City Board of Aldermen approved a petition to change the name from "Avenue A" to "Sutton Place", covering the blocks between 57th and 60th Streets.[1][2] (The vacant block between 59th and 60th Streets is no longer part of Sutton Place.) Sutton Place first became fashionable around 1920, when several wealthy socialites, including Anne Harriman Vanderbilt and Anne Morgan, built townhouses on the eastern side of the street, overlooking the East River. Very shortly thereafter, developers started to build grand co-operative apartment houses on Sutton Place and Sutton Place South, including several designed by Rosario Candela. Development came to an abrupt halt with the Great Depression, and the luxury apartment buildings on the lower part of Sutton Place South (below 56th Street) and the northernmost part of Sutton Place (adjacent to the Queensboro Bridge) were not developed until the 1940s and 1950s.
Prominent residents of Sutton Place include architect I. M. Pei, former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, his son-in-law designer Kenneth Cole, and actress Sigourney Weaver. Former residents include Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, C.Z. Guest, Peter Lawford & Patricia Kennedy Lawford, Lillian Gish, Aristotle Onassis, Freddie Mercury, Michael Jackson, Bill Blass, Bobby Short, Irene Hayes, Elsie de Wolfe, Joan Crawford, Raj Rajaratnam, Richard Jenrette, Marilyn Monroe and her then husband Arthur Miller.
One Sutton Place (North), an imposing townhouse at the northeast corner of Sutton Place and East 57th Street, was built as a residence for Anne Harriman Vanderbilt, widow of William K. Vanderbilt. This house is currently owned by an heiress to the Heinz Company fortune. Next door, the official residence of the Secretary-General of the United Nations is a five-story townhouse that was built in 1921 for Anne Morgan, daughter of financier J.P. Morgan, and donated as a gift to the United Nations in 1972.[3]
[edit] Controversy
Sutton Place encompasses two public parks overlooking the East River, one at the end of 57th Street and another at the end of 53rd Street. The 57th Street park is separated by an iron fence from the elegant landscaped grounds behind One Sutton Place South, a neo-Georgian style apartment building designed by Rosario Candela (and one of New York's most fabled addresses). The property behind One Sutton Place South is currently the subject of a dispute between the building's owners and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Like the adjacent park, the rear garden at One Sutton Place South is, in fact, cantilevered over the FDR Drive, a busy expressway at Manhattan's eastern edge that is not visible from most of Sutton Place. In 1939, city authorities took ownership of the property behind One Sutton Place South by condemnation in connection with the construction of the FDR Drive, then leased it back to the building. The city claims the building's lease for its backyard expired in 1990, and was never renewed. If the city prevails in this litigation, the property could be combined with the adjacent park, more than doubling the size of the existing public space.[4]
[edit] In popular culture
- Sutton Place at East 53rd Street is the famous Dead End of the 1935 play and 1937 movie of that name, which also began the movie careers of the Dead End Kids.
- Sutton Place is mentioned in J. D. Salinger's novel Catcher in the Rye (1951) as the location of a "swanky" apartment.
- Sutton Place is featured in the 1953 film How to Marry a Millionaire and the 1960 film Satan in High Heels.
- In a 1970 article in New York magazine, Tom Wolfe mentions "the famous Mrs. C--------, one of New York’s richest widows, who has a 10-room duplex on Sutton Place, the good part of Sutton Place as opposed to the Miami Beach-looking part". The article was later re-printed in the book Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers .
- Sutton Place is featured in Larry Cohen's 1973 film Black Caesar (film).
- Sutton Place South's wealthy residents are referenced in Martin Scorsese's 1976 film Taxi Driver.
- Sutton Place's park appears in Woody Allen's 1979 film Manhattan.
- Scarface had a scene in which Tony Montana (Al Pacino) was on the telephone in the now-defunct 60th Street Heliport, now used as a dog run.
- In the 1986 film Legal Eagles, the villain, Victor Taft (Terrence Stamp), resided on Sutton Place.
- In Oliver Stone's 1987 film Wall Street, an excited broker (Sylvia Miles) offers to show Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) some apartments on Sutton Place once she realizes how wealthy he is.
- In the 2000 film Almost Famous, Patrick Fugit's character is seen sprinting down Sutton Place.
- 50 Sutton Place South was one of the buildings used to film the 2007 movie American Gangster.
- Sutton Place is mentioned in season 3, episode 2 of the TV series Mad Men. Set in 1963, it's where the new British CFO finds a flat when he arrives in New York to run the advertising agency.
- The home of main character in Mary Higgins Clark's 2008 novel Where Are You Now?. Ms. Clark owns an apartment in the neighborhood, and her characters (in several books) occasionally dine at Neary's, a (real) Irish bar & restaurant located on East 57th Street off Sutton Place South.
- 1 Sutton Place North is the home of Alison Courtland (Claudette Colbert) and her husband Richard (Don Ameche) in Douglas Sirk's 1948 film noir "Sleep, My Love".
- In John Cheever's short story "The Enormous Radio", main characters Jim and Irene Wescott live in an apartment near Sutton Place.
[edit] References
- ^ Senft, Bret. "If You're Thinking of Living In/Sutton Place; A Riverside Enclave for the Well-to-Do", The New York Times, June 12, 1994. Accessed December 27, 2007.
- ^ Gray, Christopher. " Streetscapes/Sutton Place, Sutton Place South and One Sutton Place North; A Prestigious Enclave With a Name in Question", The New York Times, September 21, 2003. Accessed December 27, 2007.
- ^ Teltsch, Kathleen. "Town House Offered to U. N.", The New York Times, July 15, 1972. Accessed December 27, 2007.
- ^ Bagli, Charles V. "A Co-op on Sutton Place Sues to Keep Its Backyard", The New York Times, June 19, 2007. Accessed December 27, 2007.
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