Upper West Side- Central Park West Historic District

Expansive and architecturally diverse, this district incorporates two smaller, preexisting districts that included Central Park West and the adjacent side street blocks: Central Park West at West 73rd-74th Streets and Central Park West at 76th Street. Known before its urbanization as “Bloomingdale,” the area was developed primarily as a residential neighborhood over a fifty-year period. Bloomingdale Road, later renamed Broadway, followed a former Native American trail and was the northern route out of New York City. The area remained largely undeveloped until the 1880s, when the extension of horse car lines by Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, and the completion of the Columbus Avenue elevated railway, linked the area with commercial and financial centers.

Building types and styles range from busy storefronts on Columbus Avenue to residences on quiet side streets to dramatic apartment towers along Central Park West. The first building boom in the area is reflected in the row houses that dominate the narrower streets. Contemporary with these are the five- and six-story tenements and apartment buildings on Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues.

Later construction, particularly in the first three decades of the twentieth century, added the distinctive skyline of tall apartment buildings along Central Park West. These are among the finest examples of three trends in twentieth century residential architecture: Beaux Arts from the first decade, neo-Renaissance from the 1920s, and art deco from the 1920s and 1930s. The Century, at 25 Central Park West, is an example of the art deco apartment house, with crowning fins and machine-inspired ornament. Twin towers, like those at the Century, have become a symbol of Central Park West, recurring in the Majestic, Eldorado and San Remo apartment buildings. Architects Schwartz and Gross designed several apartment houses along Central Park West, including The Brentmore at 88 Central Park West, with Italianate elements such as a dramatically projecting copper cornice, and the Art Deco 55 Central Park West, featured in the 1984 film “Ghostbusters.”©2014