20 apartments for rent in Upper East Side, New York, NY

It’s an image no lover of classic movies will forget: at dawn Holly Golightly, still in her little black dress and jeweled necklace, has once again forgotten her key after a night on the town. What else to do, but go to Tiffany’s and window shop?

Of course, that’s the famous opening scene from the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s starring Audrey Hepburn. Ever wonder where Holly lived? Her home was a rented apartment on the Upper East Side of New York.

The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, between Central Park and the East River. The neighborhood’s borders are 59th Street, 96th Street, Central Park and the East River. Once known as the “Silk Stocking District,” the Upper East Side is still one of the most affluent neighborhoods in New York City, with the highest per square-foot pricing in the United States. The house where Holly lived has approximately 2,880 square feet and was built in 1910; today its value is in the millions.

The Upper East Side has been a setting for many movies and other media because of its world-class museums, expensive restaurants and boutiques and proximity to Central Park. The 1989 hit, When Harry Met Sally featured scenes with Billy Crystal at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, known colloquially as The Met, located on the Upper East Side. It’s one of the string of museums along Fifth Avenue’s “Museum Mile.” Others include the Cooper–Hewitt National Design Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, the National Academy of Design, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum ant the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Politically, the Upper East Side is one of few areas in Manhattan where Republicans constitute more than 20 percent of the electorate. In the southwestern part of the neighborhood Republican voters equal Democratic voters, the only such area in Manhattan. The area is also significant for political fundraising; the Upper East Side generated the most money for the 2004 presidential campaigns of both George W. Bush and John Kerry.

Notable residents have included Woody Allen, Lady Gaga, Caroline Kennedy, Brooke Astor, Spike Lee, Madonna, Ricky Gervais, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Martin Scorsese and Michael Bloomberg.