Lexington Avenue

After Sara Clayburn’s husband died, her family expected her to move either to New York or Boston, but she stated she would never “[…] go and hang myself [herself] up in a birdcage flat in one of those new skyscrapers in Lexington Avenue […].”[1]

The Lexington is one of the most famous avenues in Manhattan, New York. The street is altogether 8,9 kilometers (5,5 miles) long. To the north, the street is bordered by 130^th Street in Harlem and to the south through the 21^st Street at the Gramercy Park. South of Gramercy Park the avenue continues as “Irving Place.” The most famous building of Lexington Avenue is probably the Chrysler Building.[2] In the original Manhattan grid plan of 1811 Lexington Avenue was not included. From 1831 to 1832 the street was added by its developer, Samuel Ruggles.[3]

Looking north out of the Chrysler Building down on Lexington Avenue:

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexington_Avenue#/media/File:Lexington_Ave_From_Chrysler_Building.jpg (accessed March 31, 2015).

[1] Edith Wharton, “All Souls’,” in: The Demanding Dead – More Stories of Terror and the Supernatural, ed. Peter Haining (London: Peter Owen Publishers, 2007), 184.

[2] Evelyn Kim, History of NYC Streets: The Emergence of Lexington Avenue, http://untappedcities.com/2014/06/12/history-of-nyc-streets-the-emergence-of-lexington-avenue/ (accessed March 31, 2015).

[3] Harris, Gale, East 17^th Street/Irving Place historic Destrict Designation Report, http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/reports/EAST_17TH_STREET_-_IRVING_PLACE_-_HISTORIC_DISTRICT.pdf (accessed March 31, 2015).