Secrets of the Upper East Side

The Upper East Side is one of NYC’s best neighborhoods. Residences are coveted by Manhattan’s elite. The shopping draws tourists from all corners of the globe. The dining is some of the best in the five boroughs. Best of all, the Upper East Side is steeped in rich NYC history. Let’s explore some fun stories of the luxurious, scandalous, and quirky Upper East Side.

Bloomingdales

The Upper East Side is full of luxury department stores. One of the best Upper East Side department stores is Bloomingdales. If you go to Bloomingdales today, you will most likely receive an iconic brown bag that reads one of the following: Big Brown Bag, Medium Brown Bag, or Small Brown Bag. These bags are very coveted because they are part of Bloomingdales’ history. In fact, in 1922 Bloomingdales offered the very first designer shopping bag in the history of NYC. In 1922, they came up with the marketing idea of thanking loyal customers with specially designed bags. Upper East Siders saw these bags around town and immediately wanted one for themselves. Bloomingdales quickly realized what a fabulous marketing gimmick this was, and the designer shopping bag was born! Between 1979 and 1993, Bloomingdales commissioned popular artists to design their bags, essentially making the bags canvases for some of the most fabulous art of the day. As for the Big Brown Bag Bloomingdales is best known for, it originally came into being in 1973 when Massimo Vignelli created the minimalist design for large household items. The bag was such a success it soon gave birth to the medium brown bag and small brown bag. When you hold one, you are holding history! 

Elizabeth Taylor’s Earmuffs

How many people are on your holiday shopping list? Well, once upon a time, Elizabeth Taylor had 200 people on her holiday gift list! Naturally, she turned to another Upper East Side shopping favorite – Bergdorf Goodman. Legend is she waltzed into Bergdorf Goodman’s fur salon and asked the furrier if he could make a pair of mink earmuffs. One can only imagine that the furrier was glad to oblige the star of stage and screen, but he certainly wasn’t expecting what would come next. Elizabeth Taylor said, “Good. Because I need 200 pairs of white mink earmuffs for everyone on my Christmas list…and we’re leaving for Gstaad in a week.” Always aiming to please, Bergdorf’s fulfilled the order. Now the mystery is who was on Elizabeth Taylor’s holiday list and received those earmuffs? The world may never know. 

FRICK Collection

The Frick Collection is one of the country’s most esteemed art collections. When one enters, it’s important to remember that the building itself is art, and an important part of the collection. The Frick Collection’s not-so-humble origins began as the private residence of Henry Clay Frick, former chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company.  He was an avid art collector and had this house built in such a way it could be converted into a museum after his death. He willed his house, and all of its contents, including works of art by Holbein, Rembrandt, Titian, and Vermeer as a public museum to anyone in and visiting NYC.

Guggenheim

Did you know that Manhattan has only one building designed by legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright? That building is, of course, the Guggenheim Museum. When art advisor Hilla Rebay reached out to Frank Lloyd Wright in 1943 asking him to design this museum, she gave him one instruction: that the museum should be unlike any other museum in the world. Surprisingly, Wright was upset he had to design a museum, or any building, in NYC, which he considered to be a city that was overpopulated and lacking architectural merit. Wright’s original design for the museum was that of ziggurat in ancient Mesopotamia. He then flipped that ziggurat upside down. Many artists were displeased with the curving shape, believing their paintings could not be properly displayed in a curving space, but it would be hard to argue the Guggenheim is anything less than a tremendous success today. 

740 Park Avenue

740 Park Avenue has a very impressive claim to fame. This Upper East Side residence has been home to the most millionaires ever. In 1937 this building was home to John D. Rockefeller Jr., who built Rockefeller Center. David H Koch (he has both a theater at Lincoln Center and a wing at the American Museum of Natural History named after him) lived here. This was Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ childhood home. Bernie Madoff may be this building’s most infamous resident. Barbara Streisand applied to live here, but her application was denied! Neil Sedaka and Leonard Blavtnik shared her fate. But hey, you can try to apply! According to StreetEasy, a second floor 5 bedroom unit is available for 28 MILLION dollars.

Cooper Hewitt

Did you know that the Cooper Hewitt Museum of Design was once the private residence of steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie? The building was his single family residence! Real estate agents would have had a field day with the listing! Let’s talk about some of the home’s unique and innovative features. This 1902 home was the very first residential home to feature an Otis passenger elevator! It was also the first private residence to have a structural steel frame. Fitting, since Carnegie made his fortune in steel. The 64-room mansion received lots of natural light and featured a large garden, which, to this day, is an enclosed green space providing visitors a quiet oasis in the bustling city. The building was given to the Smithsonian organization in 1972, and today houses the Cooper Hewitt Museum of Design. 

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