5. Tudor City was the first-ever residential skyscraper complex
Located on the border of Turtle Bay and Murray Hill, Tudor City is an apartment complex with a storied history. The complex is situated on Prospect Hill, overlooking First Avenue and the United Nations between 40th and 43rd Streets. Tudor City has the distinction of being the first-ever residential skyscraper complex in the world, as well as one of the first planned middle-class residential communities in the city. Development of the area began following the Civil War, in which row houses and single-family homes were erected between First and Second Avenues. Many of these homes were abandoned and replaced by tenements after meat packing houses and factories popped up in the 1870s. After a few decades, The Fred F. French Company began to develop a middle-class complex after taking over some of the former homes.
The complex was designed as apartments surrounding two parks, the Tudor City Greens, starting in the mid-1920s. The southern park originally was designed as a mini golf course, while the northern park had a diverse garden. The apartments were designed in the Tudor Revival style, pulling from many architectural features of suburban homes. The buildings share features including stained glass windows, wooden entrance doors, Tudor-style towers and gables, Tudor roses and lions, and bay windows. Not all the buildings in the complex were built at the same time; No. 2 Tudor City Place opened in 1956 without many of the Tudor Revival features of the other buildings. Tudor City is perhaps most iconic for its sign, which was constructed in the 1930s and has remained ever since, appearing in movies like Taxi Driver, Scarface, and the first three Spider-Man movies.