Central Park West

CPW at 79th Street

Housing cooperatives on Central Park West. The San Remo on the right, The Langham right from center, The Dakota left from center, and The Majestic on the far left.

Central Park West (CPW) is an avenue that runs north-south in the New York City borough of Manhattan, in the United States.

As its name indicates, CPW forms the western edge of Central Park. It also forms the eastern boundary of the Upper West Side. It runs 51 blocks from Columbus Circle (at 59th Street, or Central Park South) to Frederick Douglass Circle (at 110th Street, or Cathedral Parkway). The gates into Central Park along its western edge are: Merchants Gate at 59th Street, Womens Gate at 72nd, Naturalists Gate at 77th, Hunters Gate at 81st, Mariners Gate at 86th, Gate of all Saints at 96th, Boys Gate at 100th, and Strangers Gate at 106th. Central Park West's expensive housing rivals that of Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side.

South of Columbus Circle, in Midtown, CPW becomes Eighth Avenue. North of Frederick Douglass Circle, in Harlem, it is alternately known as Eighth Avenue or Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Unlike many Manhattan avenues, CPW has traffic running in two directions. The IND Eighth Avenue Line runs under the avenue, serving local stations.

Central Park West is the address of several famous residences, including The Dakota (where John Lennon lived with Yoko Ono, who still resides there, and outside of which he was murdered in 1980), The San Remo (home to U2's Bono), The El Dorado, The Beresford (home to Diana Ross and Jerry Seinfeld), The Langham and The Majestic (which was home to some of the former heads of the Genovese crime family, including Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello. In 1957, Vincent "The Chin" Gigante shot Frank Costello in the lobby of The Majestic in a failed assassination attempt).

Most of these housing cooperatives were built around 1930, replacing late 19th century hotels with the same names. Some, including The Century, The San Remo, and The Majestic, are twin towers. Other landmarks and institutions along its length include the New-York Historical Society and the American Museum of Natural History. The lead singer of U2, Bono, has an apartment in The San Remo. The area from 61st to 97th Streets is included in the Central Park West Historic District.^[1]

The building located at 55 Central Park West is the infamous "Spook Central" from the movie Ghostbusters. The famed New York City restaurant Tavern on the Green is located off of Central Park West, at 67th Street, within the grounds of Central Park.

In 1899 Henry Bliss alit from a streetcar at CPW and 74th Street, and became the first person to be run down and killed by a motor car in the Americas.

[edit] Notes

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