East 56 St, Sutton Place

There's a massive antiques building right on the corner of 2nd. If you are into antiques and have swanky uptown money and taste, this is the place for you. Next door to the antiques building, is the Sutton Hotel. It opened in 1929 and the first manager was Nathanael West, who went on to base Miss Lonelyhearts on the guests he served here. Dashiell Hammet, Nancy Reagan and Bette Midler have all stayed here though I don't think its anything to reckon with anymore. It's kind of a sad hotel nowadays but I do enjoy the historical feel to the place. Next door to the Sutton is the all girls Catholic High School, Cathedral. And, across the street from Cathedral is an apartment where Patricia Highsmith and Truman Capote both lived (actually in the same unit).
Across 1st is another bunch of apartment buildings that are all expensive and nice but there aren't any noteworthy ones. It's a nice, quiet block but nothing to write home about.
56th is starting to get into the Upper East Side are that is very big building and little energy. It's not a bad street to live on, but there are bars, restaurants . . .basically anything to do. And, it's far from the park, transportation and any sort of fun so it's not the most lively street. Families and retirees make up the majority of its residents so it's a pass for me but a lot of people like the non-energy to it.