Sutton Place, Manhattan

Sutton Place is the name given to an affluent street and surrounding enclave of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the cusp of the Midtown and Upper East Side neighborhoods, stretching between 57th Street and 59th Street, along the East River, south of the Queensboro Bridge, with the stretch below 57th Street down to 53rd Street called Sutton Place South. North of 59th Street, the road continues as York Avenue.

Sutton Place was originally one of several disconnected stretches of Avenue A where space allowed east of First Avenue. 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.]

Prominent residents of Sutton Place include architect I.M. Pei, former New York Governor Mario Cuomo and actress Sigourney Weaver. Former residents of Sutton Place include Freddie Mercury, Bill Blass, C.Z. Guest, Bobby Short, Irene Hayes, Elsie de Wolfe, Marilyn Monroe and her then husband Arthur Miller.

The official residence of the United Nations Secretary-General is a five-story townhouse in Sutton Place. The townhouse was built for Anne Morgan, daughter of financier J. P. Morgan, in 1921, and donated as a gift to the United Nations in 1972. [Teltsch, kathleen. [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10D1FF8345A137B93C7A8178CD85F468785F9 "Town House Offered to U. N."] , "The New York Times", July 15, 1972. Accessed December 27, 2007.]

Controversy

Sutton Place encompasses two public parks, one at 57th Street and another at 53rd Street. The landscaped grounds behind One Sutton Place South, a neo-Georgian style apartment building designed by Rosario Candela, are currently the subject of a dispute between the building's owners and the city's department of Parks and Recreation. The city claims the building's lease for this land expired in 1990, and was never renewed. If the city prevails in this litigation, the land will be combined with the adjacent park at the foot of East 57th Street, more than doubling the size of the existing public space. [Bagli, Charles V. [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/nyregion/19suit.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin "A Co-op on Sutton Place Sues to Keep Its Backyard"] , "The New York Times", June 19, 2007. Accessed December 27, 2007.]

Pop culture trivia

*50 Sutton Place South was one of the buildings used to film the 2007 movie, "American Gangster".
*Sutton Place has had several parks used in films and videos such as the Woody Allen movie "The Saint of Fort Washington".
*"Scarface" had a scene where Tony Montana (Al Pacino) was on the telephone in the now-defunct 60th Street Heliport, now used as a dog run.
*Sutton Place South is mentioned in relation to its wealthy residents in the 1976 film, "Taxi Driver".
*In the 1986 hit Legal Eagles, starring Darryl Hannah, Robert Redford & Debra Winger, the villain, Victor Taft, played by Terrence Stamp resided there.

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