Upper West Side (South)

I finished off the Upper West Side ("UWS") today, going from W. 82nd St. to W 60th St. (about 15 miles).

Today's walk

Today's walk

Like in my first UWS post, a lot of what I noticed along the streets were the weird pagan(?) motifs on the brownstones and other apartment buildings.  I've tried to figure out why having scary faces all over the front of your house used to be in vogue, but no luck.

Some notable landmarks I passed by along the way:

1.) American Museum of Natural History: The AMNH sits in Roosevelt Park between W 81st St and W 77th St on the north/south and Central Park West and Columbus Ave. on the east/west. It's full of awesome dinosaur bones, meteorites, and animals Teddy Roosevelt shot.  Highly recommend.

2.) Beautiful old apartment buildings:  The UWS is home to many beautiful old apartment buildings, including the City's first modern luxury apartment, the Dakota.  The Dakota (W 72nd St. at Central Park West) was commissioned by Edward Clark (owner of the Singer Sewing Machine Company) and designed by the same architects that built the Plaza Hotel.  It is best known for being was the setting for the movie Rosemary's Baby in 1968 and the scene of John Lennon's murder in 1980.  

Although the Dakota is the most famous of the old UWS apartment buildings, there are many others in the vicinity of W 72nd St. that are also worth seeing.  In fact, my favorite building in the entire city (residential building, at least) is the Ansonia, down the street at 73rd and Broadway.  Completed in 1904, the Ansonia was not only the largest residential hotel of its day, but also the first to have air conditioning.  Babe Ruth used to live there and Bette Midler got her start at a gay bathhouse in the basement in the 1970's (source: Wikipedia).

3.) Lincoln Center:  Lincoln Center is a 16+ acre performing arts complex.  It has 30 indoor and outdoor venues and is to the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet and the New York Philharmonic. It is conveniently located across the street from the Juilliard School, America's foremost school for the performing arts.