Location and Neighborhood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The surrounding community of Turtle Bay predates the construction of the headquarters by about three centuries (originally established by Dutch settlers in 1639). The bay served as a harbor, a safe haven from the currents of the East River ever since initial European explorations. It was named Deutal Bay in Dutch, for it looked like the curved end of a knife. In the 19th century, this area became a residential district for wealthy New Yorkers. After the Civil War, however, the neighborhood began to decline. The bay was filled in in 1868, and the slaughterhouses moved in. As a result, the workers moved in nearby. Both 2nd and 3rd Avenues held the tenements which housed Italian, German, Irish and Jewish immigrants, as well as working-class natives. While the neighborhood had gone through several different incarnations, the Turtle Bay of the postwar 1940s was considered an eyesore. It was thought to be nothing more than slums and slaughterhouses.] (D1)

 Tudor City*

Tudor City is an apartment complex located on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the first residential skyscraper complex in the world. It is bordered by East 40th Street to the south, First Avenue to the east, Second Avenue to the west, and East 43rd Street to the north. Tudor City takes its name from England’s Tudor dynasty, which ruled from 1485 to 1603 and included King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I.

Before Tudor City, tenements and slums dominated the area, which bordered a power plant and slaughterhouses, along First Avenue on the East River. It was known as “Goat Hill” (goats and squatters ruled the area) and later “Prospect Hill”. The area eventually developed into a shanty Irish community known as “Corcoran’s Roost”, founded by Jimmy Corcoran, in the 1850s and later became known as a community with a high rate of violent crime and a haven for waterfront thieves, most notably the Rag Gang, during the late 19th century.

In the 1920s, the real estate developer Fred F. French sought to lure tenants to Tudor City, his vision of an urban Utopia — a “human residential enclave” that boasted “tulip gardens, small golf courses, and private parks.” The complex was built to bring in middle-class residents who had begun leaving Manhattan for the other boroughs and the suburbs.

The natural topography of the area features a granite cliff. Nearby East-west streets slope downward from Second Avenue to First Avenue. East 41st and 43d Streets, however, slope upward to the clifftop and end at Tudor City Place. East 42nd Street slopes under Tudor City Place and down to First Avenue through a late 19th-century cut through the cliff, which was expanded in the mid-20th century to provide better access to the new United Nations Headquarters. With the cliff separating Tudor City from First Avenue below, it is accessible to vehicular traffic only via Second Avenue. A service entrance to 5 Tudor City Place is available from the “D” level, which is four floors below the lobby level. The service entrance exits at 40th and 1st Avenue allowing residents and building service staff to enter from 1st Avenue. A viaduct connects the two halves of Tudor City bisected by East 42nd Street, with staircases providing pedestrian access between 42nd Street and the complex. A separate staircase known as the Sharansky Steps connects Tudor City with Ralph Bunche Park and First Avenue.

Directly across First Avenue is the United Nations Headquarters. Only a few apartments face the United Nations because when the area was completed in 1928 there were slaughterhouses to the east; most apartments were built facing the opposite direction because of the stench and filth that emanated. In the 1940s, the slaughterhouses were demolished and the United Nations Headquarters was built in their place. As of the early 21st century, only a handful of apartments have high-priced views of the UN Headquarters and the East River. The majority of apartments face inland parks and the Midtown skyline. Many apartments have good views of the Chrysler Building and Empire State Building.

Tudor City’s buildings are home to over 5000 residents. The complex includes restaurants, a hotel, grocery, a gourmet deli, and convenience stores, a hair salon, laundry and dry cleaners. Three garden parks and a children’s playground are there.

 

Turtle Bay*

The site of the United Nations Headquarters and the Chrysler Building is called Turtle Bay, a neighborhood in New York City, on the east side of Midtown Manhattan. It extends between 43rd and 53rd Streets and eastward from Lexington Avenue to the East River, across from Roosevelt Island.

Turtle Bay, which received its name in the 17th century, was a valuable shelter from the often harsh weather of the East River, and it also became a thriving site for shipbuilding. The Turtle Bay neighborhood was originally a 40 acres (16 ha) grant given to two Englishmen by the Dutch colonial governor of New Amsterdam in 1639, and named “Turtle Bay Farm”. After the street grid system was initiated in Manhattan, the hilly landscape of the Turtle Bay Farm was graded to create cross-streets and the land was subdivided for residential development.

After the war’s end, the formerly pastoral Turtle Bay neighborhood was developed with brownstones. By 1868 the bay had been entirely filled in by commercial overdevelopment, packed with breweries, gasworks, slaughterhouses, cattle pens, coal yards and railroad piers. With an infusion of poor immigrants in the later part of the 19th century, and the opening of the elevated train lines along Second and Third Avenues, the neighborhood went into decay with crumbling tenement buildings. Much of it was restored in the 1920s, and a large communal garden was established. By the 1930s, Turtle Bay was “a riverside back yard” for the city.

The clearing of 18 acres of slaughterhouses for the construction of the UN Headquarters in 1948, largely completed by 1952, and the removal of the elevated trains opened the neighborhood up for high-rise office buildings and condominiums. In 1957, residents and property owners formed the Turtle Bay Association in hopes of guiding the development to maintain the neighborhood’s quality of life. The Association’s efforts have resulted in more park and landscaping development, creating the neighborhood’s tree-lined and relatively quiet atmosphere.