The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power

Chapter 13, “Manhattan,” begins with an anecdote about former President Donald Trump, who began his career as a real estate developer. Mask explains that in 1997, Trump’s real estate development team opened a new luxury condominium tower at One Central Park West, a prestigious address on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The original address of the building, however, was the less prestigious 15 Columbus Circle—Trump had paid the city to formally change the address. The prestige of Central Park West allowed Trump’s development team to brag about the building as “the most important new address in the world” (226).

Mask contextualizes this practice of buying so-called vanity addresses within the larger history of New York City real estate. In the late 1800s, landlords in the Upper West Side renamed a number of streets in a conscious effort to increase the value of their properties. Inspired by fashionable European neighborhoods, such as London’s West End, the association renamed Eleventh Avenue West End Avenue, and Eighth Avenue became Central Park West. Mask suggests that, in the present day, Central Park West is an expensive address as a result of these practices of renaming.

Mask points to research that shows street names can have a direct effect on real estate value: In Australia, for example, homes on streets with silly names (such as Butt Street) can cost 20% less than homes on adjacent streets.