A typical midblock view on the Upper West Side consisting of 4-5 story brownstones.
Like the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side is primarily a residential and shopping area, with many of its residents working in more commercial areas in Midtown and Lower Manhattan. While these distinctions were never hard-and-fast rules, and now mean little, it has the reputation of being home to New York City's liberal cultural and artistic workers, in contrast to the Upper East Side, which is traditionally home to more conservative commercial and business types. The neighborhood is nonetheless relatively upscale with the median household income in many areas exceeding Manhattan average to a considerable extent.
Tom's Restaurant, at West 112th Street and Broadway, was used as the establishing shot for "Monk's Cafe" on Seinfeld, a program that was set on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Suzanne Vega's song "Tom's Diner" is another famous reference.
Geography
The Upper West Side is bounded on the south by 59th Street, Central Park to the east, and the Hudson River to the west. Its northern boundary is somewhat less obvious. Although it has historically been cited[citation needed] as 110th Street, which fixes the neighborhood alongside Central Park, it is now often considered[citation needed] to be 125th Street, encompassing Morningside Heights. This reflects demographic shifts in Morningside Heights, as well as the tendency of real estate brokers to co-opt the tony Upper West Side name when listing Morningside Heights apartments.
From west to east, the avenues of the Upper West Side are Riverside Drive (12th Avenue), West End Avenue (11th Avenue), Broadway, Amsterdam Avenue (10th Avenue), Columbus Avenue (9th Avenue), Manhattan Avenue and Central Park West (8th Avenue). The 66-block stretch of Broadway forms the spine of the neighborhood and moves diagonally across the avenues at the bottom of the neighborhood and above 72nd Street moves parallel to the avenues; it enters the neighborhood at its juncture with Central Park West at Columbus Circle (59th Street), crosses Columbus Ave. at Lincoln Square (65th Street), crosses Amsterdam Ave. at Verdi Square (72nd Street), and then merges with West End at Straus Square (aka Bloomingdale Square, at 107th Street).
Traditionally the neighborhood ranged from the former village of Harsenville, centered on the old Bloomingdale Road (now Broadway) and 65th Street, west to the railroad yards along the Hudson, then north to 110th Street, where the ground rises to Morningside Heights. With the building of Lincoln Center, its name, though perhaps not the reality, was stretched south to 59th Street.
History
Originally the name Bloomingdale (from the Dutch "Bloemendaal"), or the Bloomingdale District, applied to the west side of Manhattan from about 23rd Street up to the Hollow Way (modern 125th Street), and it contained numerous farms and country residences of many of the city's well-off. The main artery of this area was the Bloomingdale Road, which began north of where Broadway and the Bowery Lane join (at modern Union Square) and wended its way northward up to about modern 116th Street in Morningside Heights, where the road further north was known as the Kingsbridge Road. Within the confines of the modern-day Upper West Side, the road passed through areas known as Harsenville, Strycker's Bay, and Bloomingdale Village.
In the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the Upper West Side-to-be contained some of colonial New York's most ambitious houses, spaced along Bloomingdale Road. It became increasingly infilled with smaller, more suburban villas in the first half of the nineteenth century, and in the middle of the century, parts had become decidedly lower class. The Hudson River Railroad line right-of-way, granted in the late 1830s, soon ran along the riverbank, and creation of the Central Park caused many squatters to move their shacks westward into the UWS. Parts of the neighborhood became a ragtag collection of squatters' housing, boarding houses, and rowdy taverns.
As this development occurred, the old name of Bloomingdale Road was being chopped away and the name Broadway was progressively being applied further northward to include what had been lower Bloomingdale Road. In 1868, the city began straightening and grading the section of the Bloomingdale Road from Harsenville north, and it became known as "The Boulevard". It retained that name until the end of the century, when the name Broadway finally supplanted it.
Development of the neighborhood lagged even while Central Park was being laid out in the 1860s and 70s, then was stymied by the Panic of 1873. Things turned around when the elevated train's rapid transit was extended up Ninth Avenue (renamed Columbus Avenue in 1890), and with Columbia University's relocation to Morningside Heights in the 1890s, using lands once held by the Bloomingdale Asylum. The Upper West Side was built in a boom from 1885 to 1910.
In the early part of the 1900s, the Upper West Side area south of 67th Street was heavily populated by African-Americans and supposedly gained its nickname of "San Juan Hill" in commemoration of African-American soldiers who were a major part of the assault on Cuba's San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War. But by 1960, the area was a rough neighborhood of tenement housing and was used for exterior shots in the movie musical West Side Story. Urban renewal then swept through with the construction of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Lincoln Towers apartments during 1962–1968.
From the post-WWII years until the AIDS epidemic the neighborhood, especially below 86th Street had a substantial gay population. Theater people had been attracted to the neighborhood because of its proximity and easy transportation to the Theater District, and among these were many gay men. As the neighborhood had deteriorated it was affordable to working class gay men, and those just arriving in NYC and looking for their first white collar jobs. Its ethnically mixed gay population, mostly Hispanic and white, with a mixture of income levels and occupations patronized the same gay bars in the neighborhood, making it markedly different from most gay enclaves elsewhere in the city. The influx of white gay men in the Fifties and Sixties is often credited with accelerating the gentrification of the Upper West Side, and by the mid and late 70's the gay male population had become predominantly white.
Another component that brought about the eventual gentrification of the neighborhood were the recent college graduates in the late '70s and early '80s who moved in, drawn to the neighborhood's large apartments and cheap housing.
The Upper West Side is also a largely Jewish neighborhood, populated with both well-to-do German Jews who moved in at the turn of the century, and Jewish refugees escaping Hitler's Europe in the 1930's.
In a subsequent phase of urban renewal, the rail yards which had formed the Upper West Side's southwest corner were replaced by the Riverside South residential project and a southward extension of Riverside Park. The evolution of Riverside South had a 40-year history, often extremely bitter, beginning in 1962 with the first proposal made by the Penn Railroad itself. The most ambitious proposal, and the one generating the most opposition was Donald Trump's "Television City" concept of 1985, which would have included a 152-story tower. In 1991, civic groups signaled that they were willing to accept a development about 40% smaller in scope than Trump proposed, and things finally started moving. As of 2005 construction is well underway, but still to be resolved is the future of the West Side Highway viaduct over the park area.
The Bloomingdale district was the site for several long-established charitable institutions: their unbroken parcels of land have provided suitably-scaled sites for Columbia University and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, as well as for some vanished landmarks, such as the Schwab Mansion on Riverside Drive, the most ambitious free-standing private house ever built in Manhattan.
The name Bloomingdale is still used in reference to a part of the Upper West Side, essentially the location of old Bloomingdale Village, the area from about 96th Street up to 110th Street and from Riverside Park east to Amsterdam Ave. The triangular block bound by Broadway, West End Avenue, 106th Street and 107th Street, although generally known as Straus Park (named for Isidor Straus and his wife Ida), was officially designated Bloomingdale Square in 1907. The neighborhood also includes the Bloomingdale School of Music and Bloomingdale neighborhood branch of the New York Public Library. Adjacent to the Bloomingdale neighborhood is a neighborhood called Manhattan Valley, focused on the downslope of Columbus Avenue and Manhattan Avenue from about 102nd Street up to 110th Street.
Central Savings Bank - a Florentine palazzo at Broadway and 73rd, with a magnificent Roman banking hall, one of New York's classic interior spaces, York & Sawyer, architects, ironwork by Samuel Yellin, 1928 (currently occupied by Apple Bank)
Amsterdam Avenue from 67th Street up to 96th Street is lined with restaurants and bars. Columbus Avenue is as well, to a slightly lesser extent. The following lists a few neighborhood institutions and famous places.
Homer's Donut Lounge - This is a 3 in 1 type restaurant, a no-alcohol bar, a restaurant and an arcade. Great milkshakes and donuts, very pricey though.
Sing & Sing Market - Columbus Ave. at 96th St., affectionately known as Sing Sing, bakery/greenmarket/deli on the ground floor of The Westmont selling kosher food.
The former East River Savings Bank at Amsterdam and 96th Street (Walker and Gillette, 1927) is a classical temple now housing a drugstore, locally termed "The Aspirineum" and "The First National Bank of CVS"
Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church 71st Street between Broadway and Columbus Avenues. Interesting tapestries on display, modeled on 14th century French Gothic Sainte Chapelle in Paris.
Cathedral of Saint John the Divine - in Morningside Heights, the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, or at least it will be, when it's finished. Suffered significant fire damage to the South transept in December 2001. The church was originally to follow a Romanesque design, but the builders switched to a Gothic design along the way. The church plans to replace the great dome with a massive Gothic tower, but this major construction project is likely to take decades, if it is ever completed.
The apartment buildings along Central Park West, facing the park, are some of the most desirable apartments in New York. The Dakota at 72nd St. has been home to numerous celebrities including John Lennon. Other famous buildings on CPW include the Art Deco Century Apartments (Irwin Chanin, 1931) and the Majestic also by Chanin. The San Remo, Eldorado (300 C.P.W., with the highest sum of Democratic presidential campaign contributions by address in 2004) was the home of Herman Wouk's fictional Marjorie Morningstar, and The Beresford, were all built by Emery Roth as was 41 West 96th Street (completed in 1926). Along Broadway are several Beaux-Arts apartment houses, the chaste Apthorp (1908), the Belnord (1908), the Ansonia Hotel (1902) and the Dorilton. Riverside Drive also has many beautiful pre-war houses and larger buildings, including the graceful curving apartment buildings—The Paterno and The Colosseum by Schwartz & Gross—at 116th St and Riverside Drive. The northern stretches of Columbus Avenue are graced by the post-modern landmarks, The Westmont and its sister building, the Key West.
In film, television, and the arts
The Upper West Side has been a setting for many movies and television shows because of its pre-War architecture, colorful community and rich cultural life. Ever since Edward R. Murrow went "Person-to-Person" live, the length of Central Park West in the 1950s, West Siders scarcely pause to gape at on-site trailers, and jump their skateboards over coaxial cables and it seems that one or another of the various Law & Order shows is taking up all the available parking spaces in the neighborhood. Woody Allen's film Hannah and Her Sisters captures that quintessential Upper West Side flavor of rambling high-ceilinged apartments bursting at the seams with books and other cultural artifacts.
Movies
American Psycho (film) (2000), The main character,played by Christian Bale, named Patrick Bateman, apparently lives in the American Gardens Building on West 81st street.
Cruel Intentions 3 (2004), takes place at an Upper West Side prep school
Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995), includes a scene set outside the subway station at 72nd Street and Broadway, featuring a public phone that was in fact only a prop.
Fools Rush In (1997) Several scenes, including the 72nd St. & Broadway Subway station and CPW
Ghostbusters (1984), at the opening of the movie, the three ghostbusters are shown as being ousted professors on the Columbia University campus, and the building where Sigourney Weaver's character lives is 55 Central Park West, at 66th St.
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) takes place in Central Park, and in a townhouse on 95th St. as well as other locations throughout New York.
The House on 92nd Street (1945), though set on the UES at 92nd/Madison, the movie is based on the true story of Nazi spies operating out of an Upper West Side boarding house on 90th Street between Amsterdam/Columbus.
Little Manhattan (2005), includes various scenes from the American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West, Broadway / 72nd Street, and Septuagesimo Uno (the smallest NYC public park located on West 71st street between Amsterdam Ave and West End Ave).
Take the Money and Run (1969) Virgil and Louise are seen at the fountain in Lincoln Center
Vanilla Sky (2001), car accident at center of movie happens in Riverside Park, near 96th Street [3]
The Warriors (1979) The Warriors emerge from the 72nd street subway station (Baseball Furie's Turf) and run to Riverside Park, where they easily defeat The Baseball Furies.
West Side Story (1961), takes place in tenements where Lincoln Center is today, around 66th Street
West Side Waltz (1995) - rich old ladies struggling to make friendships in this made-for-TV film
You've Got Mail (1998) used many UWS locations, such as the park at 72nd Street and Riverside Drive. The DVD of movie includes an interactive tour of the neighborhood. The storyline is also in some degree appropriate to the area because two well-loved UWS independent bookstores, Shakespeare & Co. and Eeyore's, were driven out of business in the late 1990s when they were sandwiched by two branches of a national chain bookstore. Another amusing sidelight relating to the local character of the movie was the scene in which the two principals enter a movie theater. The multiplex exists, and the sub-theater in which they go to watch the movie later showed You've Got Mail.
Annie Hall (1977) featured two movie theaters. The scene where he and Diane Keaton are in line for tickets and pulls Marshall McLuhan out of thin air to silence a boorish rant - was shot in the lobby of The New Yorker movie theater (89th & Broadway), the second scene is a shot of the Thalia Theater at 95th and Broadway. The last scene in the film is shot from a recently closed restaurant on 64th and Broadway, facing Lincoln Center.
In Mighty Aphrodite, Woody Allen's character is told that his adopted son's mother is a sex worker as he stands in a doorway on the north side of West 72nd Street, just east of Amsterdam.
Television
Law & Order - often uses Upper West Side and Morningside Heights locations near Columbia University for filming.
Will & Grace - Will lives in 155 Riverside Drive, Apartment 9C. Jack lives in 155 Riverside Drive, Apartment 9A.
Mad About You - From [4] : "When they met [1.11], Paul was living at 129 West 81st Street, and Jamie was living nearby at 142 West 81st, so it is understandable that they met at a local newsstand. They moved in together on Valentine's Day, 1991. Before moving into his own apartment on West 81st, Paul stayed for a while with his cousin Ira at 196 West 93rd Street [3.22], before Ira booted him out [3.16]. The actual building used for the exterior shots of their apartment together is located at the corner of East 12th st. and Fifth Avenue. We don't know for sure, but exterior shots for the registration episode [2.21] were filmed at Columbia University. The building with the columns where registration takes place is Ferris Booth Hall (which has since been replaced by Alfred Lerner Hall), while the student centre and the outside shot after that is on one of the lower campus paths, looking south, with Ferris Booth to the right, Butler Library to the left, and Carman Hall in the background right, with Carman Gate in the background. The message kiosk is in the foreground right."
Music
"Classical Rap" - This parody by Peter Schickele, on his album "P.D.Q. Bach: Oedipus Tex & Other Choral Calamities", describes the travails of living on the Upper West Side, as a Yuppie chants hip-hop lyrics to a classical instrumental background.
Famous comedian George Carlin grew up on 121st, and has drawn heavily upon his New York City roots on a number of his comedy albums, perhaps most memorably on Occupation: Foole, where he says he and his friends called their neighborhood "White Harlem... because it sounded tough. It's real name was Morningside Heights."
Jazz legend Lynn Oliver had his recording studio sandwiched next to the New Yorker Bookshop [5] and Benny's [6](my dad's store) on 89th and B'way. The likes of Sonny Rollins, Chet Baker, and Stan Getz could be seen ducking into his alley-like studio to practice and hangout. An arranger and drummer, Oliver's credits are found on more than a few classic cuts from the 60's.
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