The diverse and densely populated Upper East Side of Manhattan
is defined as the area between 59th Street, 96th Street, Central
Park and the East River. Once known as the ‘Silk Stocking
District’, it boasts some of the most expensive real estate in
the United States and, given the population density and high per
capita income, is often touted as the home of our country’s
greatest concentration of individual wealth. As of the 2000
census, there were 207,543 people residing in the Upper East
Side. Although some of the most famous of New York’s celebrities
and historical upper-class families—Astors, Rockefellers,
Roosevelts, Kennedys, Whitneys, Dukes, to name a few— have made
residences on the Upper East Side, New Yorkers from a wide
variety of races, ethnicities, cultures and socioeconomic
profiles have found their homes here. Before the arrival of
Europeans to New York City, the Upper East Side was home to
Native American fishing camps along the East River bluffs. As
immigrants arrived on Manhattan’s shores, m