Avenue B (Manhattan)

History

The street was created by the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 as one of 16 north-south streets specified as 100 feet in width, including 12 numbered avenues and four designated by letter located east of First Avenue. In 1824, prior to any construction, its width was reduced to 60 feet, the standard for cross-streets, by taking 40 feet from the east side. The city reasoned that the lettered avenues were "incapable of use as thoroughfares to and from the City" and could not "be considered as avenues in the proper Sense of the term."

East End Avenue

On the Upper East Side, Avenue B reappears as East End Avenue; principally residential in character, it runs only from East 79th Street to East 90th Street through the Yorkville neighborhood. It was called Avenue B under the original Commissioners' Plan of 1811, but is no longer given that designation. Carl Schurz Park, the location of Gracie Mansion, is adjacent to the avenue at this point. In 1928, the New York City Board of Estimate ruled that development below East 84th Street was restricted to residential use.

Landmarks

• The Christodora House, a former women's Settlement House and now a condominium, is located on Avenue B at 9th Street.
• The Charlie Parker Residence at 151 Avenue B between 9th and 10th Streets, where jazz musician Charlie "Bird" Parker lived from 1950 to 1954, is a New York City landmark.
• Gracie Mansion, a New York City landmark and official residence of the mayor of New York City, is located on East End Avenue at 88th Street.

Transportation

Currently, there is no bus that travels on Avenue B. The M9 bus formerly used this street from East Houston Street to 14th Street. The M79 bus travels along East End Avenue from 80th Street to 79th Street.

In popular culture

• In 1922 Fanny Brice recorded "The Sheik of Avenue B", a parody of "The Sheik of Araby" written by Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar
• In Jonathan Larson's musical Rent, most of the characters live on Avenue B and 11th Street
• In 1983 Pierce Turner, Larry Kirwan and Thomas Hamlin wrote "Avenue B (is the place to be)", which was recorded by their band Major Thinkers
• A 1999 Iggy Pop album is entitled Avenue B, written while he was living at Christodora House
• A song by The Fleshtones entitled Take a Walk with the Fleshtones on their album Beautiful Light describes the street scene, starting at "Eleven Eleven" with the chorus repeating "...on Avenue B"
• Gogol Bordello wrote a song called "Avenue B"
• Several scenes from the 1986 film "Crocodile Dundee" were filmed in and around a bar located at 108 Avenue B where that street intersects with East 7th Street, otherwise known as Tompkins Square.
• On Lou Reed's 1989 album New York, the song "Halloween Parade" includes the line "The boys from Avenue B, the girls from Avenue D, a Tinkerbell in tights." The song is about the ravages of AIDS, using the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade as a backdrop.
• On Cop Shoot Cop's 1994 Release, the song "It Only Hurts When I Breathe" references the corner of Avenue B and 3rd Street.

References

Notes

References

1. [[Gouverneur Morris. Morris, Gouverneur]]; [[Simeon De Witt. De Witt, Simeon]]; and [[John Rutherfurd. Rutherford, John]] {{sic (March 1811) [https://urbanplanning.library.cornell.edu/DOCS/nyc1811.htm "Remarks Of The Commissioners For Laying Out Streets And Roads In The City Of New York, Under The Act Of April 3, 1807"], [[Cornell University Library]]. Accessed June 27, 2016. "These are one hundred feet wide, and such of them as can be extended as far north as the village of Harlem are numbered (beginning with the most eastern, which passes from the west of Bellevue Hospital to the east of Harlem Church) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. This last runs from the wharf at Manhattanville nearly along the shore of the Hudson river, in which it is finally lost, as appears by the map. The avenues to the eastward of number one are marked A, B, C, and D."
2. Post, John J.. (1882). "Old streets, roads, lanes, piers and wharves of New York showing the former and present names, together with a list of alterations of streets, either by extending, widening, narrowing or closing". R.D. Cooke.
3. (1917). "Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, 1784-1831". M.B. Brown Print. & Binding Co..
4. Leahy, Michael. (2007). "If You're Thinking of Living In…: All About 115 Great Neighborhoods In & Around New York". Random House.
5. {{cite nycland, p.69
6. [https://www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/9009/ "The Sheik of Avenue B"] on the [[Library of Congress]] National Jukebox