Avenue A (Manhattan)

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It is considered to be the beginning of Alphabet City in the East Village. It is also the western border of Tompkins Square Park.

History

Under the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 that established the Manhattan street grid, the avenues would begin with First Avenue on the east side and run through Twelfth Avenue in the west.To the east of First Avenue there would be four additional lettered avenues running from Avenue A eastward to Avenue D. [ [http://www.library.cornell.edu/Reps/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] , accessed May 2, 2007. "The avenues to the eastward of number one are marked A, B, C, and D."]

Former sections of Avenue A

While First Avenue was the easternmost avenue in most of Manhattan, there were several discontinuous sections that had been known as "Avenue A" north of present-day Alphabet City.

A short section of Avenue A was cut off from the exiting section in 1947 with the construction of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village and was renamed as Asser Levy Place.

Sutton Place was one of these stretches. Effingham B. Sutton constructed a group of brownstones in 1875 between 57th and 58th Streets, and is said to have lent the street his name, though the earliest source found by "The New York Times" dates back to 1883. The New York City Board of Aldermen approved a petition to change the name from "Avenue A" to "Sutton Place", covering the blocks between 57th and 60th Streets. [Senft, Bret. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D05E6D9123AF931A25755C0A962958260 "If You're Thinking of Living In/Sutton Place; A Riverside Enclave for the Well-to-Do"] , "The New York Times", June 12, 1994. Accessed December 27, 2007.] [Gray, Christopher. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06E1DA123AF932A1575AC0A9659C8B63 " Streetscapes/Sutton Place, Sutton Place South and One Sutton Place North; A Prestigious Enclave With a Name in Question"] , "The New York Times", September 21, 2003. Accessed December 27, 2007.]

In 1928, a one-block section of Sutton Place north of 59th Street, and all of Avenue A north of that point, was renamed York Avenue in honor of World War One US Army Sergeant Alvin York, who won the Medal of Honor for an attack in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive on October 8, 1918. [Gray, Christopher. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06E1DA123AF932A1575AC0A9659C8B63 " Streetscapes/Sutton Place, Sutton Place South and One Sutton Place North; A Prestigious Enclave With a Name in Question"] , "The New York Times", September 21, 2003. Accessed December 27, 2007.] [Pollak, Michael. [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/07/nyregion/thecity/07fyi.html "F. Y. I."] , "The New York Times", August 7, 2005. Accessed October 16, 2007. "In 1928, Sutton Place from 59th to 60th Street, and Avenue A north of 60th, were renamed York Avenue in honor of Sgt. Alvin C. York (1887-1964), a World War I hero from Tennessee and a recipient of the Medal of Honor."]

The northernmost section of Avenue A, stretching between 114th and 120 Streets in Spanish Harlem, was renamed Pleasant Avenue in 1879. [http://www.forgotten-ny.com/streetnecrology/AveA/declassified.html De-Classified 4-A] , Forgotten NY. Accessed January 1, 2008.]

References

Avenues of Manhattan
West = First Avenue
Avenue = Avenue A
East = Avenue B