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Upper West Side
Riverside Drive
“One of the Most Beautiful Boulevards in the World”
72nd Street to 155th Street,
at Riverside Park and the Hudson River
Riverside Drive and Riverside Park were designed as one in the 1870s by Frederick Law Olmsted,
the co-designer of Central Park, who had the idea of imitating a naturalistic English garden, with a
serpentine drive winding up the Hudson coastline of Manhattan from 72nd Street to 125th Street (it
would later go to 155th Street), wending around natural features of the landscape, and featuring a
beautiful park on the river side of the drive, while the homes on the east side of the drive looked
across to the lovely foliage and scenery of the park and the Hudson River. His design and the
efforts of the designers who came after him have made Riverside Drive into one of the most
beautiful boulevards in the world.
Running along the drive is a magnificent canopy of American elms, one of North America’s most
significant remaining cultivated stands of American elms. Along this drive, unpaved in 1902,
Ransom Olds, owner of the Oldsmobile car company, tested his new car brake against a horseless
carriage and a four-horse coach to see which could stop fastest. With the three thundering down
the drive at a heart-stopping 14 mph, the car stopped in just 21.5 feet, the horseless carriage in 37
feet, and the horses (who may not have been galloping 14 mph, but also had no engine brake)
taking 77.5 feet!
As the park grew, the beauty of the developing park lands encouraged the rich to build mansions of
the finest architecture and materials along the drive, beginning in the late 1800s up through the
1930s, in particular. This was the golden age of residential architecture in New York, and
architects like Emery Roth and Schwartz & Gross were working both on Central Park West (San
Remo, Eldorado, Beresford and many others) and on Riverside Drive (Normandy and many other
buildings). So, too, were C.P.H. Gilbert, Henry Otis Chapman and W. L. Rouse, and you can be
assured that any apartment floor plan with these firms’ names that you find in your search always
features large, commodious, charming spaces, with wonderful moldings, floors and layouts.
It was in this period that the inimitable architectural flavor of New York residences was set, and
Riverside Drive became known for its grand residential architecture and as a place for the homes of
the rich.
[click on this area if you don’t see a photo]
Room in Riverside Drive Mansion,
now a Boutique Hotel
Today, as you walk along the drive, look up on the buildings and you will find fanciful gargoyles of
the neo-gothic architecture of that time, as well as richly decorative Beaux Arts and Art Deco
elements on the mansions and on the large apartment houses which began to be built on the drive
around 1900. Many of these mansions, apartment houses or entire blocks of buildings along
Riverside Drive are now designated architectural and historic landmarks and districts.
[click for a photo]
Gargoyles on Riverside Drive Apartment Buildings
Lining the park along the drive, too, you will find well-known institutions, like Riverside Church at
122nd Street, a neo-gothic masterpiece with a tower modeled on the Chartres cathedral and a full
working carillon of bells, and the world-renowned New York – Presbyterian Medical Center at
168th Street. There and lower down are cooperatives and a very few condominium apartment
buildings. Walk along the drive from 72nd Street through at least 116th Street to see some of the
most magnificent apartment buildings and mansions in New York.
For more information, please follow the links below:
Riverside Park Fund
Sights to see on Riverside Drive and the Upper West Side
"Follow the Dream . . . "
Home About Us Upper West Side. Penthouses Listings Owner Info Buyer Info Re location Links Contact Us
Riverside Drive
“One of the Most Beautiful Boulevards in the World”
72nd Street to 155th Street,
at Riverside Park and the Hudson River
Riverside Drive and Riverside Park were designed as one in the 1870s by Frederick Law Olmsted,
the co-designer of Central Park, who had the idea of imitating a naturalistic English garden, with a
serpentine drive winding up the Hudson coastline of Manhattan from 72nd Street to 125th Street (it
would later go to 155th Street), wending around natural features of the landscape, and featuring a
beautiful park on the river side of the drive, while the homes on the east side of the drive looked
across to the lovely foliage and scenery of the park and the Hudson River. His design and the
efforts of the designers who came after him have made Riverside Drive into one of the most
beautiful boulevards in the world.
Running along the drive is a magnificent canopy of American elms, one of North America’s most
significant remaining cultivated stands of American elms. Along this drive, unpaved in 1902,
Ransom Olds, owner of the Oldsmobile car company, tested his new car brake against a horseless
carriage and a four-horse coach to see which could stop fastest. With the three thundering down
the drive at a heart-stopping 14 mph, the car stopped in just 21.5 feet, the horseless carriage in 37
feet, and the horses (who may not have been galloping 14 mph, but also had no engine brake)
taking 77.5 feet!
As the park grew, the beauty of the developing park lands encouraged the rich to build mansions of
the finest architecture and materials along the drive, beginning in the late 1800s up through the
1930s, in particular. This was the golden age of residential architecture in New York, and
architects like Emery Roth and Schwartz & Gross were working both on Central Park West (San
Remo, Eldorado, Beresford and many others) and on Riverside Drive (Normandy and many other
buildings). So, too, were C.P.H. Gilbert, Henry Otis Chapman and W. L. Rouse, and you can be
assured that any apartment floor plan with these firms’ names that you find in your search always
features large, commodious, charming spaces, with wonderful moldings, floors and layouts.
It was in this period that the inimitable architectural flavor of New York residences was set, and
Riverside Drive became known for its grand residential architecture and as a place for the homes of
the rich.
[click on this area if you don’t see a photo]
Room in Riverside Drive Mansion,
now a Boutique Hotel
Today, as you walk along the drive, look up on the buildings and you will find fanciful gargoyles of
the neo-gothic architecture of that time, as well as richly decorative Beaux Arts and Art Deco
elements on the mansions and on the large apartment houses which began to be built on the drive
around 1900. Many of these mansions, apartment houses or entire blocks of buildings along
Riverside Drive are now designated architectural and historic landmarks and districts.
[click for a photo]
Gargoyles on Riverside Drive Apartment Buildings
Lining the park along the drive, too, you will find well-known institutions, like Riverside Church at
122nd Street, a neo-gothic masterpiece with a tower modeled on the Chartres cathedral and a full
working carillon of bells, and the world-renowned New York – Presbyterian Medical Center at
168th Street. There and lower down are cooperatives and a very few condominium apartment
buildings. Walk along the drive from 72nd Street through at least 116th Street to see some of the
most magnificent apartment buildings and mansions in New York.
For more information, please follow the links below:
Riverside Park Fund
Sights to see on Riverside Drive and the Upper West Side
"Follow the Dream . . . "
Home About Us Upper West Side. Penthouses Listings Owner Info Buyer Info Re location Links Contact Us
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Copyright © 2005 Stock Properties.
All rights reserved. No right to publish or reproduce any of this material without express written permission.
450 East 85th Street, New York, NY 10028 tel/fax 212.535.4963 E-mail: info@stockpropertiesny.com
All rights reserved. No right to publish or reproduce any of this material without express written permission.
450 East 85th Street, New York, NY 10028 tel/fax 212.535.4963 E-mail: info@stockpropertiesny.com
s t o c k p r o p e r t i e s n y . c o m
"Follow the Dream . . . "
"Follow the Dream . . . "
