23rd Street (Manhattan)
Encyclopedia
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
borough
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. It is one of few two-way streets in the gridiron of the borough. As with Manhattan's other "crosstown" streets, it is divided at Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue (Manhattan)
Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the center of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. The section of Fifth Avenue that crosses Midtown Manhattan, especially that between 49th Street and 60th Street, is lined with prestigious shops and is consistently ranked among...
, in this case at Madison Square Park, into its east and west sections. Since 1999 the area north of 23rd Street around the park has been referred to as Nomad
NoMad
NoMad is a neighborhood centered around the Madison Square North Historic District in the borough of Manhattan in New York City....
. The street formerly ran from the East River
East River
The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
to the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
, but now terminates at 11th Avenue
Eleventh Avenue (Manhattan)
Eleventh Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the far West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, not far from the Hudson River. It carries downtown traffic only, south of West 44th Street, and two-way traffic north of it....
.
West 23rd Street
West 23rd carves through the heart of ChelseaChelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
.
For much of the late 19th century and early 20th century its western end was site of the Pavonia Ferry
Pavonia Ferry
The Pavonia Ferry was a ferry service which conveyed passengers between New York City and Jersey City. It was launched in 1854. It was sold to the Pavonia Ferry Company of Jersey City for what was considered a low price of $9,050, at New York City Hall, in February 1854.In February 1859 Nathaniel...
at Pier 63, just north of the Chelsea Piers
Chelsea Piers
Chelsea Piers is a series of piers on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City that was a passenger ship terminal in the early 1900s that was used by the RMS Lusitania and was the destination of the RMS Titanic....
. London Terrace is slight father inland. In the late 19th century, the western part of 23rd Street was to American theater what Broadway is today, with the Opera House Palace and Pike's Opera House
Pike's Opera House
Pike's Opera House, later renamed the Grand Opera House, was a theatre in New York City on the northwest corner of 8th Avenue and 23rd Street, in Chelsea, Manhattan.His other Pike's Opera House, in Cincinnati, burned in the Great Fire of Cincinnati, in 1866. Rebuilt after the fire, and the first...
one block away and Proctor's Theater ("continuous daily vaudeville") across the street from the Hotel Chelsea
Hotel Chelsea
The Hotel Chelsea, also known as the Chelsea Hotel, or simply the Chelsea, is a historic New York City hotel and landmark, known primarily for its history of notable residents...
. 23rd Street remained New York's main theater strip until The Empire opened on Broadway
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
some twenty blocks uptown, ushering in a new era of theater.
The Hotel Chelsea
Hotel Chelsea
The Hotel Chelsea, also known as the Chelsea Hotel, or simply the Chelsea, is a historic New York City hotel and landmark, known primarily for its history of notable residents...
, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's first co-op
Housing cooperative
A housing cooperative is a legal entity—usually a corporation—that owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings. Each shareholder in the legal entity is granted the right to occupy one housing unit, sometimes subject to an occupancy agreement, which is similar to a lease. ...
apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
complex, was built here in 1883; it was New York's tallest building until 1902. Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious was an English musician best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols...
and Nancy Spungen
Nancy Spungen
Nancy Laura Spungen was the American girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious. Spungen has been the subject of controversy among music historians and fans of the Sex Pistols.-Early life:...
lived in the Hotel Chelsea
Hotel Chelsea
The Hotel Chelsea, also known as the Chelsea Hotel, or simply the Chelsea, is a historic New York City hotel and landmark, known primarily for its history of notable residents...
. Nancy was stabbed to death in the Hotel Chelsea.
East 23rd Street
East 23rd Street, which runs between Fifth Avenue and the East RiverEast River
The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
(FDR Drive), is a main street of Manhattan's neighborhood of Gramercy Park
Gramercy Park
Gramercy Park is a small, fenced-in private park in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park is at the core of both the neighborhood referred to as either Gramercy or Gramercy Park and the Gramercy Park Historic District...
. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, or MetLife, for short, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, with 90 million customers in over 60 countries...
(MetLife), headquartered at 1 Madison Avenue
Madison Avenue (Manhattan)
Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square to the Madison Avenue Bridge at 138th Street. In doing so, it passes through Midtown, the Upper East Side , Spanish Harlem, and...
at East 23rd Street, played a significant role in shaping the character of development along East 23rd Street in the early 20th century.
Opposite Madison Square Park on East 23rd Street are two skyscraper
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
s originally built by MetLife. 1 Madison Avenue, with its ornate clocktower face, was one of Manhattan's first skyscrapers. 11 Madison Avenue was intended to be the base of a much taller skyscraper, but the onset of the Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
forced MetLife to scale back its plans. Even so, the building stands today as an Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
masterpiece.
Peter Cooper Village, one of MetLife's experiments in middle-income community building (until bought by Tishman Speyer). Peter Cooper Village was a sister project to MetLife's Stuyvesant Town
Stuyvesant Town
Stuyvesant Town—Peter Cooper Village is a large private residential development on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, and one of the most iconic and successful post-World War II private housing communities...
, which was built across 20th Street to the south.
On the far east end of East 23rd are Stuyvesant Cove Park
Stuyvesant Cove Park
Stuyvesant Cove Park is a public park on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan that runs from 18th Street to 23rd Street between the FDR Drive and the East River...
, the Asser Levy Public Baths, and a parking garage now used as a gas station.
On October 17, 1966, this street was also witness to New York's deadliest fire in terms of firefighters killed until the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
. The "23rd Street Fire
23rd Street Fire
The 23rd Street Fire was an incident that took place on October 17, 1966 in the New York City borough of Manhattan, when a group of firefighters from the New York City Fire Department responding to a fire at 7 East 22nd Street entered a building at 6 East 23rd Street as part of an effort to fight...
", as it came to be called, began in a cellar at 7 East 22nd Street and soon spread to the basement of 6 East 23rd Street, a five-story commercial building that housed a drugstore at street level. Twelve firefighters were killed; two chiefs, two lieutenants, and six firefighters plunged into the flaming cellar, while two more firefighters were killed by the blast of flame and heat on the first floor.
The Flatiron Building
Flatiron Building
The Flatiron Building, or Fuller Building, as it was originally called, is located at 175 Fifth Avenue in the borough of Manhattan, New York City and is considered to be a groundbreaking skyscraper. Upon completion in 1902 it was one of the tallest buildings in the city and the only skyscraper...
is on the south side of the street at Broadway. The origin of the term "23 skidoo" is said to be from wind gusts caused by the building's triangular shape or hot air from a shaft through which immense volumes of air escaped, producing gusts that supposedly lifted women's skirts.
Public transit
Every New York City SubwayNew York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...
line that crosses 23rd Street has a local station there:
- 23rd Street23rd Street (BMT Broadway Line)23rd Street is a local station on the BMT Broadway Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 23rd Street, Broadway, and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, it is served by the N train at all times and the R train at all times except late nights....
on the BMT Broadway LineBMT Broadway LineThe BMT Broadway Line is a rapid transit line of the B Division of the New York City Subway in Manhattan, New York City, United States. , it is served by three services, all colored yellow: the on the express tracks and the on the local tracks...
serving the trains - 23rd Street23rd Street (IND Eighth Avenue Line)23rd Street is a local station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 23rd Street and Eighth Avenue in Chelsea, Manhattan, it is served by the C and E trains, the former of which is replaced by the A train during late nights.This underground...
on the IND Eighth Avenue LineIND Eighth Avenue LineThe Eighth Avenue Line is a rapid transit line in New York City, United States, and is part of the B Division of the New York City Subway...
serving the trains - 23rd Street23rd Street (IND Sixth Avenue Line)23rd Street is a local station on the IND Sixth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, it is served by the F train at all times, and the M train on weekdays. This station and 14th Street are the only two local stations on...
on the IND Sixth Avenue LineIND Sixth Avenue LineThe Sixth Avenue Line is a rapid transit line of the B Division of the New York City Subway in the United States. It runs mainly under Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, and continues south through the Rutgers Street Tunnel to Brooklyn...
serving the trains - 23rd Street on the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line serving the trains
- 23rd Street23rd Street (IRT Lexington Avenue Line)23rd Street is a local station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Park Avenue South and 23rd Street in Manhattan, it is served by 6 trains at all times, <6> trains during weekdays in the peak direction, and 4 trains during late night...
on the IRT Lexington Avenue LineIRT Lexington Avenue LineThe Lexington Avenue Line is one of the lines of the IRT division of the New York City Subway, stretching from Downtown Brooklyn or Lower Manhattan north to 125th Street in East Harlem. The portion in Lower and Midtown Manhattan was part of the first subway line in New York...
serving the trains
Port Authority Trans-Hudson
Port Authority Trans-Hudson
PATH, derived from Port Authority Trans-Hudson, is a rapid transit railroad linking Manhattan, New York City with Newark, Harrison, Hoboken and Jersey City in metropolitan northern New Jersey...
has a station at 23rd Street
23rd Street (PATH station)
The 23rd Street PATH station, opened on June 15, 1908, is located on 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue , at the north end of Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood...
as well.
Additionally, MTA New York City Transit's M23 bus runs the length of 23rd Street. This replaced the horse-drawn and later electric-powered Twenty-Third Street Railway
Twenty-Third Street Railway
The Twenty-third Street Railway was a street railway in Manhattan, New York City, United States. It was originally operated as horse cars and later electric traction...
. In 2003, the Straphangers Campaign
Straphangers Campaign
The Straphangers Campaign is a New York City-based transit interest group that critiques the operations and planning activities of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and especially that agency's affiliate, New York City Transit, operator of the city's huge subway and bus system...
listed the M23 as one of the slowest in the city, winning its "Pokey Award."
Intersections from east to west
- FDR Drive
- First AvenueFirst Avenue (Manhattan)First Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, running from Houston Street northbound for over 125 blocks before terminating at the Willis Avenue Bridge into The Bronx at the Harlem River near East 127th Street. South of Houston Street, the...
- Second AvenueSecond Avenue (Manhattan)Second Avenue is an avenue on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan extending from Houston Street at its south end to the Harlem River Drive at 128th Street at its north end. A one-way street, vehicular traffic runs only downtown. A bicycle lane in the left hand portion from 55th...
- Third AvenueThird Avenue (Manhattan)Third Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, running from Cooper Square north for over 120 blocks. Third Avenue continues into The Bronx across the Harlem River over the Third Avenue Bridge north of East 129th Street to East Fordham Road at...
- Lexington AvenueLexington Avenue (Manhattan)Lexington Avenue, often colloquially abbreviated by New Yorkers as "Lex," is an avenue on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that carries southbound one-way traffic from East 131st Street to Gramercy Park at East 21st Street...
- Park AvenuePark Avenue (Manhattan)Park Avenue is a wide boulevard that carries north and southbound traffic in New York City borough of Manhattan. Through most of its length, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenue to the east....
- Madison AvenueMadison Avenue (Manhattan)Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square to the Madison Avenue Bridge at 138th Street. In doing so, it passes through Midtown, the Upper East Side , Spanish Harlem, and...
- Fifth AvenueFifth Avenue (Manhattan)Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the center of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. The section of Fifth Avenue that crosses Midtown Manhattan, especially that between 49th Street and 60th Street, is lined with prestigious shops and is consistently ranked among...
and Broadway - East 23rd Street becomes West 23rd Street - Sixth AvenueSixth Avenue (Manhattan)Sixth Avenue – officially Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown"...
- Seventh AvenueSeventh Avenue (Manhattan)Seventh Avenue, known as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard north of Central Park, is a thoroughfare on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is southbound below Central Park and a two-way street north of the park....
- Eighth AvenueEighth Avenue (Manhattan)Eighth Avenue is a north-south avenue on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic. Eighth Avenue begins in the West Village neighborhood at Abingdon Square and runs north for 44 blocks through Chelsea, the Garment District, Hell's Kitchen's east end, Midtown and the...
- Ninth AvenueNinth Avenue (Manhattan)Ninth Avenue / Columbus Avenue is a southbound thoroughfare on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Traffic runs downtown along its full length...
- Tenth AvenueTenth Avenue (Manhattan)Tenth Avenue, known as Amsterdam Avenue north of 59th Street, is a north-south thoroughfare on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It carries uptown traffic as far as West 110th Street, also known as Cathedral Parkway for the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine...
- The High Line
- Eleventh AvenueEleventh Avenue (Manhattan)Eleventh Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the far West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, not far from the Hudson River. It carries downtown traffic only, south of West 44th Street, and two-way traffic north of it....
- West Side Highway (23rd Street has been closed to vehicles west of Eleventh Avenue)
See also
- Manhattan streets, 1-14Manhattan streets, 1-14This article covers numbered east-west streets in Manhattan, New York City. Major streets have their own linked articles; minor streets are discussed here. The streets do not run exactly east-west, because their grid is aligned with the Hudson River rather than with the cardinal directions...
- Manhattan streets, 23-42
External links
- New York Songlines: 23rd Street, a virtual walking tour
- History of the Hotel Chelsea
- The 23rd Street Fire