Yorkville is a neighborhood within the Upper East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Roughly speaking, it is bound by 79th Street on the south, the East River on the east, 96th Street (i.e., Spanish Harlem) on the north, and Third Avenue on the west. The neighborhood's main artery, East 86th Street, was sometimes called the "German Broadway." It's ZIP code is 10028.
For much of the twentieth century, Yorkville was a middle to working-class neighborhood, inhabited by many people of German and Hungarian descent, with many German and Hungarian restaurants and bakeries. In the 1930s, the neighborhood was the home base of Fritz Kuhn's German-American Bund, the most notorious pro-Nazi group in 1930's America. As a result of their presence, Yorkville in this period was the scene of fierce street battles between pro- and anti-Nazi Germans and German-Americans. Today there are rare remnants of Yorkville's German origins (Schaller & Weber grocery shop, a German restaurant and a German church, Hungarian Meat Market and Delicatessen, Orwasher's bakery), but it has largely become an upper middle class residential neighborhood. Since the 1990s, Old World merchants, such as the Elk Candy Company, Kleine Konditorei bakery and Bremen House market (all German), as well as the Rigo bakery and Mocca restaurant (Hungarian) have closed. The Von Steuben Day Parade still wends its way through the neighborhood, however.
Yorkville is often seen by New Yorkers as a nice but unhip residential area. There are very few chic clubs in the area, as might be found in Chelsea, the East Village, or other areas. However, the population and wealth supports a wide variety of fine restaurants and bars.
There is a bit of a student presence due to the Fordham Graduate Housing buildings on 81st street between York and East End. Although the Fordham Graduate Schools are located on the West Side, the University purchased the buildings on 81st street to provide a safe area for graduate students.
Yorkville includes Gracie Mansion, the official home of the mayor of New York City, and Carl Schurz Park.
Yorkville is the birthplace of baseball legend Lou Gehrig, in 1903. Actor James Cagney also grew up in the neighborhood.
And Yorkville is also the birthplace of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, circa 1920, founded by eleven local business men.
Yorkville was the home of the Marx Brothers at 179 East 93rd street.