Peter Cooper Village—Stuyvesant Town is a large private residential development on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. One of the most iconic and successful of post-war private housing communities, Stuyvesant Town was planned in 1943. Its first tenants, two World War II veterans and their families, moved into the first completed building on August 1, 1947. The complex itself is based on Parkchester, which was completed in 1942. The same companies and developers also built Riverton, which was completed around the same time.

 

The model, middle-income housing development was named for the last Director-General of New Amsterdam, Peter Stuyvesant, whose farm occupied the site in the seventeenth-century. In the late Nineteenth Century, the area became known as the Gashouse District because of the many huge gas tanks that dominated the streetscapes. The tanks, which sometimes leaked, made the area undesirable, as did the Gas House Gang and others that operated in the area. With the construction of the East River Drive, the area began to improve. By the 1930s, all but four tanks were gone and, while shabby, the area was no more blighted than many parts of the city after the years of the Great Depression.

 

Before the construction of Stuyvesant Town, the neighborhood contained eighteen typical city blocks, with public schools, churches, factories, private homes, apartments, small businesses, and even relatively new modern-style apartment buildings. In all, 600 buildings, containing 3,100 families, 500 stores and small factories, three churches, three schools, and two theaters, were destroyed. As would be repeated in later urban renewal projects, some 11,000 persons were forced to move from the neighborhood. In 1945, The New York Times called the move from the site "the greatest and most significant mass movement of families in New York's history" (NYT, March 3, 1945). The last residents of the Gashouse District, the Delman Family, moved out in May 1946, allowing demolition to be soon concluded.

 

Today, Peter Cooper Village—Stuyvesant Town is a sprawling collection of red brick apartment buildings with typical housing project-style architecture, stretching from First Avenue to Avenue C, between 14th and 23rd Streets. It covers about 80 acres (320,000 m²) of land. The development located between 14th and 20th Streets, Stuyvesant Town, has 8,757 apartments in 35 residential buildings and with its sister development, located between 20th and 23rd Streets, Peter Cooper Village, they have a combined 56 residential buildings, 11,250 apartments, and over 25,000 residents. The combined development is bordered by the East River/Avenue C on the east, the Gramercy neighborhood on the west, the East Village (or Alphabet City) to the south, and Kips Bay to the north. The surrounding area to the West is notable for historic Stuyvesant Square, a two-block park surrounded by the old Stuyvesant High School, Saint George's Church, and the Beth Israel Medical Center.

 

 

STUYVESANT OVAL Stuyvesant Town

 

STUYVESANT COVE PARK Ave. C and East 20^th St.

 

AIDA Manhattan/Theatre District

 

SWIRL EVENTS 281 Ave. C

 

MJ ARMSTRONG’S 329 1^St. Ave

 

 

DAVID’S BAGELS 331 1^st Ave.

 

MURRAY’S FALAFEL 261 1^st. Ave.

 

LA ISLA 542 East 14^th St.

 

THE WATER CLUB The East River at 30^th St.

 

MOE’S SOUTHWEST GRILL 367 1^st Ave.

 

ADRIATIC ITALIAN RESTAURANT 321 1^st Ave.

 

O’HANLON’S 349 East 14^th St.

 

HANE SUSHI 346 1^st Ave,

 

KENNEDY FRIED CHICKEN 536 East 14^th St.

 

PETITE ABEILLE 401 East 20^th St.

 

K’S 319 1^st Ave.

 

RUBY’S JAPANESSE & THAI 259 1^st Ave.

 

TASTY KING 534 East 14^th St.

 

CAFÉ GREEN 377 1^st Ave.   

 

 

LENSCRAFTERS 288 1^st Ave.

 

TOWN & VILLAGE HARDWARE INC. 337 1^st Ave.

 

RADIO SHACK 336 1^st Ave.

 

WALGREENS 298 1^st Ave.

 

BLOCKBUSTER 312 1^st Ave.

 

STUYVESANT CARD & GIFT INC. 440 East 14^th St.

 

CVS PHARMACY 251 1^st Ave.

 

FIRST ELM DRUGS 268 1^st Ave.

 

FIRST AVENUE CELLULAR 322 1^st Ave.

 

THEA FINE COTTONS 5 Peter Cooper Road

 

JEWELRY BOX 365 1^st Ave.

 

TURK ELLEN FISHER 655 East 14^th St.

 

ENCHANTED GARDEN 525 East 14^th St.

 

PROLAND 442 East 14^th St.

 

 

ASSER LEVY RECREATION CENTER 501 Asser Levy Place

 

WATERSIDE SWIM & HEALTH CLUB 35 Waterside Plaza

 

 

COLLEGES

 

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY http://www.nyu.edu/

 

 

SUBWAY

 

L

 

BUS

 

M9, M14, M15, M23

 

 

BELLEVUE HOSPITAL 462 1^st Ave.

 

BETH ISRAEL MEDICAL CENTER 307 1^st Ave.