West-east street in Manhattan, New York
47th Street
is an east?west running street between
First Avenue
and the
West Side Highway
in the
borough
of
Manhattan
in
New York City
. Traffic runs one way along the street, from east to west, starting at the
headquarters of the United Nations
. The street features the
Diamond District
in a single block, where the street is also known as
Diamond Jewelry Way
, and also courses through
Times Square
.
Notable locations
[
edit
]
- Dag Hammarskjold Plaza
is a park on the south side of 47th Street between First and Second Avenues.
[2]
- The Factory
was
Andy Warhol
's original New York City studio from 1963 to 1968, although his later studios were known as The Factory as well. The Factory was located on the fifth floor at 231 East 47th Street, between
Second Avenue
and
Third Avenue
.
- The top duplex of the Dyckman's Jewelry Exchange at 73 West 47th Street was
Russian emigrant
artist
Alexander Ney
's studio and home for four decades (1974?2015) following his
immigration
from the
Soviet Union
.
- After opening in 1920 on West 45th Street, the
Gotham Book Mart
later moved to 51 West 47th Street and then spent many years at 41 West 47th Street before moving to 16 East 46th Street.
- Vanderbilt Avenue
is a short street that runs from
42nd Street
to 47th Street, between
Park Avenue
and
Madison Avenue
. The street was built as the result of
construction
of
Grand Central Terminal
, and is named for the family of the terminal's original owners,
Cornelius Vanderbilt
. Grand Central Terminal can be accessed via 47th Street through the "Northwest Passage", a 1,000-foot (300 m)-long corridor that runs parallel to the tracks, connecting to the Main Concourse by way of an entrance at the northeast corner of East 47th Street and Madison Avenue.
- The portion of 47th Street between
Fifth Avenue
and
Sixth Avenue
is known as the
Diamond District
, which hosts a kosher cafe, the
IDT Megabite Cafe
.
- An
NHL
store stands at 1185 Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) between West 46th Street and West 47th Street. It is the only one of its kind in the country and has its own
Starbucks
within the store.
[3]
- The
TKTS
booth, reconstructed and reopened in 2008, is located on 47th Street at
Duffy Square
, between
Seventh Avenue
and
Broadway
. Theater-goers may purchase
Broadway theatre
tickets at a discount of 25 to 50% for listed plays and musicals on the day of the shows. The
Morgan Stanley Building
is located diagonally opposite to TKTS at Broadway and 47th Street.
- There are four active Broadway theaters on West 47th Street between Sixth Avenue and
Eighth Avenue
: the
Palace Theatre
at the southeast corner of Broadway and 47th Street; the
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
at 243 West 47th Street; the
Lena Horne Theatre
, formerly the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, at 256 West 47th Street; and the
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
, formerly the Biltmore Theatre, at 261 West 47th Street.
Diamond District
[
edit
]
The Diamond District at 47th Street and Fifth Avenue
The
Diamond District
is a commercial stretch between Fifth and Sixth avenues in
Midtown Manhattan
. Until the 1920s, New York's diamond epicenter was Maiden Lane, four blocks north of
Wall Street
.
[4]
The new Diamond District was formed when dealers moved north from an earlier district near
Canal Street
and the
Bowery
that was created in the 1920s, and from a second district located in the
Financial District
, near the intersection of
Fulton
and
Nassau
streets, which started in 1931, and also from the at one time jewelry district of
Maiden Lane
, which had existed since the 18th century.
A notable, long-time anomaly of the district was the famous
Gotham Book Mart
, a bookstore, which was located at 41 West 47th Street from 1946 to 2004.
The move uptown started in the 1920s when rents in Maiden Lane began increasing drastically as finance and insurance companies moved into the Financial District.
[5]
[4]
The district grew in importance when
Nazi Germany
invaded the Netherlands and Belgium, forcing thousands of
Orthodox Jews
in the diamond business to flee Amsterdam and Antwerp and settle in New York City. Most of them remained after World War II, and remain a dominant influence in the Diamond District.
[6]
By 1941, the Diamond Dealers Club?an exclusive club that acts as a
de facto
diamond exchange and has its own
synagogue
?officially made the move up to midtown as well.
[7]
A jewelry shop in the Diamond District
One of the unique diamond-shaped streetlights in the Diamond District
The area is one of the primary centers of the global diamond industry,
[
citation needed
]
as well as the premier center for jewelry shopping in the city. It is one of the largest diamond and jewelry districts in the United States, along with
Jewelers' Row, Philadelphia
and
Los Angeles's Jewelry District
, and it is the second oldest surviving jewelry district in the United States after Jewelers' Row in Philadelphia. Total receipts for the value of a single day's trade on the block average $400 million.
[8]
An estimated 90% of diamonds in the United States enter through New York. There were some 3,500 independent businesses (cutting, polishing and sales) in the district in 2019. According to other sources, the district was home to more than 2,600 businesses in 2020, a majority of them were on the same block, many shop owners and managers of the district were Orthodox Jews.
[9]
The wholesale business made up most of the $24.6 billion in annual sales in 2019. The industry employed 33,000 people, still predominantly Jews.
[10]
Most businesses are located in booths at one of the 25 "exchanges" in the district. Commission based hawkers are a common sight and they usually solicit business for stores located on the street level.
[11]
According to
The New York Times
, the Diamond District has maintained a thriving, bazaarlike marketplace since the 1920s.
[9]
Many deals are finalized by a simple, traditional blessing (
mazel
und brucha
, which mean "luck and blessing" in Yiddish) and handshake.
[6]
[12]
Retailers with shops line the streets outside. At 50 West 47th Street is the
Gemological Institute of America
which trains gem dealers.
[13]
One distinguishing figure of the district is the diamond-motif street lights illuminating the corners.
[14]
The NYC Diamond District holds three prominent trade interconnected buildings: the 580 Fifth Avenue Exchange, the DDC, Diamond Dealers Club, and
the International Gem Tower
. It is close to other landmarks such as
Rockefeller Center
and
Radio City Music Hall
.
[15]
A January 2020 article in
Smithsonian
magazine
described the Diamond District as follows:
[4]
"Visit 47th Street today, and the stylish pedestrians of Fifth and Sixth Avenues vanish. In their place are elderly, ultra-Orthodox Jews wearing black overcoats and fedoras; south and central Asians with traditional karakul hats; and gaggles of merchants shouting in languages from across the world ... Forty-seventh Street is, in fact, a thick network of middlemen, with diamantaires buying and selling large caches of diamonds much like stock brokers..."
[4]
Transportation
[
edit
]
The
New York City Subway
's
47th?50th Streets ? Rockefeller Center
station on the
IND Sixth Avenue Line
offers service on the
B
,
D
,
F
,
<F>
, and
M
services. An underground concourse connects the station with the buildings of
Rockefeller Center
. The
49th Street
station on the
BMT Broadway Line
offers service on the
N
,
Q
,
R
, and
W
trains, and is accessible via a part-time booth at Seventh Avenue and 47th Street at the south end of the station.
[16]
[15]
Several
New York City Bus
routes running along north-south avenues stop near the street.
[17]
In popular culture
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Google
(September 1, 2015).
"47th Street (Manhattan)"
(Map).
Google Maps
. Google
. Retrieved
September 1,
2015
.
- ^
"Dag Hammarskjold Plaza"
.
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
. Retrieved
May 3,
2023
.
- ^
"NHL Powered by Reebok Store ? New York, NY"
.
nhl.com
. Retrieved
August 29,
2015
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Richman, Barak (January 16, 2020).
"How Manhattan's Diamond District Continues To Operate Like an Old World Bazaar"
.
Smithsonian Magazine
. Retrieved
June 18,
2020
.
- ^
Caratzas, Michael (December 13, 2016).
"Excelsior Steam Power Company Building"
(PDF)
.
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
. p. 4
. Retrieved
June 17,
2020
.
- ^
a
b
Jackson, Kenneth T.
, ed. (1995).
The Encyclopedia of New York City
. New Haven:
Yale University Press
. pp. 332?333.
ISBN
0300055366
.
- ^
"About the DDC"
.
Diamond Dealers Club New York
. Retrieved
March 19,
2017
.
- ^
WNBC-TV
's
Jane Hanson
on her
Jane's New York
special on the Diamond District.
- ^
a
b
Krueger, Alyson (October 16, 2020).
"Will the Diamond District Survive?"
.
The New York Times
.
ISSN
0362-4331
. Retrieved
November 5,
2020
.
- ^
Lipman, Steve (December 17, 2019).
"The Real-Life Diamond District Shrugs At New Adam Sandler Film"
.
The Jewish Week
.
- ^
"The NYC Diamond District ? How to Avoid the Shopper's Trap"
. Beyond 4Cs
. Retrieved
July 13,
2015
.
- ^
Hornblower, Margot
(March 10, 1985).
"Sparkle Street, U.S.A."
Washington Post
.
ISSN
0190-8286
. Retrieved
November 5,
2020
.
- ^
Locations
,
Gemological Institute of America
- ^
Fodor's See It New York City
. Fodor's Travel Publications. 2012.
ISBN
978-0-87637-136-7
.
- ^
a
b
"MTA Neighborhood Maps: neighborhood"
.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority
. 2018
. Retrieved
October 1,
2018
.
- ^
"Subway Map"
(
PDF
)
.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority
. September 2021
. Retrieved
September 17,
2021
.
- ^
"Manhattan Bus Map"
(
PDF
)
.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority
. July 2019
. Retrieved
December 1,
2020
.
- ^
West 47th Street
? About the Film
, accessed December 12, 2006
External links
[
edit
]
This audio file
was created from a revision of this article dated 26 October 2018
(
2018-10-26
)
, and does not reflect subsequent edits.
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- Italics
indicate streets no longer in existence.
- All entries are streets, circles, or squares unless otherwise noted
- See also:
Manhattan address algorithm
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