New York City Streetscapes: East 93rd Street, between Madison and Fifth

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NYT: Streetscapes | East 93rd Street
A Wave of Change for a Quiet Block
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY
Published: February 25, 2007


(Tina Fineberg for The New York Times)
Playful marine reliefs decorate 8 East 93rd, renovated for Frederick A. O. Schwarz in 1940.

SLOPING down from the crest of Carnegie Hill, East 93rd Street from Madison to Fifth Avenues is a peaceful block in the Carnegie Hill Historic District, with a mix of old brownstones and later town-house renovations of the 1920s and 1930s. Now workers’ trucks double-park here as several renovations bring a fresh wave of change.

The first houses were built in clumps, like the four from 14 to 20 East 93rd, which were put up in 1893 by Walter Reid, a developer. They were bought by well-to-do people like Sender Jarmulowsky, who moved into No. 16.

He had come to the United States from Russia in the 1870s, establishing a bank on the Lower East Side, and was the president of the Eldridge Street Synagogue when it built its Moorish-style sanctuary south of Delancey Street in 1887....

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This unusual block is completed by two nearly matching 1920s apartment houses, 1115 and 1120 Fifth Avenue, and the high wall of Central Park beyond them creates the sensation of a dead end.

At night, particularly in the summer, the shadows of the trees and the tall, dark brownstones make the street seem like a secret place, perfect for a midnight kiss.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/realestate/25scap.html