116th Street (Manhattan) on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
116th Street runs from Riverside Drive (Manhattan), Riverside Drive, overlooking the Hudson River, to the East River, through the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan. It traverses the neighborhoods of Morningside Heights, Harlem, and Spanish Harlem; the street is interrupted between Morningside Heights and Harlem by Morningside Park (New York City), Morningside Park.
The western entrance to 116th Street at Riverside Drive is flanked by a pair of white apartment buildings with curved facades, The Colosseum (apartment building), The Colosseum and The Paterno.
''The New York Times'' has said that the "opposing curves, (form) a gateway as impressive as any publicly built arch or plaza in New York. The unusual curves of the road are the result of an 1897 plan to make the land between Claremont Avenue and Riverside Drive into a public park in order to give veterans parades with a large park adjacent to Grant's Tomb as a terminus. The street was redesigned so that a vehicle or a parade coming up Riverside Drive would swing onto 116th Street in a gracious curve, then immediately swing north onto Claremont Avenue following a second curve. The city never appropriated funds to buy the land, but the curves remain. The top of The Paterno is capped with an architectural fancy masking a water tower in a shape that conjures up a section of Mansard roof, complete with dormer window. It is visible from the gates of Columbia University at Broadway and 116th Street.
The intersection of 116th Street and Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, is the location of the main entrance of Columbia University, the city's Ivy League school. Until the 1950s, the street ran uninterrupted through Morningside Heights from Riverside Drive (Manhattan), Riverside Drive to Morningside Park (New York City), Morningside Park. In 1953, during Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency at Columbia, however, the block between Broadway and Tenth Avenue (Manhattan), Amsterdam Avenue was permanently closed to vehicular traffic and was turned into a pedestrian way called "College Walk." The street had been ceded to Columbia in exchange for a payment of $1,000. The street is again interrupted where it meets Morningside Drive, this time by the steep downward slope of Morningside Park.
The main, east-west thoroughfare portion of 116th Street begins at the eastern edge of Morningside Park and runs east through central Harlem. A large West African immigrant community has developed in central Harlem with stores, bakeries and cafés along 116th Street west of Saint Nicholas Avenue (Manhattan), St. Nicholas Avenue. This community has been called Little Senegal or Le Petit Senegal.
At Lenox Ave., the street runs past the Malcolm Shabazz Mosque, formerly the Mosque No. 7. The building was erected as the Lenox Casino.
East of Fifth Avenue, 116th Street has historically been the primary business hub of Spanish Harlem. From Lexington Avenue to First Avenue (Manhattan), First Avenue, the street is lined with businesses selling food, clothing, and other specialty and ethnically specific goods to a Spanish-speaking clientele. East 116th Street terminates at Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive, FDR Drive, the site of the East River Plaza, a retail mall complex with large commercial tenants Costco, Aldi and Target Corporation, Target."Squeezing Big-Box Retailing Into Small City Spaces", ''The New York Times'', June 11, 2008. Accessed August 25, 2009.
Image:116th-Street-and-Riverside-Drive.jpg, Termination of 116th Street at Riverside Drive (Manhattan), Riverside Drive
Image:West 116th Street - Morningside.jpg, Looking west from Morningside Drive (Manhattan), Morningside Drive; Morningside Park (New York City), Morningside Park is behind the camera.
Image:Carl schurz statue.jpg, Carl Schurz statue at the 116th Street overlook at Morningside Park.
Image:116 morningside ave.JPG, Morningside Avenue, east side of the park. Media:Harlem 04.jpg, 115th Street buildings in background.
Image:116thBandC.jpg, 116th Street at Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eighth Avenue in Harlem, and the uptown entrance to 116th Street (IND Eighth Avenue Line), 116th Street station ().
Image:116thHarlem01.jpg, Little Senegal, West African stores between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eighth Avenue in Harlem.
Image:Malcolm Shabazz Mosque.jpg, Mosque No. 7, Malcolm Shabazz Mosque, 116th and Lenox Avenue.
Image:Elbarrio116thLex.jpg, Spanish Harlem, El Barrio, 116th Street between Third Avenue and Lexington Avenue.
History
The street was designated by the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 that established the Manhattan grid plan, street grid as one of 15 east-west streets that would be in width (while other streets were designated as in width).Description
West Side
The western entrance to 116th Street at Riverside Drive is flanked by a pair of white apartment buildings with curved facades, The Colosseum (apartment building), The Colosseum and The Paterno.
''The New York Times'' has said that the "opposing curves, (form) a gateway as impressive as any publicly built arch or plaza in New York. The unusual curves of the road are the result of an 1897 plan to make the land between Claremont Avenue and Riverside Drive into a public park in order to give veterans parades with a large park adjacent to Grant's Tomb as a terminus. The street was redesigned so that a vehicle or a parade coming up Riverside Drive would swing onto 116th Street in a gracious curve, then immediately swing north onto Claremont Avenue following a second curve. The city never appropriated funds to buy the land, but the curves remain. The top of The Paterno is capped with an architectural fancy masking a water tower in a shape that conjures up a section of Mansard roof, complete with dormer window. It is visible from the gates of Columbia University at Broadway and 116th Street.
The intersection of 116th Street and Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, is the location of the main entrance of Columbia University, the city's Ivy League school. Until the 1950s, the street ran uninterrupted through Morningside Heights from Riverside Drive (Manhattan), Riverside Drive to Morningside Park (New York City), Morningside Park. In 1953, during Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency at Columbia, however, the block between Broadway and Tenth Avenue (Manhattan), Amsterdam Avenue was permanently closed to vehicular traffic and was turned into a pedestrian way called "College Walk." The street had been ceded to Columbia in exchange for a payment of $1,000. The street is again interrupted where it meets Morningside Drive, this time by the steep downward slope of Morningside Park.
East Side
The main, east-west thoroughfare portion of 116th Street begins at the eastern edge of Morningside Park and runs east through central Harlem. A large West African immigrant community has developed in central Harlem with stores, bakeries and cafés along 116th Street west of Saint Nicholas Avenue (Manhattan), St. Nicholas Avenue. This community has been called Little Senegal or Le Petit Senegal.
At Lenox Ave., the street runs past the Malcolm Shabazz Mosque, formerly the Mosque No. 7. The building was erected as the Lenox Casino.
East of Fifth Avenue, 116th Street has historically been the primary business hub of Spanish Harlem. From Lexington Avenue to First Avenue (Manhattan), First Avenue, the street is lined with businesses selling food, clothing, and other specialty and ethnically specific goods to a Spanish-speaking clientele. East 116th Street terminates at Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive, FDR Drive, the site of the East River Plaza, a retail mall complex with large commercial tenants Costco, Aldi and Target Corporation, Target."Squeezing Big-Box Retailing Into Small City Spaces", ''The New York Times'', June 11, 2008. Accessed August 25, 2009.
Transportation
New York City Subway, Subway stations on 116th Street are, from west to east: * 116th Street–Columbia University (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line), 116th Street–Columbia University serving the at Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway * 116th Street (IND Eighth Avenue Line), 116th Street serving the at Frederick Douglass Boulevard * 116th Street (IRT Lenox Avenue Line), 116th Street serving the at Lenox Avenue (Manhattan), Lenox Avenue * 116th Street (IRT Lexington Avenue Line), 116th Street serving the at Lexington Avenue (Manhattan), Lexington Avenue The future 116th Street (Second Avenue Subway), 116th Street will serve the at Second Avenue (Manhattan), Second Avenue when constructed. The New York City Bus route also stops on the street.In popular culture
116th Street in Harlem is the background for the book ''The Street (novel), The Street'' (1946) by Ann Petry. The story is about Lutie Johnson, a single young black mother, who moves to 116th Street to give her son better opportunities. 116th Street and Broadway is the opening scene of ''The Caine Mutiny'' (1951) by Herman Wouk as Willie Keith is being dropped off by his mother to join the Navy in World War II.Gallery
See also
* 116th Street Crew, a Mafia crew with the Genovese crime family * Ciro Terranova, the "Artichoke King" moved to 138 East 116th Street after declaring bankruptcy and foreclosing on his home * Morello crime family, the Morellos owned the building at 338 East 116th Street, the headquarters of the Aignatz Aflorio Co-operative associationReferences
{{Streets of Manhattan Harlem Streets in Manhattan, 116