page_title: Turtle Bay, Manhattan
section_title: Colonial days
hierarchical_section_title: Turtle Bay, Manhattan / History / Colonial days
caption_attribution_description: Turtle Bay, East River 1853 from the New York Public Library Digital Gallery Image Title: Turtle Bay, East River, N.Y. 1853 / Geo. Hayward Creator: Emmet, Thomas Addis, 1828-1919 -- Collector Specific Material Type: Prints Standard Reference: EM10435 Source: Emmet Collection of Manuscripts Etc. Relating to American History. / Booth's History of New York. / Volume 1. Source Description: 139 prints&#160;: etching, engraving, stipple, aquatint, mezzotint, wood engraving, lithograph, some col.&#160;; 36 x 71.7 cm. or smaller. Location: Stephen A. Schwarzman Building / Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs Catalog Call Number: MEZP Digital ID: 424333 Record ID: 166283 Digital Item Published: 9-3-2004; updated 3-25-2011
context_page_description: Turtle Bay is a neighborhood in New York City, on the east side of Midtown Manhattan. It extends from roughly 43rd Street to 53rd Streets, and eastward from Lexington Avenue to the East River's western branch. The neighborhood is the site of the headquarters of the United Nations and the Chrysler Building. The Tudor City apartment complex is to the south of Turtle Bay.
  Turtle Bay is named after a former cove of the East River, which in turn was named after the Dutch word for "knife". The neighborhood was originally settled as a Dutch farm in the 17th century, and was subsequently developed with tenements, power plants, and slaughterhouses in the 19th century. These industrial structures were largely demolished in the 1940s and 1950s to make way for the United Nations headquarters. Today, Turtle Bay contains multiple missions and consulates to the nearby United Nations headquarters.
  Turtle Bay is part of Manhattan Community District 6, and its primary ZIP Codes are 10017 and 10022. It is patrolled by the 17th Precinct of the New York City Police Department.
context_section_description: Turtle Bay, a cove of the East River, received its name in the 17th century by its resemblance in shape to that of a knife, "deutal" being Dutch for "knife". The cove, which was filled in after the Civil War, was a valuable shelter from the often harsh weather on the river, and became a thriving site for shipbuilding.
  The Turtle Bay neighborhood was originally a 40-acre (16 ha) land grant given to two Englishmen by the Dutch colonial governor of New Amsterdam in 1639, and named "Turtle Bay Farm". The farm extended roughly from what is now 43rd Street to 48th Street, and from Third Avenue to the river.
  On a knoll overlooking the cove, near 41st Street, the farmhouse was purchased as a summer retreat by Francis Bayard, and in the early 19th century remained the summer villa of Francis Bayard Winthrop. Turtle Creek, or DeVoor's Mill Creek as it was known, emptied into the cove at what is now 47th Street.  To the south lay Kip's Bay farm; to the north, on a bluff, stood James Beekman's "Mount Pleasant", the first of a series of houses and villas with water views stretching away up the shoreline. After the street grid system was initiated in Manhattan, the hilly landscape of the Turtle Bay Farm was graded to create cross-streets and the land was subdivided for residential development.
caption: Turtle Bay in 1853
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