Where I live: the storied Tudor City, which half of New Yorkers can't place on a map

A bit about where I live in Manhattan. I live in Tudor City, a six block enclave of 12 apartment buildings, a hotel and two private parks perched on a cliff ending in cul-de-sacs overlooking the UN building and the East River. BrickUnderground.com describes it thusly, “Tudor City residents extol the quiet that comes from the fact that it has no through streets and that traffic is diverted underground for five blocks along the United Nations campus, the convenience to midtown offices, and the lush, beautifully landscaped Tudor Greens park nearly lost to developers in the1980s.”

Many movies and television shows have filmed at Tudor City, including Spider-man I, II, and III – the penthouse was used for Norman Osborn (Green Goblin)’s apartment, Scarface, the balcony of Neal Caffrays’ apartment in White Collar, the scene from Taxi Driver which features Martin Scorcese following his cheating wife to her lover’s apartment (in Tudor City) and telling Deniro he’s going to kill her, The Bourne Ultimatum, Splash, The International.

Charlton Heston rented Penthouse 7 of Windsor Tower, Tudor City as a pied-a-terre in 1955 while on layover before leaving for Egypt to film The Ten Commandments.
Photo: Pixabay Royalty Free. Photographer: skeeze.

Peg Entwistle, the tragic “Hollywood Sign Girl” lived in Tudor City during her early promising career as a Broadway stage actress (Bette Davis saw her perform in Boston and said, “The reason I wanted to go into theater was because of an actress named Peg Entwistle. She looked just like me. A whole new world opened up to me.") But Peg Entwistle was to leave Tudor City when she got an “offer she couldn’t refuse” from Hollywood, in the form of a contract at RKO from David O. Selznick. She reluctantly broke her Broadway contract, burning all her bridges in New York, hurried out to Hollywood, had one small film role and was then laid off due to budget cuts at RKO due to the Depression. Devastated, Peg hiked from her Uncle’s home to the giant Hollywood sign, climbed a ladder workmen had left there, and jumped off the top of the “H.” She was 24 years old. Her ghost is said to still haunt the area.

I moved here in August 2015 when I had just returned to New York from a break of two years in Arizona after living in Manhattan since 1999. I had a new job with offices in the Empire State Building (I wrote about that in my introduction) and wanted somewhere to live where I could walk to work, either in Midtown East with a view of the East River or in Midtown West with a view of the Hudson. I had made up my mind since living in South St. Seaport before the break that I have to have a view of water, no matter what or where else about my apartment. And I had finally decided that if there was any way I could pull it off I was going to live in a 1 bedroom for the first time. I am getting too old to live in studios anymore! So I looked through hundreds of listings, most of which were studios at way beyond my budget – way over $3,000 per month for a postage stamp. Many were $3500 to $4,000. One bedroom apartments started at $4500! I found a few places closer to $2500 for a 1 bedroom, but they were four storey walkups. Yes, in theory it’s good to have exercise built in to your day, but at the end of a long day walking up four flights of stairs and then maybe forgetting I am out of toothpaste and have to run back down…and back up? I don’t think so. Finally I started spotting the rare unit listed with a well under $3,000 price, a 1 bedroom size, with a view of the East River, an elevator, and even a gym and a 24 hour doorman and security service! What was this mythical place? Was it a scam? No, it was Tudor City. They have an official sublet policy so that I was able to legally sublet this apartment from the owner, an interesting woman from Italy who now lives in Paris and is an artist who creates giant art installations for public squares and business parks. The rent was within my budget and there was even a bonus of free heat and electricity! And the building is gorgeous and Pre-War (my favorite.) How this is possible I have decided to stop asking. Why is it so cheap relative to the rest of Manhattan? I don’t know. And I don’t care.

Part of my View

The boundaries of the neighborhood are West/East 2nd Avenue (the foot of the Hill) and 1st Avenue (up and over the hill on the other side) and South/North 40th St to 43rd St. It’s very hard to explain where it is, even to fellow New Yorkers, and even more confusing for delivery people. If I am ordering food delivery or an Uber I always leave the same instructions, “You MUST enter 41st Street from Second Avenue going East as you cannot get to Tudor City from First Avenue!” Our little enclave at the top of the hill is all owned by Tudor City (though the two parks are owned by non-profit Tudor City Greens.) We have several businesses of our own up here, and they are either encouraged to use the name “Tudor City” or perhaps they are given a break on rent if they do because we have a Tudor City Deli, Tudor City Wines, Tudor City Nail Salon, Tudor City Cleaners all owned and operated by different people. We even have our own self-serve Post Office at 5 Tudor City Place.

Before it became Tudor City in 1927, it was an abandoned area with a giant rocky hill that by the time of the Civil War had become a place for goats to roam and graze and for homeless people to squat, getting the name “goat hill” after the goats and squatters in the area. Later, by the late nineteenth century, the area became known as “Corcoran’s Roost” (or “Dutch Hill”) after gang leader Jimmy “Paddy” Corcoran and his band of thieves. Corcoran’s Roost was a center for thievery and general debauchery. The infamous “Rag Gang” led by Jimmy Corcoran was based on this hill. It later fell into further decline, became the site for several slaughterhouses and a warren of slum buildings and tenements.

Not the Goat Hill, Just A Hill with Goats - Pixabay Royalty Free. Photographer: JanaB1989.

The origins of Tudor City began in the 1920s when a developer named Fred F. French decided that the Middle Class New Yorker should have a place to live in Midtown other than rundown tenements that were making the Middle Class flee en masse to the suburbs. So he purchased the bulk of the former “Goat Hill” and started to build this set of 12 apartment buildings as a sort of Middle Class utopia within the East Side, with tulip gardens, miniature golf, private parks, a tennis court (now gone, but originally the site of legendary exhibition matches played by Welby Van Horn, Bobby Riggs, Pancho Segura, Rudy Vallée.) The complex was built facing West, away from the river, as this was the site of a power plant and the still running slaughterhouses. Tudor City became the first residential skyscrapers in Manhattan. The slaughterhouses are long gone, and even the power plant was purchased and demolished several years ago by famous developer Sheldon Solow who has not yet broken ground on whatever he is going to build there. Now there is just an empty lot, and because I am at the back of the complex both my bedroom and living room look out over the empty lot, the East River and the U.N.
Tudor City Greens

As Wikipedia points out, the architecture of Tudor City is closer to neo-gothic than Tudor or even mock Tudor, featuring stained glass windows, stone crests with stags, lions, eagles, and griffins, and gargoyles carved in stone on the incredible penthouse rooftops. Some of the stained glass tells the history of the area, and another panel commemorates the finding of a Hessian sword from the Revolutionary War underneath the building!

Tudor City has a storied background as both the set of many films and television shows and is rumored to be one of the most haunted places in Manhattan. I am interested in the paranormal, but have neither seen nor heard anything unusual since I moved here two and a half years ago. When I first moved here I googled “Tudor City haunted” just to see what I found. I came up with an article that I believe was on Curbed.com about Barry Gordy, the legendary producer, who owns one of the penthouses in Windsor Tower. He said that the unit was “definitely haunted!” Last night when I wrote the first half of this I went down to the front desk where one of the younger, chattier doormen was hanging out with the handyman. I asked them if they had ever seen a ghost here. The doorman said he, “Doesn’t believe in the paranormal.” The handyman, however, said he once saw a woman with long hair in a long white gown standing in the laundry room with her head down, not looking at him. He stared at her and spoke for what seemed like 20 seconds (which is a long time if you think about it) and she didn’t speak, but when he turned his head for a moment she disappeared. He was between her and the door to leave and there’s no other door, so there was nowhere she could have gone. He also said he used to sleep in the Community Room, a large, beautiful room in the C level basement with carved wood paneling, that looks like a library or study in an old mansion. But he didn’t last long there because he would frequently be awakened by someone poking him in the stomach and again, when he sat up there was no one there.

In any case, I feel lucky to live here and like I have discovered one of Manhattan’s best kept secrets.