Seventh Avenue, Manhattan

The Seventh Avenue in Manhattan begins at Clarkson Street, where Varick Street becomes Seventh Avenue South. It becomes Seventh Avenue after crossing Greenwich Avenue and West 11th Street. The avenue is interrupted by Central Park from West 59th Street (Central Park South) to West 110th Street (Central Park North), where the avenue is called Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, since 1974. The avenue terminates at the Macombs Dam Bridge (upper level) and the West 155th Street (lower level). Seventh Avenue intersects with Broadway and with 42nd Street at Times Square (Long Acre Square before 1904).

Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (1908-1972) was Baptist pastor and the first African American to be elected to Congress from New York.

Seventh Avenue was projected in the Commissioners' Plan of 1811. It originally began at the 11th Street. In 1914, it was extended southward, as Seventh Avenue South, to connect to Varick Street. Several buildings were demolished for the extension, including the Bedford Street Methodist Church, built in 1840.

Among the notable buildings on Seventh Avenue are: New York Athletic Club (59th Street); Alwyn Court Apartments (58th Street); Carnegie Hall, Osborne Apartments and Rodin Studios (57th Street); AXA Center (former Equitable Tower), at 51st Street; Times Building (Times Square); Madison Square Garden and Penn Station (32nd Street); Fashion Institute of Technology (27th Street); Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office and Hotel Theresa (Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard).

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