Tudor City
Encyclopedia
East Side (Manhattan)
The East Side of Manhattan refers to the side of Manhattan Island which abuts the East River and faces Brooklyn and Queens. Fifth Avenue, Central Park, and lower Broadway separate it from the West Side....
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...
in New York City
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...
. It is the first residential 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...
complex in the world. It is bordered by East 40th Street to the south, First Avenue
First 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...
to the east, Second Avenue
Second 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...
to the west, and East 43rd Street to the north. Tudor City takes its name from England's Tudor dynasty
Tudor dynasty
The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised...
, which ruled from 1485 to 1603 and included King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I
History
Before Tudor City, tenementTenement
A tenement is, in most English-speaking areas, a substandard multi-family dwelling, usually old, occupied by the poor.-History:Originally the term tenement referred to tenancy and therefore to any rented accommodation...
s and slum
Slum
A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
s dominated the area, which bordered a power plant and slaughterhouse
Slaughterhouse
A slaughterhouse or abattoir is a facility where animals are killed for consumption as food products.Approximately 45-50% of the animal can be turned into edible products...
s, along First Avenue on 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...
. It was known as "Goat Hill" (goats and squatters ruled the area) and later "Prospect Hill". The area eventually developed into a shanty Irish community known as "Corcoran's Roost", founded by Jimmy Corcoran
Jimmy Corcoran
James J. "Jimmy" Corcoran was an Irish-born American laborer and well-known personality among the Irish-American community of the historic "Corcoran's Roost" and the Kip's Bay districts, roughly the area near 40th Street and First Avenue in Manhattan, and was widely regarded as the champion of...
, in the 1850s and later became known as a community with a high rate of violent crime and a haven for waterfront thieves, most notably the Rag Gang, during the late 19th century.
In the 1920s, the real estate developer Fred F. French sought to lure tenants to Tudor City, his vision of an urban Utopia — a "human residential enclave" that boasted "tulip gardens, small golf courses, and private parks." The complex was built to bring in middle-class
American middle class
The American middle class is a social class in the United States. While the concept is typically ambiguous in popular opinion and common language use, contemporary social scientists have put forward several, more or less congruent, theories on the American middle class...
residents who had begun leaving Manhattan for the other boroughs
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...
and the suburbs. A 1994 feature in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reported:
The historicist
Historicism (art)
Historicism refers to artistic styles that draw their inspiration from copying historic styles or artisans. After neo-classicism, which could itself be considered a historicist movement, the 19th century saw a new historicist phase marked by a return to a more ancient classicism, in particular in...
architecture of the buildings can be classified neo-Gothic
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
rather than Tudor
Tudor style architecture
The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period and even beyond, for conservative college patrons...
or the related English revival styles Tudorbethan
Tudorbethan architecture
The Tudor Revival architecture of the 20th century , first manifested itself in domestic architecture beginning in the United Kingdom in the mid to late 19th century based on a revival of aspects of Tudor style. It later became an influence in some other countries, especially the British colonies...
(Mock Tudor) and Jacobethan
Jacobethan
Jacobethan is the style designation coined in 1933 by John Betjeman to describe the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the English Renaissance , with elements of Elizabethan and...
. An earlier 1920s residential development in Manhattan, Hudson View Gardens, also built for suburban appeal, made explicit use of such Tudorbethan features as half-timbering
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
.
Originally, two gardens flanked 42nd Street, with the south garden featuring a "miniaturized" 18-hole golf course
Miniature golf
Miniature golf, or minigolf, is a miniature version of the sport of golf. While the international sports organization World Minigolf Sport Federation prefers to use the name "minigolf", the general public in different countries has also many other names for the game: miniature golf, mini-golf,...
. The Juilliard
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
Brass Quartet often played in the north garden, and the area where Tudor Gardens (Number 2) stands today was the site of the legendary tennis courts where the likes of Pancho Segura
Pancho Segura
Pancho Segura, born Francisco Olegario Segura , was a leading tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s, both as an amateur and as a professional. In 1950 and 1952, as a professional, he was the World Co-No. 1 player...
, Bobby Riggs
Bobby Riggs
Robert Larimore "Bobby" Riggs was a 1930s–40s tennis player who was the World No. 1 or the co-World No. 1 player for three years, first as an amateur in 1941, then as a professional in 1946 and 1947...
, Rudy Vallée
Rudy Vallée
Rudy Vallée was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer.-Early life:Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée...
, and Welby Van Horn
Welby Van Horn
Welby Van Horn is a retired American professional tennis player who later went on to have a career as a major tennis coach.As a 19-year-old player, Van Horn reached the finals of the 1939 U.S. Nationals only to lose to Bobby Riggs in just 56 minutes...
played exhibition games. On at least one cold winter, the courts were flooded to create an ice skating rink for the community.
In May 1948, Claude Marchant, a "well known dancer and teacher in the Katherine Dunham
Katherine Dunham
Katherine Mary Dunham was an American dancer, choreographer, songwriter, author, educator, and activist...
School of Dance," won a $1,000 judgement against the owners of Tudor City. Marchant, an African American, had been refused entry into the passenger elevator of the building at 25 Prospect Avenue, on the basis of race.
In the 1960s, the Fred F. French Company sold Tudor City to the Rabinowitz Corporation, which in turn sold it to the Helmsley Corporation in the 1970s. In May 1985, Harry Helmsley
Harry Helmsley
Harry B. Helmsley was an Americanentrepreneur who built a company that became one of the biggest property holders in the United States...
and Alvin Schwartz, sold their remaining properties in Tudor City to Philip Pilevsky of Philips International and Francis Greenburger of Time Equities. The new owners quickly set about converting Tudor City into co-op apartment
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. ...
s, as was happening across the city. Conversions were completed with little problem but when the real estate market and economy slowed in 1989-1994, some co-op prices dropped significantly, as owners and investors were concerned that the co-ops themselves would become insolvent. In April 2008, New York Magazine recalled the 1989 slump:
In 1988 Tudor City was named a historic district by New York. Preservation efforts leading up to the designation had started 10 years earlier when Harry Helmsley proposed building towers atop two parks within the complex.
Location and features
42nd Street (Manhattan)
42nd Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, known for its theaters, especially near the intersection with Broadway at Times Square. It is also the name of the region of the theater district near that intersection...
slopes under Tudor City Place and down to First Avenue through a late 19th-century cut through the cliff, which was expanded in the mid-20th century to provide better access to the new United Nations Headquarters
United Nations headquarters
The headquarters of the United Nations is a complex in New York City. The complex has served as the official headquarters of the United Nations since its completion in 1952. It is located in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, on spacious grounds overlooking the East River...
. With the cliff separating Tudor City from First Avenue below, it is accessible to vehicular traffic only via Second Avenue. A service entrance to 5 Tudor City Place is available from the "D" level, which is four floors below the lobby level. The service entrance exits at 40th and 1st Avenue allowing residents and building service staff to enter from 1st Avenue. A viaduct connects the two halves of Tudor City bisected by East 42nd Street, with staircases providing pedestrian access between 42nd Street and the complex. A separate staircase known as the Sharansky
Natan Sharansky
Natan Sharansky was born in Stalino, Soviet Union on 20 January 1948 to a Jewish family. He graduated with a degree in applied mathematics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. As a child, he was a chess prodigy. He performed in simultaneous and blindfold displays, usually against...
Steps connects Tudor City with Ralph Bunche Park
Ralph Bunche Park
Ralph Bunche Park is a small municipal public park in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of New York City, at the northwest corner of First Avenue and 42nd Street. It was named in 1979 for the late Ralph Bunche....
and First Avenue.
Directly across First Avenue is the United Nations Headquarters
United Nations headquarters
The headquarters of the United Nations is a complex in New York City. The complex has served as the official headquarters of the United Nations since its completion in 1952. It is located in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, on spacious grounds overlooking the East River...
. Only a few apartments face the United Nations because when the area was completed in 1928 there were slaughterhouses to the east; most apartments were built facing the opposite direction because of the stench and filth that emanated. In the 1940s, the slaughterhouses were demolished and the United Nations Headquarters was built in their place. As of the early 21st century, only a handful of apartments have high-priced views of the UN Headquarters and 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...
. The majority of apartments face inland parks and the Midtown
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square...
skyline. Many apartments have good views of the Chrysler Building
Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco style skyscraper in New York City, located on the east side of Manhattan in the Turtle Bay area at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Standing at , it was the world's tallest building for 11 months before it was surpassed by the Empire State...
and Empire State Building
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
.
Tudor City's buildings are home to over 5000 residents. The complex includes restaurants, a hotel, grocery, a gourmet deli, and convenience stores, a hair salon, laundry and dry cleaners. Three garden parks and a children's playground are there.
Tudor City is known for its rooftop TUDOR CITY sign overlooking 42nd Street.
Popular culture
Tudor City is featured in a number of film and television programs. Movies filmed in Tudor City include The Godfather Part IIIThe Godfather Part III
The Godfather Part III is a 1990 American gangster film written by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, and directed by Coppola. It completes the story of Michael Corleone, a Mafia kingpin who tries to legitimize his criminal empire...
, The Peacemaker
The Peacemaker (1997 film)
The Peacemaker is a 1997 American action/thriller film starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman and directed by Mimi Leder. It is also notable as being the first film released by DreamWorks...
, Spider-Man
Spider-Man (film)
Spider-Man is a 2002 American superhero film, the first in the Spider-Man film series based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. It was directed by Sam Raimi and written by David Koepp...
and Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2 is a 2004 American superhero film directed by Sam Raimi, written by Alvin Sargent and developed by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Michael Chabon. It is the second film in the Spider-Man film franchise based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man...
, Spider-Man 3
Spider-Man 3
Spider-Man 3 is a 2007 American superhero film written and directed by Sam Raimi, with a screenplay by Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent. It is the third film in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man...
, Splash
Splash (film)
Splash is a 1984 American fantasy romantic comedy film directed by Ron Howard and written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The original music score was composed by Lee Holdridge...
, U.S. Marshals
U.S. Marshals (film)
U.S. Marshals is a 1998 action thriller film starring Tommy Lee Jones and Wesley Snipes, and a sequel to The Fugitive. The storyline of U.S. Marshals does not feature the character Dr. Richard Kimble; the role of the protagonist has been passed onto Samuel Gerard and his team of U.S...
, Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver is a 1976 American drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. The film is set in New York City, soon after the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro and features Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, and Cybill Shepherd. The film was nominated for four Academy...
, and The Bourne Ultimatum
The Bourne Ultimatum (film)
The Bourne Ultimatum is a 2007 American spy film directed by Paul Greengrass and loosely based on the Robert Ludlum novel of the same title. This film is the third in the Bourne film series, being preceded by The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy...
. In the movie Scarface
Scarface (1983 film)
Scarface is a 1983 American epic crime drama movie directed by Brian De Palma, written by Oliver Stone, produced by Martin Bregman and starring Al Pacino as Tony Montana...
, a bomb is planted under the Governor's car at 5 Tudor City Place. Also Tudor City appeared in the opening credits of The Jeffersons
The Jeffersons
The Jeffersons is an American sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from January 18, 1975, through June 25, 1985, lasting 11 seasons and a total of 253 episodes. The show was produced by the T.A.T. Communications Company from 1975–1982 and by Embassy Television from 1982-1985...
., where the moving van is seen moving in a somewhat blurred shot past the north park and Tudor City Manor on E43 St. The Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
episode "The Wheel" and the Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: Criminal Intent is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and René Balcer, the series premiered on September 30, 2001, as the second spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama...
episode "Death Roe" also had brief exterior scenes filmed at the complex. In the film The International
The International
The International may refer to:*The International , a 2009 film starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts*The International , a video game tournament for Dota 2...
, Clive Owen
Clive Owen
Clive Owen is an English actor, who has worked on television, stage and film. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for portraying the lead in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991...
's character is seen entering beneath a canopy marked "Woodstock Tower," one of the Tudor City buildings; however, the subsequent interior is not actually Woodstock Tower. Tudor City exterior shots were also recently seen on "Ugly Betty" in the episode entitled "The Butterfly Effect-Part 2" after Daniel and Betty left the United Nations photo shoot at 34 mins, 13 seconds into the show.The rooftop of one Tudor City building is the filming location for Neal Caffrey
Neal Caffrey
Neal Caffrey is the main character of the USA Network original series White Collar. He is first introduced as a con artist serving out a four year prison sentence for bond forgery, but after escaping from prison with three months left on his sentence and being recaptured by the FBI, he agrees to...
's rooftop pattio on the television series White Collar
White Collar (TV series)
White Collar is a USA Network television series created by Jeff Eastin, starring Matt Bomer as con-man Neal Caffrey and Tim DeKay as Special Agent Peter Burke. It premiered on October 23, 2009. In December 2009, White Collar was renewed for a second season that began on July 13, 2010...
.
Further reading
- Dolkart, Andrew S. "Tudor City", in Living Together. Columbia University.
External links
- Tudor City - New York Architectural Images.