Yorkville, Manhattan

Yorkville is a neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City, United States. Its southern boundary is East 79th Street, its northern East 96th Street, its western Third Avenue, and its eastern the East River.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Yorkville is one of the most densely populated city subdivisions in the world, and the most dense of such in the U.S.

Yorkville is part of Manhattan Community District 8, and its primary ZIP Codes are 10028, 10075, and 10128.<ref name="NYCPlanning"/> It is patrolled by the 19th Precinct of the New York City Police Department.

History

Looking west at 90th Street and Second Avenue

Early history

Pre-colonization, Yorkville was an undeveloped area of forests and streams. In August 1776, George Washington stationed half of his Continental Army in Manhattan and the other half in Brooklyn. Many troops in the Yorkville area on Manhattan's Upper East Side were in defensive positions along the East River to protect a possible retreat off Long Island, and to inflict damage on invading land and sea British forces.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Following their August 27 defeat in the Battle of Long Island, the Continentals implemented an orderly pivoting retreat in the Yorkville area, leading the enemy to entice the Continentals to fight by piping "Fly Away", about a fox running away from hounds. The Continentals' disciplined northerly retreat led to the successful Battle of Harlem Heights in September 1776.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

In 1815, the Upper East Side was a farmland and market garden district.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Boston Post Road traversed the Upper East Side, locally called the Eastern Post Road; milepost 6 was near the northeast corner of Third Avenue and 81st Street. From 1833 to 1837 the New York and Harlem Railroad, one of the earliest railway systems in the United States, was extended through the Upper East Side along Fourth Avenue (later renamed Park Avenue).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A hamlet grew near the 86th Street station, becoming the Yorkville neighborhood as gradual yet steady commercial development occurred. The current street grid was laid-out between 1839 and 1844 as part of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, so the Eastern Post Road was abandoned. The community had been referred to as Yorkville before 1867.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

By 1850, a significant proportion of the inhabitants of the area were the Germans and Irish that helped build the Croton Aqueduct.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The area was included in the 19th administrative district, whose boundaries were 40th and 86th Street.<ref name="bank"/> In 1858, horsecars began running on Second and Third Avenues. After the American Civil War, mansions replaced slums in Yorkville.<ref name="bank">Template:Cite web</ref> On December 30, 1878, the IRT Third Avenue Line opened, followed by the IRT Second Avenue Line in August 1879.<ref name="encnyc p 1428"/>

Ethnic settlement

For much of the 19th and into the 20th centuries, Yorkville was a mostly German enclave of middle- to working-class families. Over time, many people of Czech, Slovak, Irish, French Canadian, Polish, Hungarian, and Lebanese descent moved in.<ref name="nydn 20131212"/> The neighborhood became more affluent.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

From 1880, Yorkville became a destination for German-born immigrants. However, by the 1900s, many German residents moved to Yorkville and other neighborhoods from "Kleindeutschland" (Little Germany) on the Lower East Side after the General Slocum disaster on June 15, 1904. The ship caught fire in the East River just off the shores of Yorkville, leading family members to move closer to the site of the incident.<ref>King, Gilbert. "A Spectacle of Horror – The Burning of the General Slocum; The deadliest disaster in New York before 9/11 killed many women and children and ultimately erased a German community from the map of Manhattan.", Smithsonian magazine, February 21, 2012. Accessed May 18, 2016. "The men of Little Germany were suddenly without families. Funerals were held for more than a week, and the desolate schoolyards of Kleindeutschland were painful reminders of their loss. Many widowers and broken families moved uptown to Yorkville to be closer to the scene of the disaster, establishing a new Germantown on Manhattan's Upper East Side."</ref> Most of the passengers on the ship were German.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In addition, the general trend towards moving to the suburbs reduced the German population in Manhattan; by 1930, most German New Yorkers lived in Queens.

On 86th Street, in the central portion of Yorkville, there were many German shops, restaurants and bakeries. Yorkville became the melting pot of populations arriving from various regions of the Prussian-dominated German Empire and its colonies, where many cultures spoke German. In the 1930s, the neighborhood was the home base of Fritz Julius Kuhn's German American Bund, the most notorious pro-Nazi group in 1930s United States, which led to spontaneous protests by other residents.<ref name=NYTLivingIn>Template:Cite news</ref> Yorkville was a haven for refugees from Nazi Germany in the 1940s, and from refugees from communist regimes in the 1950s and 1960s. The neighborhood is the site of the annual Steuben Parade, a large German-American celebration.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The largest non-German group were the Irish,<ref>"The History of Yorkville" by Kathryn A. Jolowicz</ref> who mostly lived in an area bounded by 81st and 85th Streets, and Lexington and Fifth Avenues. They attended mass at such churches as St. Ignatius Loyola on 84th Street and Park Avenue, Our Lady of Good Counsel (90th Street) and the Church of St. Joseph (87th Street). There were many Irish bars including Dorrian's Red Hand Restaurant. Until the late 1990s, New York's St. Patrick's Day Parade ended at 86th Street and Third Avenue, the historical center of Yorkville.<ref>"A Guide To The NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade" Template:Webarchive, CBS New York, March 15, 2013</ref> In addition, Jews also lived on Second Avenue.<ref name="encnyc p 1428">Template:Cite enc-nyc2, p. 1428</ref>

79th Street was a hub for the Austro-Hungarian populace. Popular restaurants included the Viennese Lantern, Tokay, Hungarian Gardens, Robert Heller's Cafe Abbazia at 2nd Avenue, Budapest and the Debrecen.<ref name=NYTLetter /> There were also a number of butcher stores and businesses that imported goods from Hungary. Churches included St. Stephen Catholic Church and the Hungarian Reformed Church on East 82nd Street. In addition, Czechs, Poles and Slovaks lived from 65th to 73rd Street. Besides Ruc, a Czech restaurant off Second Avenue, Praha on Second Avenue, and Varsata on East 75th, there were sokol halls on 67th and 71st Streets. There were other Czech and Slovak businesses, such as Czech butcher shops, poultry and grocery stores, and shops that sold imported goods such as Bohemian books, leather products and crystal.<ref name=NYTLetter>Template:Cite news</ref>

Recent history

A sidewalk clock on 1501 Third Avenue

Around the late 1920s, Yorkville's ethnic diversity was beginning to wane. In 1926, the New York Times wrote of Yorkville's changing ethnic makeup:

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 to honor U.S. Army Sergeant Alvin York, who received the Medal of Honor for attacking a German machine gun nest during World War I's Meuse-Argonne Offensive.<ref name=gray>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.</ref><ref>Pollak, Michael. "F. Y. I.", The New York Times, August 7, 2005. Accessed October 16, 2007. "In 1928, Sutton Place from 59th to 60th Street, and Avenue A north of 60th, were renamed York Avenue in honor of Sgt. Alvin C. York (1887–1964), a World War I hero from Tennessee and a recipient of the Medal of Honor."</ref><ref>During his attack on October 8, 1918, York captured four German officers and 128 men and several guns. Template:Cite web</ref>

In March 1936, the German American Bund established its headquarters on East 85th Street in Yorkville. This pro-Nazi anti-Semitic organization organized parades, rallies and summer camps for children and families and worked to keep America out of the war, to the benefit of Germany. Their 1939 rally in Madison Square Garden drew more than 10,000 Nazis and sympathizers. They were forced to disband after Germany declared war on the United States in December 1941.<ref>German American Bund, Federal Bureau of Investigation. Accessed April 9, 2024.</ref><ref>German American Bund, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Accessed April 9, 2024.</ref><ref>American Nazism and Madison Square Garden, The National WWII Museum, April 14, 2021. Accessed April 9, 2024.</ref>

The dismantling of the Third Avenue El in 1955 led to the demolition of many mansions. This led to the acceleration of the exodus of Yorkville residents. Over the years, this trend continued. Thus, in the 1980s, a building for members of the German gymnastic society Turners, at the intersection of 86th Street and Lexington Avenue, was demolished. Cafe Mozart, on 86th Street between Second and Third Avenues, was also demolished. In their place were built high-rise residential complexes.<ref name="encnyc p 1428"/><ref name=NYTLetter />

By the turn of the 21st century, East 82nd Street was co-named St. Stephen of Hungary Way. The area from East 79th to 83rd Streets, spanning approximately four blocks east-west, is colloquially known as Little Hungary.<ref>"Little Hungary", Forgotten New York</ref>

Demographics

76th Street between Second and Third Avenues

Based on data from the 2020 United States Census, the population of Yorkville was 84,046, an increase of 6,104 (7.8%) from the 77,942 counted in 2010. Covering an area of Template:Convert, the neighborhood had a population density of Template:Convert.<ref name="popdata"/>

The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 70.9% (59,630) white, 3.5% (2,968) African American, 11.2% (9,425) Asian, 0.7% (572) from other races, and 3.9% (3,252) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9.8% (8,199) of the population.<ref name="popdata"/>

The racial composition of Yorkville changed moderately from 2000 to 2010. The most significant changes were the increase in the Asian population by 41% (2,117), the increase in the Hispanic / Latino population by 18% (1,024), and the decrease in the white population by 4% (2,201). The Black population increased by 2% (64) and remained small, as did the population of all other races, which increased by 11% (170).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The median income for a household in Yorkville is almost twice the average for the city, at $85,724.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Police and crime

Yorkville is patrolled by the 19th Precinct of the NYPD, located at 153 East 67th Street.<ref name="NYPD 19th Precinct">Template:Cite web</ref> The 19th Precinct ranked 14th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The 19th Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 82.2% between 1990 and 2022. The precinct reported two murders, 12 rapes, 229 robberies, 173 felony assaults, 278 burglaries, 1,724 grand larcenies, and 192 grand larcenies auto in 2022.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Fire safety

Quarters of New York City Fire Department Engine Company 22/Ladder Company 13/Battalion 10

Yorkville is served by two New York City Fire Department (FDNY) fire stations:<ref>Template:Cite FDNY locations</ref>

• Engine Company 44 – 221 East 75th Street<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Engine Company 22/Ladder Company 13/Battalion 10 – 159 East 85th Street<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Post offices and ZIP Codes

Yorkville is located in three primary ZIP Codes. From south to north, they are 10075 (between 76th and 80th Streets), 10028 (between 80th and 86th Streets), and 10128 (north of 86th Street). In addition, 500 East 77th Street in Yorkville has its own ZIP Code, 10162.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The United States Postal Service operates three post offices in Yorkville:

• Cherokee Station – 1483 York Avenue<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Gracie Station – 229 East 85th Street<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Yorkville Station – 1617 Third Avenue<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Education

New York Public Library, Yorkville branch

Schools and higher education

The New York City Department of Education operates several public schools in the area.

The City University of New York has its administrative offices in Yorkville.<ref>"Administrative Offices Template:Webarchive." City University of New York. Retrieved on May 4, 2010.</ref> In addition Fordham Graduate Housing is located on East 81st Street between York and East End Avenues.<ref>History of The Upper East Side and Yorkville Template:Webarchive, visitmanhattanapartments.com</ref>

The Lycée Français de New York is located on East 75th Street between York and East End Avenues. Further north, East Side Middle School is located on 91st Street between First and Second Avenues. The Trevor Day School is located four blocks north, on 95th Street between First and Second Avenues.

Libraries

The New York Public Library (NYPL) operates two branches near Yorkville. The Yorkville branch is located at 222 East 79th Street. The branch, a Carnegie library, opened in 1902 and was renovated in 1986–1987. The three-story space is listed on the New York State Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Webster branch is located at 1465 York Avenue. The branch was founded in 1893 as the Webster Free Library, and the current Carnegie library structure opened in 1906.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Transportation

The New York City Subway's 86th Street and 96th Street stations, served by the Second Avenue Subway (Template:NYCS trains), serve much of Yorkville.<ref name=submap/> Meanwhile, Western Yorkville is served by 77th Street, 86th Street and 96th Street stations on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line (Template:NYCS trains),<ref name=submap>Template:NYCS const</ref> one block west of Yorkville's western boundary at 3rd Avenue.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The bus routes Template:NYC bus link of the New York City Bus also operate in Yorkville.<ref>Template:NYC bus map</ref>

Eastern Yorkville had historically been far from any subway connections, and had among the farthest walks in Manhattan to any subway stations.<ref name="nydn 20131212">Template:Cite web</ref> From 2007 to 2017, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority built the Second Avenue Subway's 86th Street and 96th Street stations, leading to increased residential construction and real estate prices in advance of the opening of the new subway line.<ref>Hughes, C.J. "Yorkville Bets on the Second Avenue Subway", The New York Times, April 8, 2016. Accessed May 18, 2016. "But the new subway stations at East 72nd, East 86th and East 96th Streets, and the expanded one at East 63rd, seem to be having an equalizing effect on prices in what used to be more of a cotton socks district."</ref>

Yorkville is served by NYC Ferry's Soundview and Astoria routes, which stop at 90th Street.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The service started operating on August 15, 2018.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Prominent locations

• Carl Schurz Park is a park on the far east side of Yorkville, adjacent to the East River.
• Gracie Mansion is the official home of the mayor of New York City.<ref>Gracie Mansion, Historic House Trust. Accessed August 4, 2025. "In 1799, a prosperous merchant named Archibald Gracie built a country house overlooking a sleepy, scenic bend on the East River, five miles north of what was then New York City. Now, his home is one of the oldest surviving wood structures in Manhattan and the official residence of New York City’s Mayor."</ref>
• The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce was founded in Yorkville Template:Circa, founded by 11 local businessmen.<ref>

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• The Municipal Asphalt Plant was constructed in 1941.<ref>Template:Cite web See also: Template:Cite web</ref> Asphalt Green, a fitness center, opened in the building in 1984.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• The 91st Street Marine Transfer Station<ref>NYC East 91st Waste Facility Template:Webarchive</ref> is a controversial waste transfer plant next to Asphalt Green, on York Avenue. The waste facility was supported by New York City mayors Bill de Blasio<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Michael Bloomberg. The waste facility has been criticized by some area residents.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• On 86th Street and 3rd Avenue, the first Papaya King opened in 1932 and closed in 2023.<ref name="McCart 2024 n630">Template:Cite web</ref>
• 225 East 86th Street is a condominium in the area.
• Ruppert Yorkville Towers were built as an urban renewal project on the site of the old Jacob Ruppert Brewing Co., which closed in the 1960s. It is a two-building complex stretching from 90th to 92nd Streets, between Second and Third Avenue.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Notable residents

Residents of Yorkville have included:

• Bob Cousy (born 1928), professional basketball player<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• James Cagney (1899–1986), actor, grew up in the neighborhood<ref name=NYTLivingIn />
• The Culkin family, several of whom are prominent actors, including Macaulay, Kieran, and Rory. The family lived in a small apartment on East 94th St. and attended Mass at the nearby St. Joseph Church during the 1980s<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
• Julia Fox (born 1990), artist, model, and actress, moved to Yorkville to live with her father at age 6<ref>Gendron, Nico (July 27, 2017). "The Many Lives of Julia Fox", Office Magazine. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Accessed February 29, 2024. "Fox didn't always like to be photographed. She was raised in Yorkville in the 90's, a neighborhood on the Upper East Side that has since been gentrified."</ref>
• Jay Henry (born 1996), musician of New York dance project Headfooter, grew up on 85th St. and East End Ave.
• Lou Gehrig (1903–1941), Major League Baseball player, was born at 309 East 94th Street<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref>
• August 'Gus' Gennerich (1887–1936), bodyguard to Franklin D. Roosevelt<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Ignatz Theodor Griebl (born 1899 - Unknown.), German-American physician and a recruiter for the German spy network in New York City<ref>Kahn, David. Hitler's Spies: German Military Intelligence in World War II, p. 327. Da Capo Press, 2000. Template:ISBN. Accessed May 20, 2016. "He was Ignatz T. Griebl, a bespectacled physician who was one of the most notorious womanizers in, and a leader of, Manhattan's German colony of Yorkville."</ref>
• Norma Kamali (born 1945), fashion designer, grew up and went to school in Yorkville<ref>"Longtime Fashion Designer Norma Kamali Infuses Her Work With Accessibility, Empowerment" Template:Webarchive by Budd Mishkin, One On 1, April 30, 2012</ref>
• Helmut Krone (1925–1996), art director who was considered to be a pioneer of modern advertising<ref>Bierut, Michael. "Helmut Krone, Period.", Design Observer, August 23, 2006. Accessed May 20, 2016. "Challis's book is filled with this kind of detail. Born in 1925 to immigrant parents in Yorkville, Manhattan's German enclave, he attended the High School for Industrial Art, where he hoped to become a product designer."</ref>
• Bert Lahr (1895–1967), actor best known for playing the role of the Cowardly Lion in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz<ref>"Bert Lahr", Turner Classic Movies</ref><ref>"Comedy Wizard Dies at 72", St. Petersburg Times, December 5, 1967. Accessed May 20, 2016. "Born Bert Lahrheim to an immigrant German family in New York's Yorkville section, Lahr dropped out of school at 15 and joined a child vaudeville troupe."</ref>
• Janet Malcolm (1934-2021), Journalist and nonfiction writer, discusses growing up in the Czech émigré community of Yorkville in the 1940s in Still Pictures: On Photography and Memory (2023).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• The Marx Brothers, comedians, lived at 179 East 93rd Street<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Henry Miller (1891–1980), author, was born in Yorkville<ref>Whitman, Alden. "Henry Miller, 88, Dies in California; A Credo of Hedonism Henry Miller, the Writer, Is Dead at 88 Travel Book Praised Some Tender Moments Books Outraged Many 'Just a Brooklyn Boy' Lamentations for Culture 'I Just Start Something'", The New York Times, June 9, 1980. Accessed May 20, 2016. "Henry Valentine Miller was born in the Yorkville section of Manhattan on Dec. 26, 1891, the son of a German-American tailor."</ref>
• John P. Morrissey (1885–1966), electrical engineer and politician who served in both houses of the New Jersey Legislature<ref>"John P. Morrissey, Legislator, Dies; Yorkville Democrat Served in Assembly and Senate", The New York Times, October 31, 1966. Accessed May 20, 2016. "Mr. Morrisey, an engineer, had been a Democratic district leader in Yorkville 35 years and had represented the area in the Assembly."</ref>
• U.S. President Barack Obama (born 1961), lived in the early 1980s at 339 East 94th Street, before and after his graduation from Columbia University<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Martin J. Scott (1865–1954), Jesuit author who was a priest at St. Ignatius Loyola Church from 1902 to 1915
• Georgette Seabrooke (1916–2011), muralist, artist, illustrator, art therapist, non-profit chief executive and educator, who is best known for her 1936 mural, Recreation in Harlem at Harlem Hospital Center<ref>Georgette Seabrook Powell, The HistoryMakers, November 8, 2006. Accessed May 20, 2016. "Art therapist, non-profit chief executive, and painter Georgette Ernestine Seabrooke Powell was born on August 2, 1916 in Charleston, South Carolina to Anna and George Seabrooke. Powell grew up in the Yorkville neighborhood of New York City."</ref>
• Robert F. Wagner (1877–1953), U.S. Senator, after whom the middle school at 220 East 76th Street is named<ref>Adams, Frank S. "Senator Robert F. Wagner and the Rise of American Liberalism. By J. Joseph Huthmacher. 362 pages. Atheneum. $10.", End Papers, The New York Times, December 20, 1968. Accessed May 20, 2016. "How Bob Wagner, who came here as a boy of 9 from his native Germany and grew up in Yorkville, where his father was a janitor, became one of the key members of the New Deal and helped shape the basic labor-industrial relationships that still exist today is told in great detail in this sound but not very lively book by a Rutgers history professor."</ref>
• Multiple mayors have lived at Gracie Mansion.

In popular culture

• In the novels The Godfather Returns and The Godfather's Revenge by Mark Winegardner, Michael Corleone's penthouse is in Yorkville.<ref>

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• The children's book series by Bernard Waber starring Lyle the Crocodile started in 1962 with The House on East 88th Street, and is set in Yorkville.
• In the sitcom How I Met Your Mother, Barney Stinson's apartment is located at East 81st Street and 1st Avenue in Yorkville.<ref>Carlson, Jen. "How Much Is Barney Stinson's East 81st Street Apartment?", Gothamist, February 23, 2012. Accessed August 4, 2025. "In the past we've looked at some unrealistic tv show (and movie) apartments, so how does Barney Stinson's Manhattan bachelor pad stack up?... The apartment is located in Yorkville, at East 81st Street and 1st Avenue, where a much more modest 2-bedroom rents for around $2,300 a month, and a 3-bedroom condo goes for around $1.6 million."</ref>

Gallery

• 
  The Rhinelander Children's Center, of the Children's Aid Society
• 
  Church of St. Monica on 79th Street
• 
  Church of St. Elizabeth of Hungary on 83rd Street
• 
  View of Yorkville at 86th Street
• 
  Parade of German American Bund held on October 30, 1939, on 86th Street, between First and Second Avenues.

External links

• The Yorkville Kleindeutschland Historical Society
• German Traces NYC from the Goethe-Institut