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52nd Street (Manhattan)
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52nd Street is a long one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan.
blocks of 52nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue were renowned in the mid 20th century for the abundance of jazz clubs and lively street life. The street was convenient to musicians playing on Broadway and the "legitimate" nightclubs and was also the site of a CBS studio. Musicians who played for others in the early evening played for themselves on 52nd Street.
In its heyday from 1930 through 1960, 52nd Street clubs hosted such jazz legends as Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Louis Prima, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk, Fats Waller, Harry Gibson, and many more.
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Encyclopedia
52nd Street is a long one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan.
Jazz center
The blocks of 52nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue were renowned in the mid 20th century for the abundance of jazz clubs and lively street life. The street was convenient to musicians playing on Broadway and the "legitimate" nightclubs and was also the site of a CBS studio. Musicians who played for others in the early evening played for themselves on 52nd Street.
In its heyday from 1930 through 1960, 52nd Street clubs hosted such jazz legends as Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Louis Prima, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk, Fats Waller, Harry Gibson, and many more. Although musicians from all schools performed there, 52nd Street was central in the dissemination of bebop; in fact a tune called 52nd Street Theme by Thelonious Monk became a bebop anthem and jazz standard.
Virtually every great jazz player and singer of the era performed at clubs such as The Onyx, the Downbeat, the Three Deuces, the Yacht Club, Jimmy Ryan's, and The Famous Door. Noted jazz disc jockey Symphony Sid frequently did live broadcasts from the street, making it famous across the country.
By the late 1950s the jazz scene began moving elsewhere around the city and urban renewal took hold of the street. By the 1960s, most of the legendary clubs were razed or fell into disrepair. The last club there closed its doors in 1968. Today, the street is full of banks, shops, and department stores and shows little trace of its jazz history. The block from 5th to 6th Avenues is formally co-named "Swing Street" and the one west of there "W. C. Handys Place".
West to East
West 52nd Street
The section between Eleventh and Tenth Avenues is signed "Joe Hovarth Way" in tribute to Joseph Hovarth (1945-1995) who located the Police Athletic League William J. Duncan Center on the block after moving from its original location.. The Duncan Center is named for a patrolman who was shot while chasing a stolen car in the neighborhood on May 17, 1930.
- The Manhattan School (north)
- Radio City Station Post Office (Zip Code 10019) (south)
- The Link (Manhattan), 43 story 144 m/ 471 ft apartment building opened in 2007 on site of former SIR recording studio used by the Rolling Stones (south)
Broadway (Manhattan)
- Sheraton City Squire Hotel, 22-story 69 m opened in 1962 (north)
- Seventh to Sixth is signed W.C. Handy's Place
- AXA Center, 54-floor 229 m office tower opened in 1986 (south)
- Sheraton New York, 51-floor 153 m hotel that opened in 1962 (north)
- Flatotel New York City, 46-floor 145 m Flatotel that opened in 1992 and is the street's(north)
- Credit Lyonnais Building 45-floor 186 m office building that opened in 1964 (north)
- 1285 Avenue of the Americas, 42-story 166 m office building (south)
Avenue of the Americas
- Sixth Avenue to Fifth Avenue is signed "Swing Street"
- AXA Financial Center 43-story 174 m completed in 1963. It has a large Thomas Hart Benton mural in lobby. (south)
- CBS Building, headquarters of the network and popularly referred to as "Black Rock" (north)
- 31 West 52nd Street 30-floor 125 m completed in 1986 originally for the E.F. Hutton headquarters (north)
- Paley Center for the Media (north)
- 75 Rockefeller Center, 33 129 m building completed in 1947 the last of the original Rockefeller Center buildings that was originally used for the headquarters of the Rockefeller Esso Oil Company (north)
- 21 Club (north)
- 666 Fifth Avenue (north)
- 650 Fifth Avenue (south) 36-story, 150 m office tower completed in 1978
East 52nd Street
- The Street between Fifth and Madison is signed "Place de Cartier" because of the Cartier SA store at Fifth Avenue (south)
- Olympic Tower (south)
- Austrian Cultural Institute Building for Austria
- Omni Berkshire Place Hotel
- Hanover Bank Building 30-story, 119 m completed in 1962
- Park Avenue Plaza Building, 45 story 175 m building completed in 1981 above the Racquet and Tennis Club (north)
- Seagram Building, 38-floor 157 m building completed in 1958 that is home to the Four Seasons Restaurant
- 345 Park Avenue, 44-story 193 m building completed in 1969 (south)
- 52nd between Lexington and Third Avenue is signed Israel Bonds Way (the Development Corporation for Israel which issues the bonds is headquartered at the intersection in the Grolier Building).
- Grolier Building 33-story 126 m building completed in 1958
- 599 Lexington Avenue, 50-story 199 m building completed in 1986 (north)
- 150 East 52nd Street, 35-story 119 m building completed in 1983
- 875 3rd Avenue 29-story 122 m building completed in 1983 (north)
- MacMillan Building 31-story 111 m building completed in 1966
- Hungary Consulate
- Zambia Mission to the United Nations
- Thailand Consulate and Mission to the United Nations
- 52nd Street is two-ways east of First Avenue since it dead ends on a bluff above the FDR Drive.
- Southgate Apartment
- 450 East 52nd - home to celebrities such as Greta Garbo and John Lennon
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