Pre-colonization, Yorkville was an undeveloped area of forests and streams. In August 1776, George Washington stationed half of his Continental Army in Manhattan and the other half in Brooklyn. Many troops in the Yorkville area on Manhattan's Upper East Side were in defensive positions along the East River to protect a possible retreat off Long Island, and to inflict damage on invading land and sea British forces. Following their August 27 defeat in the Battle of Long Island, the Continentals implemented an orderly pivoting retreat in the Yorkville area, leading the enemy to entice the Continentals to fight by piping "Fly Away", about a fox running away from hounds. The Continentals' disciplined northerly retreat led to the successful Battle of Harlem Heights in September 1776.
In 1815, the Upper East Side was a farmland and market garden district. The Boston Post Road traversed the Upper East Side, locally called the Eastern Post Road; milepost 6 was near the northeast corner of Third Avenue and 81st Street. From 1833 to 1837 the New York and Harlem Railroad, one of the earliest railway systems in the United States, was extended through the Upper East Side along Fourth Avenue (later renamed Park Avenue). A hamlet grew near the 86th Street station, becoming the Yorkville neighborhood as gradual yet steady commercial development occurred. The current street grid was laid-out between 1839 and 1844 as part of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, so the Eastern Post Road was abandoned. The community had been referred to as Yorkville before 1867.
By 1850, a significant proportion of the inhabitants of the area were the Germans and Irish that helped build the Croton Aqueduct. The area was included in the 19th administrative district, whose boundaries were 40th and 86th Street. In 1858, horsecars began running on Second and Third Avenues. After the American Civil War, mansions replaced slums in Yorkville. On December 30, 1878, the IRT Third Avenue Line opened, followed by the IRT Second Avenue Line in August 1879.
Ethnic settlement
For much of the 19th and into the 20th centuries, Yorkville was a mostly German enclave of middle- to working-class families. Over time, many people of Czech, Slovak, Irish, French Canadian, Polish, Hungarian, and Lebanese descent moved in. The neighborhood became more affluent.
From 1880, Yorkville became a destination for German-born immigrants. However, by the 1900s, many German residents moved to Yorkville and other neighborhoods from "Kleindeutschland" (Little Germany) on the Lower East Side after the General Slocum disaster on June 15, 1904. The ship caught fire in the East River just off the shores of Yorkville, leading family members to move closer to the site of the incident. Most of the passengers on the ship were German. In addition, the general trend towards moving to the suburbs reduced the German population in Manhattan; by 1930, most German New Yorkers lived in Queens.
On 86th Street, in the central portion of Yorkville, there were many German shops, restaurants and bakeries. Yorkville became the melting pot of populations arriving from various regions of the Prussian-dominated German Empire and its colonies, where many cultures spoke German. In the 1930s, the neighborhood was the home base of Fritz Julius Kuhn's German American Bund, the most notorious pro-Nazi group in 1930s United States, which led to spontaneous protests by other residents. Yorkville was a haven for refugees from Nazi Germany in the 1940s, and from refugees from communist regimes in the 1950s and 1960s. The neighborhood is the site of the annual Steuben Parade, a large German-American celebration.
79th Street was a hub for the Austro-Hungarian populace. Popular restaurants included the Viennese Lantern, Tokay, Hungarian Gardens, Robert Heller's Cafe Abbazia at 2nd Avenue, Budapest and the Debrecen. There were also a number of butcher stores and businesses that imported goods from Hungary. Churches included St. Stephen Catholic Church and the Hungarian Reformed Church on East 82nd Street. In addition, Czechs, Poles and Slovaks lived from 65th to 73rd Street. Besides Ruc, a Czech restaurant off Second Avenue, Praha on Second Avenue, and Varsata on East 75th, there were sokol halls on 67th and 71st Streets. There were other Czech and Slovak businesses, such as Czech butcher shops, poultry and grocery stores, and shops that sold imported goods such as Bohemian books, leather products and crystal.
Recent history
A sidewalk clock on 1501 Third Avenue
Around the late 1920s, Yorkville's ethnic diversity was beginning to wane. In 1926, the New York Times wrote of Yorkville's changing ethnic makeup:
Yorkville, for well-nigh two decades known to connoisseurs of east side life as the exclusive domain of Czechoslovaks, Hungarians and Germans, is slowly giving up its strongly accentuated Central European character and gradually merging into a state of colorless impersonality…
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 to honor U.S. Army Sergeant Alvin York, who received the Medal of Honor for attacking a German machine gun nest during World War I's Meuse-Argonne Offensive.
In March 1936, the German American Bund established its headquarters on East 85th Street in Yorkville. This pro-Nazi anti-Semitic organization organized parades, rallies and summer camps for children and families and worked to keep America out of the war, to the benefit of Germany. Their 1939 rally in Madison Square Garden drew more than 10,000 Nazis and sympathizers. They were forced to disband after Germany declared war on the United States in December 1941.
The dismantling of the Third Avenue El in 1955 led to the demolition of many mansions. This led to the acceleration of the exodus of Yorkville residents. Over the years, this trend continued. Thus, in the 1980s, a building for members of the German gymnastic society Turners, at the intersection of 86th Street and Lexington Avenue, was demolished. Cafe Mozart, on 86th Street between Second and Third Avenues, was also demolished. In their place were built high-rise residential complexes.
By the turn of the 21st century, East 82nd Street was co-named St. Stephen of Hungary Way. The area from East 79th to 83rd Streets, spanning approximately four blocks east-west, is colloquially known as Little Hungary.
Demographics
76th Street between Second and Third Avenues
Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of Yorkville was 77,942, an increase of 1,174 (1.5%) from the 76,768 counted in 2000. Covering an area of 319.14 acres (129.15 ha), the neighborhood had a population density of 244.2 inhabitants per acre (156,300/sq mi).
The racial composition of Yorkville changed moderately from 2000 to 2010. The most significant changes were the increase in the Asian population by 41% (2,117), the increase in the Hispanic / Latino population by 18% (1,024), and the decrease in the white population by 4% (2,201). The Black population increased by 2% (64) and remained small, as did the population of all other races, which increased by 11% (170).
The median income for a household in Yorkville is almost twice the average for the city, at $85,724.
Police and crime
Yorkville is patrolled by the 19th Precinct of the NYPD, located at 153 East 67th Street. The 19th Precinct ranked 14th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010. The 19th Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 82.2% between 1990 and 2022. The precinct reported 2 murders, 12 rapes, 229 robberies, 173 felony assaults, 278 burglaries, 1,724 grand larcenies, and 192 grand larcenies auto in 2022.
Fire safety
Quarters of New York City Fire Department Engine Company 22/Ladder Company 13/Battalion 10
Engine Company 22/Ladder Company 13/Battalion 10 – 159 East 85th Street
Post offices and ZIP Codes
Yorkville is located in three primary ZIP Codes. From south to north, they are 10075 (between 76th and 80th Streets), 10028 (between 80th and 86th Streets), and 10128 (north of 86th Street). In addition, 500 East 77th Street in Yorkville has its own ZIP Code, 10162. The United States Postal Service operates three post offices in Yorkville:
The Lycée Français de New York is located on East 75th Street between York and East End Avenues. Further north, East Side Middle School is located on 91st Street between First and Second Avenues. The Trevor Day School is located four blocks north, on 95th Street between First and Second Avenues.
Libraries
The New York Public Library (NYPL) operates two branches near Yorkville. The Yorkville branch is located at 222 East 79th Street. The branch, a Carnegie library, opened in 1902 and was renovated in 1986–1987. The three-story space is listed on the New York State Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places. The Webster branch is located at 1465 York Avenue. The branch was founded in 1893 as the Webster Free Library, and the current Carnegie library structure opened in 1906.
Formerly, Eastern Yorkville was very far from any subway connections, and had among the farthest walks in Manhattan to any subway stations. From 2007 to 2017, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority built the Second Avenue Subway's 86th Street and 96th Street stations, leading to increased residential construction and real estate prices in advance of the opening of the new subway line.
Yorkville is served by NYC Ferry's Soundview and Astoria routes, which stop at 90th Street. The service started operating on August 15, 2018.
The Municipal Asphalt Plant was constructed in 1941. Asphalt Green, a fitness center, opened in the building in 1984.
The 91st Street Marine Transfer Station is a controversial waste transfer plant next to Asphalt Green, on York Avenue. The waste facility was supported by New York City mayors Bill de Blasio and Michael Bloomberg. The waste facility has been criticized by some area residents.
On 86th Street and 3rd Avenue, the first Papaya King opened in 1932 and closed in 2023.
Ruppert Yorkville Towers were built as an urban renewal project on the site of the old Jacob Ruppert Brewing Co., which closed in the 1960s. It is a two-building complex stretching from 90th to 92nd Streets, between Second and Third Avenue.
Notable residents
Residents of Yorkville have included:
Bob Cousy (born 1928), professional basketball player
James Cagney (1899–1986), actor, grew up in the neighborhood.
The Culkin family, several of whom are prominent actors, including Macaulay, Kieran, and Rory. The family lived in a small apartment on East 94th St. and attended Mass at the nearby St. Joseph Church during the 1980s.
Julia Fox (born 1990), artist, model, and actress, moved to Yorkville to live with her father at age 6
Lou Gehrig (1903–1941), Major League Baseball player, was born at 309 East 94th Street.
Janet Malcolm (1934-2021), Journalist and nonfiction writer, discusses growing up in the Czech émigré community of Yorkville in the 1940s in Still Pictures: On Photography and Memory (2023).
The Marx Brothers, comedians, lived at 179 East 93rd Street.
Henry Miller (1891–1980), author, was born in Yorkville.
U.S. President Barack Obama (born 1961), lived in the early 1980s at 339 East 94th Street, before and after his graduation from Columbia University.
Martin J. Scott (1865–1954), Jesuit author, a priest at St. Ignatius Loyola Church from 1902 to 1915
Georgette Seabrooke (1916–2011), muralist, artist, illustrator, art therapist, non-profit chief executive and educator, who is best known for her 1936 mural, Recreation in Harlem at Harlem Hospital Center.
Robert F. Wagner (1877–1953), U.S. Senator, after whom the middle school at 220 East 76th Street is named.
^Collins, Glenn (June 8, 2004). "A 100-Year-Old Horror, Through 9/11 Eyes; In the Sinking of the Slocum, a Template For the Arc of a City's Grief and Recovery". The New York Times. Retrieved November 20, 2007. The disaster helped accelerate the flight of Germans from the Lower East Side to Yorkville and other neighborhoods, although there were other motivations as well. 'The very dense old housing on the Lower East Side was no longer attractive to upwardly mobile Germans,' said Dr. John Logan, director of the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis at the State University of New York at Albany.
^Strausbaugh, John (September 14, 2007). "Paths of Resistance in the East Village". The New York Times. Retrieved December 29, 2007. On June 15, 1904, about 1,200 people from St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church (323 Sixth Street, between First and Second Avenues, the site of the Community Synagogue since 1940) died when the steamship the General Slocum, taking them on a day trip up the East River, burned. It was the deadliest disaster in the city before Sept. 11, 2001. It traumatized the community and hastened residents' flight to uptown areas like Yorkville.
^Pollak, Michael. "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."
^Hughes, C.J. "Yorkville Bets on the Second Avenue Subway", The New York Times, April 8, 2016. Accessed May 18, 2016. "But the new subway stations at East 72nd, East 86th and East 96th Streets, and the expanded one at East 63rd, seem to be having an equalizing effect on prices in what used to be more of a cotton socks district."
^Gendron, Nico (July 27, 2017). "The Many Lives of Julia Fox", Office Magazine. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Accessed February 29, 2024. "Fox didn’t always like to be photographed. She was raised in Yorkville in the 90’s, a neighborhood on the Upper East Side that has since been gentrified."
^Bierut, Michael. "Helmut Krone, Period.", Design Observer, August 23, 2006. Accessed May 20, 2016. "Challis's book is filled with this kind of detail. Born in 1925 to immigrant parents in Yorkville, Manhattan's German enclave, he attended the High School for Industrial Art, where he hoped to become a product designer."
^"Comedy Wizard Dies at 72", St. Petersburg Times, December 5, 1967. Accessed May 20, 2016. "Born Bert Lahrheim to an immigrant German family in New York's Yorkville section, Lahr dropped out of school at 15 and joined a child vaudeville troupe."
^Malcolm, Janet (2023). Still Pictures: On Photography and Memory (1st ed.). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. pp. 9–42. ISBN978-0374605131.
^Georgette Seabrook Powell, The HistoryMakers, November 8, 2006. Accessed May 20, 2016. "Art therapist, non-profit chief executive, and painter Georgette Ernestine Seabrooke Powell was born on August 2, 1916 in Charleston, South Carolina to Anna and George Seabrooke. Powell grew up in the Yorkville neighborhood of New York City."
^Adams, Frank S. "SENATOR ROBERT F. WAGNER and the Rise of American Liberalism. By J. Joseph Huthmacher. 362 pages. Atheneum. $10.", End Papers, The New York Times, December 20, 1968. Accessed May 20, 2016. "How Bob Wagner, who came here as a boy of 9 from his native Germany and grew up in Yorkville, where his father was a janitor, became one of the key members of the New Deal and helped shape the basic labor-industrial relationships that still exist today is told in great detail in this sound but not very lively book by a Rutgers history professor."
