86th Street

Coordinates: 40°46′40″N 73°57′06″W / 40.777877°N -73.951741°E / 40.777877; -73.951741

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The street undergoes a transformation.

86th Street is a major two-way street in the Upper East Side and Upper West Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan.

On the West Side its continuous cliff-wall of apartment blocks including The Belnord is broken by two contrasting landmarked churches at prominent corner sites, the Tuscan Renaissance Saints Paul and Andrew United Methodist Church at the corner of West End Avenue, and the rusticated brownstone Romanesque Revival West-Park Presbyterian Church at the corner of Amsterdam Avenue.

On the Upper West Side, the street is entirely within the boundaries of ZIP code 10024; on the east side, it is 10028, though it is bounded immediately northwards by ZIP code 10128.

History

Until the years following World War II, Yorkville on the East Side was a predominantly German community, and East 86th Street was nicknamed the German Broadway.^[1] The early settlement originally clustered around the 86th Street stop of the New York and Harlem Railroad. Since the late 1980s, nearly all distinctly German shops have disappeared, apart from a few restaurants on Second Avenue. The street was commonly considered a boundary for public utilities. For example, different telephone exchanges at East 79th and 97th Streets served the north and south sides of the street. Local number portability in the early 21st century allowed transferring phone numbers to either side.

"Blackwells Island, East River, from Eighty Sixth Street", Currier & Ives, 1862: the villa overlooking the river had belonged to John Jacob Astor

A sunken street through Central Park, the 86th Street Transverse or Transverse Road #3, connects to the east side on 84th (eastbound) and 85th (westbound) streets.^[2] Miners Gate provides pedestrian access to the park at East 86th, and Mariners Gate at West 85th.

Before the subway opened on Lexington Avenue in 1917, a railroad station existed on Park Avenue, currently a right-of-way for the Metro North Railroad between 125th Street and Grand Central Terminal. Only an emergency exit exists currently.

Transportation

The M86 bus serves a majority of the street. Until the 1950s, the Second Avenue and Third Avenue elevated lines served 86th Street on the East Side.

The New York and Harlem Railroad used to operate an 86th Street rail line which ran on the surface from Central Park West, through Central Park and on to York Avenue. The line then turned north and terminated at the Astoria Ferry landing at 92nd Street.^[3]

It is currently served by three New York City Subway lines:

• 86th Street at Broadway serving the 1 2 trains
• 86th Street at Central Park West serving the A B C trains
• 86th Street at Lexington Avenue serving the 4 5 6 <6> trains
• 86th Street is under construction at Second Avenue as part of the long awaited Second Avenue Subway

The Metro-North Railroad has an abandoned underground station at 86th Street and Park Avenue.

Papaya King, a popular store on Third Avenue

Notable residents of East 86th Street

• Paula Barbieri (currently) Actress ^[4]
• Elaine Kaufman (deceased) Owner and operator of Elaine's^[5]
• Rush Limbaugh (formerly) Radio talk show host^[6]
• Mary Tyler Moore (currently) Actress^[7]
• John Paulson (currently) hedge fund manager^[8]

Notable residents of West 86th Street

• Diamond Jim Brady (deceased) American businessman and philanthropist ^[9]
• Katie Couric (formerly) News anchor^[10]
• Susan Crile (currently) Artist^[11]
• Tom Cruise (formerly) Actor, lived at 50 West 86th Street in 1981^{[citation needed]}
• King Curtis (deceased) Saxophone player, lived and murdered at 50 West 86th Street^[12]
• Art D'Lugoff (deceased) Owner of The Village Gate^[13]
• Matt Damon (currently) Actor^[14]
• Robert Downey Jr. (formerly) Actor and Sarah Jessica Parker Actress (formerly) lived together at 50 West 86th Street^{[citation needed]}
• Robert Duvall (currently) Actor ^[15]
• Renee Fleming (currently) Opera diva^[16]
• Joe Franklin (currently) Radio and television personality^[17]
• Emir Gamsızoğlu (currently) Concert pianist^[18]
• Andrew Goodman (deceased) Queens College Anthropology student, Freedom Summer volunteer of the Congress of Racial Equality, famed civil rights activist and martyr, close friend of Paul Simon ^[19]
• William Randolph Hearst (deceased) Publishing magnate^[20]
• Amos E. Joel, Jr. (deceased) Inventor of the cellular phone^[21]
• John F. Kennedy Jr. (deceased) Publisher and son of John F. Kennedy^[22]
• Christine Lahti (currently) Actress ^[15]
• Grete Mosheim Gould, German silent film actress^[23]
• Zero Mostel (deceased) Actor^[24]
• Julianne Moore (formerly) Actress^[25]
• Richard Rodgers (deceased) Composer^[26]
• Emery Roth (deceased) Beaux Arts and Art Deco architect who designed the The Normandy where he lived^{[citation needed]}
• Isabella Rossellini (formerly) Actress ^[27]
• Isaac Bashevis Singer (deceased) Nobel Prize winning author; West 86th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue was renamed Isaac Bachevis Singer Boulevard in his honor^[28]
• Mira Sorvino (currently) actress and Paul Sorvino (formerly) Actor^[29]
• Lee Strasberg (deceased) Acting teacher and actor ^[30]
• Moon Zappa (formerly) Actress, musician and author, eldest daughter of Frank Zappa in the early 1990s^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Yorkville

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 86th Street (Manhattan)

• [1] Google Map