by Uppereast.com Staff
Yorkville, named after York Avenue which runs down its center, was once New York City’s Germantown and home to German, Czech, Hungarian, Jewish and Albanian immigrants. The area goes from 80th-96th Sts, 3rd Ave to the East River. 86th Street used to be known as the German Broadway. Once filled with dance halls, bakeries, beer gardens, movie theatres, German newspapers and residents, the area gave way to higher rents, immigrant assimilation and apartment block development, which knocked down many of the tenements residents lived in. Also, the demolition of the 3rd Avenue El contributed to the neighborhood’s gentrification, because the El was the boundary between the Upper and Middle classes of the Upper East Side.
Not known to tourists, now Yorkville is the everyman’s Upper East Side. It is still residential, but also assimilated, filled with the variety of small businesses, restaurants, bars and coffee shops of all kinds. 86th Street is far more generic, full of brand-name stores and soon to be home to a luxury high-rise condo building and more retail space.
It’s a quiet place to live, away from the hustling and bustling “scene” of the rest of Manhattan. The style is more casual and the prices lower. And apartment-block development notwithstanding, the area is still populated with turn-of-the-century brownstones and Queen Anne-style housing.
Gracie Mansion, once home to Archibald Gracie and traditionally the Mayor’s residence, is Yorkville’s main landmark nestled in Carl Shurz park overlooking the East River. Yorkville also contains the Henderson House historic district, a block of 24 Queen Anne-style houses on East End Avenue designed for middle-income residents in the late 1800s. The use of features such as wide arched entryways, terra cotta plaques, windows divided into tiny square panes is what makes these buildings unique.
Asphalt Green, a large recreation center on East End Avenue that rivals Chelsea Piers, can be found in Yorkville too.
In the late 18th century, Yorkville was considered the country with estates and river access belonging to wealthy families of German origin, like the Schermerhorns, Rhinelanders and Astors. Once the New York and Harlem Railroad was completed in 1834, the area became more urbanized and eventually part of the city’s grid. It attracted more middle-class Germans, like the Rupperts who opened a brewery there. More Germans moved into the area to escape their memories of the 1904 General Slocum Ferry accident occurred in the lower East River. Many worked and lived in the neighborhood, employed at the brewery or other small businesses, drinking and dining in the bakeries, restaurants and beer gardens, dancing in the dancehalls.
In the years before World War II, Yorkville was a center of both Nazi and anti-Nazi activity. In the decades after the War, the original immigrant population began to assimilate and move away, though there is still a large population of long-term residents and thriving German, Irish and Hungarian churches. The only ethnic businesses that remain are Schaller Weber (a German meat market), the Heidelberg Restaurant and the Hungarian Meat Market.
Today it is home to young families, professionals and recent college grads. Realtors are buzzing about the Ruppert Yorkville Towers, four middle-income rentals that have been converted into luxury condos.
The only subway is the 4, 5, 6, but there is crosstown bus service and express bus service to Wall Street. Who knows when the over-hyped 2nd Avenue Subway will be done?! Yorkville also offers easy access to the F.D.R, and in the season, a ferry to Yankee Stadium.
There is a lot of nostalgia around the way Yorkville was. There are websites that offer memories and ways for old Yorkville residents to contact each other. It was the birthplace of baseball legend Lou Gehrig, actor James Cagney and home of the Marx Brothers. So it seems, despite developers best efforts, the legend of Yorkville still lives on in the hearts and minds of its current and past residents.
Have a look at the Wikipedia Yorkville profile for more information.