86th Street (Manhattan)

86th Street

Postal code	10024 (west), 10028/10128 (east)
Coordinates	40°46′40″N 73°57′06″W / 40.777877°N 73.951741°W / 40.777877; -73.951741Coordinates: 40°46′40″N 73°57′06″W / 40.777877°N 73.951741°W / 40.777877; -73.951741
West end	Riverside Drive
East end	East End Avenue
North	87th Street
South	85th Street

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.

History

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

The street was designated by the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 as one of 15 east-west streets that would be 100 feet (30 m) in width (while other streets were designated as 60 feet (18 m) in width).^[1]

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.^[2] 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.

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.^[3] 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; it opened in May 1876 and closed in approximately 1903, and an emergency exit is the only vestige of the station's existence.^[4]

Transportation

The M86 Select Bus Service bus serves 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.^[5]

It is currently served by the following New York City Subway lines:

• 86th Street at Broadway serving the 1 2 trains^[6]
• 86th Street at Central Park West serving the A B C trains^[6]
• 86th Street at Lexington Avenue serving the 4 5 6 <6> trains^[6]
• 86th Street at Second Avenue is under construction and will serve the Q train

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

The William Starr Miller House, on the corner of Fifth Avenue

The Belnord, on the corner of Amsterdam

The 86th Street Theatre near Third Avenue has been demolished

Notable residents

East

• Paula Barbieri – actress ^[7]
• Elaine Kaufman (former) – owner and operator of Elaine's^[8]
• Rush Limbaugh (former) – radio talk show host^[9]
• Mary Tyler Moore – actress^[10]
• John Paulson– hedge fund manager^[11]
• Joe Namath (former) – Professional football player^[12]

West

• Diamond Jim Brady (former) – businessman and philanthropist ^[13]
• Katie Couric (former) – news anchor^[14]
• Susan Crile – artist^[15]
• Tom Cruise (former) – actor, lived at 50 West 86th Street in 1981^[16]
• King Curtis (former) – saxophone player, lived and died at 50 West 86th Street^[17]
• Art D'Lugoff (former) – owner of The Village Gate^[18]
• Matt Damon – actor^[19]
• Robert Downey Jr./Sarah Jessica Parker (former) – actors; lived together at 50 West 86th Street^[16]
• Robert Duvall– actor ^[20]
• Renee Fleming – opera "diva"^[21]
• Joe Franklin – radio and television personality^[22]
• Emir Gamsızoğlu – concert pianist^[23]
• Andrew Goodman (former) – Queens College anthropology student, Freedom Summer volunteer of the Congress of Racial Equality, famed civil rights activist and martyr, close friend of Paul Simon ^[24]
• William Randolph Hearst (former) – publishing magnate^[25]
• Amos E. Joel, Jr. (former) – inventor of the cellular phone^[26]
• John F. Kennedy Jr. (former) – publisher and son of John F. Kennedy^[27]
• Christine Lahti – actress ^[20]
• Ege Maltepe – actress and playwright^[23]
• Grete Mosheim Gould – German silent film actress^[28]
• Zero Mostel (former) – actor^[29]
• Julianne Moore (former) – actress^[30]
• Richard Rodgers (former) – composer^[31]
• Emery Roth (former) – Beaux Arts and Art Deco architect who designed The Normandy where he lived
• Jami Floyd – TV anchor^[32]
• Isabella Rossellini (former) – actress ^[33]
• Isaac Bashevis Singer (former) – Nobel Prize winning author; West 86th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue was renamed Isaac Bashevis Singer Boulevard in his honor^[34]
• Sorvino family:
  • Mira Sorvino – actress
  • Paul Sorvino (former) – actor^[35]
• Lee Strasberg (former) – acting teacher and actor ^[36]
• Moon Zappa (former) – actress, musician and author, eldest daughter of Frank Zappa in the early 1990s

See also

• Yorkville

References

Notes

External links

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

• Google Maps

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