Lexington Avenue was not one of the streets included in the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 street grid, so the addresses for cross streets do not start at an even hundred number, as they do with avenues that were originally part of the plan.
Both Lexington Avenue and Irving Place began in 1832 when Samuel Ruggles, a lawyer and real-estate developer, petitioned the New York State Legislature to approve the creation of a new north–south avenue between the existing Third and Fourth Avenues, between 14th and 30th Streets. Ruggles purchased land in the area and was developing it as a planned community of townhouses around a private park, which he called Gramercy Park. He was also developing property around Union Square and wanted the new road to improve the value of these tracts. The legislation was approved, and, as the owner of most of the land along the route of the new street, Ruggles was assessed for the majority of its cost. Ruggles named the southern section, below 20th Street, which opened in 1833, after his friend Washington Irving. The northern section, which opened three years later, in 1836, was named after the Battle of Lexington in the American Revolutionary War.[4][5]
In 1899, Lexington Avenue was the location of the first arrest in New York City for speeding when a bicycle patrolman overtook cabdriver Jacob German, who had been racing down the avenue at the "reckless" speed of 12 mph (19 km/h).[6] The portion of Lexington Avenue above East 42nd Street was reconstructed at the same time as the IRT Lexington Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. The widened street and the subway line both opened on July 17, 1918.[7]
Portions of the avenue were widened in 1955, which required eminent domain takings of the facades of some structures along Lexington.[8]
Lexington Avenue has carried one-way (downtown) traffic since July 17, 1960.[9]
The 2007 New York City steam explosion sent a geyser of hot steam up from beneath the avenue at 41st Street, resulting in one death and more than 40 injuries.
Description
Lexington Avenue
Lexington Avenue runs one-way southbound for its entire length from 131st Street to 21st Street. Parallel to Lexington Avenue lies Park Avenue to its west and Third Avenue to its east. The avenue is largely commercial at ground level, with offices above. There are clusters of hotels in the 30s and 40s, roughly from the avenue's intersection with 30th Street through to its intersection with 49th Street, and apartment buildings farther north.
In contrast to Lexington Avenue, the six-block stretch of Irving Place from 14th to 20th Street at Gramercy Park carries two-way traffic and is decidedly local in nature. After the opening of Union Square in 1839, the Irving Place area became one of the most sought-after residential neighborhoods in the city, a situation which was only enhanced by the development of Gramercy Park to the north and Stuyvesant Square to the east.[5]
An assortment of restaurants and bars line Irving Place, including Pete's Tavern, New York's oldest surviving saloon, where O. Henry supposedly conceived of his short story "The Gift of the Magi", and which survived Prohibition disguised as a flower shop. Irving Plaza, on East 15th Street and Irving, hosts numerous concerts for both well-known and indie bands and draws a crowd almost every night. Another component of the avenue are the large apartment buildings which line the street from Gramercy Park to 17th Street. Also at 17th, a small bed-and-breakfast, the Inn at Irving Place, occupies two Greek Revival architecture townhouses built in 1840–1841 and renovated between 1991 and 1995.
The following buses use Lexington Avenue between the following streets (uptown buses run along Third Avenue):[13][14][15]
The M35 runs from East 126th to East 124th Streets, changing direction from Harlem to Randall’s Island at East 125th Street.
The M98 runs from East 120th to East 65th Streets.
The M101, M102 and M103 (Third and Lexington Avenues Line) run to East 24th Street from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, East 116th Street and East 126th Street, respectively.
The BxM1 runs from East 106th to East 34th Streets.
The SIM6 and SIM11 run from East 57th to East 23rd Streets.
The SIM22 and SIM26 run from East 57th to East 42nd Streets.
Lexington Avenue became part of a classic American cinematic moment in the 1955 movie The Seven Year Itch in which Marilyn Monroe shot what would become her most famous scene. While standing on a subway grating outside the Loew's Lexington Theatre, her skirt billowed up from the wind underneath. While the footage showing the theatre in the background appeared in the finished film, the footage featuring the subway grate shot on September 15, 1954, on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 51st Street, was more of a publicity stunt; retakes were shot on a studio soundstage, and shots from both are seen in the film.[17]
Southern Indian Cuisine: in reference to the growing number of Asian Indian restaurants and spice shops along a stretch of Lexington Avenue between 25th and 30th Streets in the Rose Hill neighborhood which has become known as Curry Hill.[18]
