It might these days be more famous for the Banksy mural that Zabar’s deli covered with plexiglass for protection (read the New Yorker story, it’s too good and makes me love my city more).
Or the Dublin House Tap Room that recently celebrated 100 years (it was a speakeasy at first) with its old school neon sign.
Or that Mariah Carey had a home here (I hear her shoes needed more room) and that Phillip Roth lived and wrote here until his death.
But this New York City street has an eye that loves to travel.
First off, the street was designated by the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 that established the Manhattan street grid as one of 15 east-west streets that would be 100 feet in width (while other streets were designated as 60 feet). So it has some important girth.
On the Hudson River’s side it has Manhattan’s only year-round full-service marina (and you can imagine the scene when I tell you that the Onassis entourage and Frank Sinatra used it, plus The Rolling Stones when 14 NYC hotels rejected them) which now houses a unique community, the liveaboards.
And then on the corner of Broadway, we have the Apthorp, a Clinton & Russell designed Italian renaissance style building that takes up a whole block (Nora Ephron lived here and set her movies in this now impossible to get into building). This 12 story beauty is of course a landmark on the National Register of Historic Places that after two decades just shed their scaffolding.
Courtyard at Apthrop
And its sister building is The Belnord, with that courtyard that yes you probably recognize from “Only Murders In The Building” is just a few blocks north on 86th. I mean you know they didn’t really film there, studios are easier, but they did get that exterior money shots.
Now, back to 79th.
During COVID, The Lucern Hotel (another landmark) became a shelter only to evict people shortly after (the New Republic was not kind about the whole situation) right across from the neighborhood favorite and hub, Knitty City where cats sit with yarn in the window (the owner died not so long ago and the street held a vigil for her).
And on Central Park’s side it becomes the American Museum of Natural History (which recently changed the whole facade with the edition of the cave-like Milford pink granite clad Gilder Center by Studio Gang architects).
The street is an architect’s dream - there is even a squashed castle, the last of 6 row houses done in medieval style, plus a Baptist church with asymmetrical towers.
In fact it is the First Baptist Church in the City of New York, done by the architect George M. Kaiser, in 1891. And it has these two asymmetrical towers - I have debated strangers on the street whether it’s purposeful, or if one fell off when the sanctuary was getting a little hot on prayer inside.
But it also shows off the city in all its dichotomy - the ultra rich who live in the new penthouses right above the houseless gent who’s been standing on the street corner since I can remember, always talking to himself.
If you’re uptown grab a coffee at Irving Farm, walk this one street up and down a few times and marvel at everything that life has to offer when we go a little slower and start noticing.
I understand why Dorothy Parker lived here - waking up and brushing her teeth, sharpening her tongue - it’s a revolving door of intrigue.