Why go
Seventh Avenue makes Manhattan's changing street character easy to read: it begins as Seventh Avenue South, passes the Garment District and Times Square, then resumes north of Central Park as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard. Each segment has a different use and scale.
The full story
Seventh Avenue begins at Clarkson Street in the West Village, where Varick Street becomes Seventh Avenue South. Its 1914 southern extension connected the Village more directly with the commercial district around present-day Tribeca and accompanied construction of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue subway line. The avenue is interrupted by Central Park, then continues north through Harlem as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard. That discontinuity is worth noticing: one named street links Greenwich Village, the Garment District, Times Square, the park edge and Harlem, but each stretch belongs to a distinct Manhattan landscape. In Midtown, the Garment District stretch is also known as Fashion Avenue, a reminder of the fashion businesses that helped define the area and its working streetscape over many decades.
Useful to know
- Use it as a connecting street within a neighborhood walk; Central Park breaks the avenue between 59th and 110th Streets.
- North of the park, look for the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard name rather than assuming the avenue is signed consistently.