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Beekman Place With its immaculate, quiet streets lined with trees and handsome residences, Beekman Place has maintained a reputation as one of the most desirable places to live on the East Side of Manhattan. This small residential area just north of the United Nations takes its name from the narrow, virtually private street east of First Avenue that runs between Mitchell Place (a block-long extension of 49th Street) and 51st Street. Beekman Place proper has some of the city's most sumptuous apartment buildings and town houses, many of which have lush private gardens and unobstructed views of the East River. Real-estate agents and envious neighbors often exaggerate the boundaries of the ''Beekman Place area,'' but most of its residents agree that the real thing consists of only Beekman Place itself, Mitchell Place and 50th and 51st Streets east of First Avenue. Each of these blocks has a character of its own. Mitchell Place, a narrow road running up from First Avenue on a ramp, is lined on its northern side with handsome prewar apartment buildings (now cooperatives) and the Beekman Tower, a large Art Deco residential hotel. Brownstones, some with mansard roofs and elaborate wrought-iron balconies, prevail on 50th Street, and 51st Street primarily has apartment buildings. According to the 1980 census, this small neighborhood had 2,281 residents with a median age of 48. Roughly one-third of the residents were listed as single, with the remaining two-thirds described as married, divorced, separated or widowed. As might be expected in such an exclusive neighborhood, Beekman Place is home to many executives, professionals and entertainers. The list of famous people who have lived there includes John D. Rockefeller 3d, Irving Berlin, Gloria Vanderbilt, Rex Harrison and Princess Ashraf Pahlavi, the twin sister of the last Shah of Iran. Finding a home among such prestigious neighbors requires considerable patience and a sizable housing budget. Licensed real estate Broker, Copyright New York
City Apartments 1999, NYC. All information deemed |
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