Meet 67th Street
East 67th Street embodies the relative ease of the Upper East Side, void of distracting buildings, raucous traffic, and crowded walkways. Young children bounce basketballs larger than their heads, puppies receive more slack in their leashes, and sidewalk crossers are safe with less than the turn of their heads.
On the East Side, education has a strong hold with learning and research centers, one side street business owner explained, “the frequenters of this neighborhood are intellectual.” The Center for Global Health is a research branch of the Weil Cornell Medical College, and The Julia Richman Education Complex is a learning community that caters to different ages and needs.
The 67th Street Library, originally funded by Andrew Carnegie, offers a community room, a children’s floor and a computer space in addition to its bounty of great reads. On special occasions, the library provides story time and songs to children in St. Catherine’s Park, a recreational space that otherwise occupies young minds with climbing, sliding, and swinging.
Continuing westward, sun-illuminated flags represent cultural and professional places. American flags stand above the FDNY Engine 39/Ladder 16 and the 19th Precinct, both landmarked facades. International flags take on another stretch with their diversity of color and design. Belarusian and Russian flags stand in front of the Russian Mission, a Peruvian flag is at the site of the Peru Mission, and Italian and European Union flags adorn the Italian Trade Agency. The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, an organization devoted to Holocaust education, has its own flag colored in blue and white.
Perhaps the best story that I uncovered while walking on 67th, was the one that I learned from David Lee, who is the third generation to run Jim Lee Laundry and Cleaners. Reminding me of a favorite children’s book, “The Little Engine That Could,” this small side street business has continued to puff along, repeating “I think I can, I think I can,” since 1928.
This part of East 67th is also keen on design. One building houses exhibits from Didier Aaron, Graham & Sons, and Kapoor Galleries Inc. For women’s fashions, Susan van der Linde offers over-the-top hats, and Pretty Ballerinas (Lost Gem) is a shoe company based in Spain. Tincati USA sells Italian-fabricated men’s fashions of high quality and impressive design.
The refreshing calm of the East Side is conserved through Central Park. On one of my walks through, however, I passed a buzzing boom box playing modern hits, shortly followed by a lively string band strumming classical music. And at the exit of Central Park and 67th, lies the iconic Tavern on the Green – a spacious, magnificent restaurant that was once home to ewes and rams that grazed Sheep Meadow, surrounded by flowers and greenery. It is inviting to walkers and bikers stopping by for a quick refueling, and diners looking to settle down after a long day wandering through the park.
On the West Side, several gorgeous apartment buildings have a great history, each formerly inhabited by people of the arts. One of the doormen told me that they had been built as duplexes with studios in the back and large windows to invite in natural light. Central Park Studio at No. 15 was completed in 1905 with a lobby full of murals by various artists. The 67th Street Studios at No. 27 is the oldest, constructed from 1901-03, and the Music Building at No. 50 was built in 1916 with soundproof apartments. As I stood listening to the doorman speak of the street’s history, I mentioned how it was so nice to have piano music piped into the lobby. He laughed and pointed behind him. “No, this has been the home of a very famous concert pianist for several decades. He is merely practicing right now.”
Hotel des Artistes, a residency building at No.1 built in 1917, has its original doors and interior with the exception of the elevator, which was changed to an automatic one in 2003. The Leopard at des Artistes, located where the resident kitchen used to be, exhibits culinary arts in the form of authentic Italian cuisine with beautiful murals painted by a former artist resident.
Farther down, the arts continue on through the stunning décor of Gracious Home and the delightful bites at Nick and Toni’s Café (Lost Gem), an Italian restaurant established in 1994. The Kaufman Music Center, with its concert hall and arts and music schools, was founded in 1952.
Side Note:
It seems that I have always had a particular fondness for 67th Street. When I was finishing up high school in the late 1970s, my parents found a tiny apartment off of Madison Avenue to become their weekday residence. My father no longer had to commute to the city every day, and I got to spend a summer there with a friend after completing my freshman year in college. Taking on a job in a bank, going to Broadway shows, and eating in numerous restaurants, this was the beginning of my love affair with Manhattan.
When my parents made the decision a few years later to move into New York on a permanent basis, and purchased a larger apartment, they chose to “lend” the tiny one on 67th to my boyfriend, heeding that I would want it when I returned in a year. With college complete, rather than having him move out, we ended up engaged and living there together. Many teased him that the only reason he asked me to marry him, was so that he could remain on 67th Street where the rent was just under $300 a month. Recently, as I was walking nearby, I overheard a lovely woman give her address to the salesperson. I could not help myself and had to turn to ask her if I heard correctly. “Yes,” she replied, “I have lived there for over thirty years.” When I inquired about which apartment, I was shocked to learn that this had been ours, and that her rent had hardly increased in all these years.
Upon our move back into Manhattan in 2009, we found ourselves, once again, living on 67th, but this time farther east, near First Avenue. Today, we are no longer there, but the street will always remain a special one for me.
