General Information

The iconic poster image for “Manhattan”, with Isaac (Woody Allen) and Mary (Diane Keaton) sitting on a bench together was shot at Riverview Terrace on Sutton Square, just beneath the 59th Street Bridge. Perhaps in the most famous scene in the film, this is where Isaac and Mary watch the sun come up together. However, the bench where the pair sat is no longer there.

Additional Information

Sutton Place itself, one of the most affluent streets in the city, is the wide north/south avenue that runs only two blocks, from 57th Street to 59th Street, along the East River and south of the Queensboro Bridge. Sutton Place encompasses two public parks overlooking the East River, one at the end of 57th Street and another at the end of 53rd Street.

History: Highlights

Sutton Place was originally one of several disconnected stretches of Avenue A. In 1875 Effingham B. Sutton constructed a group of brownstones between 57th and 58th Streets, and is said to have lent the street his name. Sutton Place first became fashionable around 1920, when several wealthy socialites built mansions on the eastern side of the street.

History: Explained

Very shortly thereafter, developers started to build grand co-operative apartment buildings on Sutton Place and Sutton Place South. Development came to an abrupt halt with the Great Depression, and the luxury apartment buildings on the lower part of Sutton Place South (below 57th Street) and the northernmost part of Sutton Place (adjacent to the Queensboro Bridge) were not developed until the 1940s and 1950s.

Notable Residents: Highlights

Among famous residents who live, or used to live at Sutton Place are such figures as Sigourney Weaver, Aristotle Onassis, Freddie Mercury, Michael Jackson and Marilyn Monroe with her then-husband Arthur Miller.