Lenox Hill is a neighborhood on
ManhattanManhattan is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.New York County, which has the same boundaries as the Borough of Manhattan , is the most densely populated county in the United States, with a 2008 population of 1,634,795...
's
Upper East SideThe Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side is within an area bounded by 59th Street, 96th Street, Central Park and the East River....
. It forms the lower section of the Upper East Side, closest to Midtown. While it is agreed that the neighborhood ranges from 77th Street to 60th Street, its eastern border is disputed, though
The Encyclopedia of New York CityThe Encyclopedia of New York City is a comprehensive reference book on New York City. Historian and Columbia University professor Kenneth T...
cites
Fifth AvenueFifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the center of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, USA. The section of Fifth Avenue between 34th Street and 59th Street is one of the premier shopping streets in the world. Fifth Avenue serves as a symbol of wealthy New York and is consistently ranked...
as the western boundary and
Lexington AvenueLexington Avenue, often abbreviated by New Yorkers as "Lex," is an avenue on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that carries southbound one-way traffic from East 131st Street to Gramercy Park at East 21st Street...
on the east.
The neighborhood is named for the tenant farm of the immigrant Scottish merchant Robert Lenox (1759-1839), who owned about of land "at the five-mile (8 km) stone", reaching from 5th Avenue to 4th Avenue and from 74th Street to 68th Street.
Lenox Hill is a neighborhood on
ManhattanManhattan is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.New York County, which has the same boundaries as the Borough of Manhattan , is the most densely populated county in the United States, with a 2008 population of 1,634,795...
's
Upper East SideThe Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side is within an area bounded by 59th Street, 96th Street, Central Park and the East River....
. It forms the lower section of the Upper East Side, closest to Midtown. While it is agreed that the neighborhood ranges from 77th Street to 60th Street, its eastern border is disputed, though
The Encyclopedia of New York CityThe Encyclopedia of New York City is a comprehensive reference book on New York City. Historian and Columbia University professor Kenneth T...
cites
Fifth AvenueFifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the center of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, USA. The section of Fifth Avenue between 34th Street and 59th Street is one of the premier shopping streets in the world. Fifth Avenue serves as a symbol of wealthy New York and is consistently ranked...
as the western boundary and
Lexington AvenueLexington Avenue, often abbreviated by New Yorkers as "Lex," is an avenue on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that carries southbound one-way traffic from East 131st Street to Gramercy Park at East 21st Street...
on the east.
The neighborhood is named for the tenant farm of the immigrant Scottish merchant Robert Lenox (1759-1839), who owned about of land "at the five-mile (8 km) stone", reaching from 5th Avenue to 4th Avenue and from 74th Street to 68th Street. For the exorbitant sum of $6420 he had purchased a first set of three parcels in 1818, at an auction held at the Tontine Coffee House of mortgaged premises of
Archibald GracieGracie Mansion is the official residence of the Mayor of New York City. Built in 1799, it is located in Carl Schurz Park, at East End Avenue and Eighty-eighth Street in Manhattan. It overlooks Hell Gate.-Architecture:...
, in order to protect Gracie's heirs from foreclosure, as he was executor of Gracie's estate. Several months later he purchased three further parcels, extending his property north to 74th Street. "Thereafter these two tracts were known as the 'Lenox Farm'" The tenant farmhouse stood on the rise of ground between Fifth and Madison Avenues and 70th and 71st Streets, which would have been the hill, if the property had ever been called "Lenox Hill". The railroad right-of-way of the New York & Harlem Railroad passed along the east boundary of the property.
Robert Lenox's son
James LenoxJames Lenox was an American bibliophile and philanthropist, born in New York City. A graduate of Columbia College, Lenox was a founder of the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. His collection of paintings and books eventually became known as the Lenox Library and later became part of the New...
divided most of the farm into blocks of building lots and sold them during the 1860s and 70s; he also donated land for the
Union Theological SeminaryUnion Theological Seminary may refer to:* Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, an ecumenical seminary affiliated with Columbia University in Manhattan...
along the railroad right-of-way, between 69th and 70th Streets, and just north of it a full square block between Madison and Fourth Avenue, 70th and 71st Streets, for the Presbyterian Hospital, which occupied seven somewhat austere structures on the plot; He built the
Lenox Library"Lenox Library" redirects here. For "Lenox Library see Lenox Library Lenox Library is one of the cornerstones of the New York Public Library. The Lenox Library was founded by James Lenox in 1871 and later transformed along with John Jacob Astor's Astor Library into the New York Public Library in...
on a full block-front of Fifth Avenue, now the site of the
Frick CollectionThe Frick Collection is an art museum located in Manhattan, New York City, United States. It is housed in the former residence of steel magnate Henry Clay Frick, which was designed by Thomas Hastings and constructed in 1913-1914....
.
Lenox Hill HospitalLenox Hill Hospital, on Manhattan's Upper East Side in New York City, is a 652-bed, acute care hospital and a major teaching affiliate of New York University Medical Center. Founded in 1857 as the German Dispensary, today's 10-building Lenox Hill Hospital complex has occupied its present site since...
, the former German Hospital, is located in this area. Its renaming in July 1918, as a result of anti-German sentiment during World War I, gave impetus to the name "Lenox Hill" for this area, doubtless on the analogy of fashionable
Murray HillMurray Hill is a neighborhood in Midtown in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Around 1987 many real estate promoters of the neighborhood and newer residents described the boundaries as within East 34th Street, East 42nd Street, Madison Avenue, and the East River; in 1999, Frank P...
, though the hospital itself, a city block bounded on the north and south by 77th and 76th Streets, and on the west and east by Park and Lexington Avenues, does not stand on former Lenox property.