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Wednesday 13 June 2012

Yorkville - The History Of The Upper East Side's Multicultural Neighborhood

By Timothy Yangurlld


Yorkville is a neighborhood in Manhattan's Upper East Side. Its boundaries have changed over the years, and this is still a topic of debate among people living in and around the neighborhood. Yorkville's boundaries have changed over time, so there are many disputes with regards to it.

For example, one persistent belief is that the southern boundary of Yorkville is 86th street, and not 72ndstreet. Today, Yorkville is known to be a multicultural community that offers its residents the convenience of having everything at their fingertips. Those who visit the neighborhood are met by numerous high-rises and several pockets of Old World culture. The neighborhood is popular because of its notable current and former residents. For instance, President Barack Obama resided in Yorkville in the 1980s.

The area of present-day Yorkville has been inhabited even before the arrival of the Europeans. The Lenape, also referred to as the Delaware Indians, have already set up settlements and fishing camps along the banks of the East River in the 16th century. Based on historical records, the Europeans purchased the island of Manhattan from the Lenape in the early 17th century by giving the natives goods worth 60 guilders, which is equivalent to approximately $1,000 if converted today.

For much of the 17th and 18th century, the area of what was to be the Upper East Side remained a farmland and market garden district. By the 1830s the Upper East Side was traversed by the Boston Post Road and later on by the New York and Harlem railroad, one of the first railroads in the US, and these brought slow but consistent commercial development to the area. It was in the 1830s when the New York and Harlem railways was extended to the Upper East Side. In one of its stops, the 86th street to be specific, a settlement grew and in time, this would become the Yorkville neighborhood.

19th century Yorkville was a lively blue-collar community that became the destination for waves of immigrants, particularly those from Central Europe, Ireland, and Germany. There was a period in Yorkville's history when fierce street battles were common. This is because in the 1930s, the neighborhood was the headquarters for Fritz Kuhn's German American Bund, the most notorious pro-Nazi group during that period. Despite this, Yorkville continued to flourish as more and more of its residents opened businesses which showcased their cultural heritage. Today, many of these shops are no longer in existence, but several of them survived like the Brandy's Saloon, Orwasher's Bakery, Eisner Chemists, and the Lexington Candy Shop.

Visit here to learn more about the history of other neighborhoods and towns in the United States.




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