When George Jefferson, the dry-cleaning mogul and protagonist of the mid-’70s TV sitcom “The Jeffersons,” decided to “move on up,” he and his wife, Weezie, chose New York City’s Upper East Side.
The couple left their humble, working-class Queens neighborhood (down the street from Archie Bunker in “All in the Family” ) for a new neighborhood that said, “We made it.”
Their new address: 185 E. 85th St. between Lexington and Third Avenues, where they stayed for the entire decade-long run of the show. Back then, according to the New York Times, it was a buyer’s market, and a three-bedroom apartment in the area could be had for $150,000. Third Avenue was far more accessible than the toniest addresses in the city, bound by Fifth and Park Avenues.
“Most of the buildings on Park and Fifth are more difficult co-ops to get into,” says Nicole Beauchamp, a Realtor® who grew up in the neighborhood and still works there. Those buildings would also have been less accepting of new residents of color. “That area west of Third Avenue would have been much more tolerant of an African-American family than Fifth or Park Avenues would have.”
In addition, the great bulk of buildings on and between Fifth and Park Avenues are older, whereas Third Avenue and its environs had a wealth of new construction starting in the ’60s. The Jeffersons’ 430-unit, 36-story building, built in 1967, was modern, with a terrace, a doorman, and easy access to the subway and Central Park.
“It seemed to have all of the elements associated with luxury,” says Beauchamp, without replicating the snobbery of those nearby blocks.
Unlike many shows set in New York City, “The Jeffersons” had a pretty accurate portrayal of the city’s real estate market at the time. And these days, the neighborhood is even more desirable.
“People are not as willing to go through all that trouble getting into co-ops,” says Beauchamp. “If you go east of Third Avenue, you end up with more space, and many people are more concerned with space than prestige.” And 85th and Third Avenue is still a respectable address.
Nothing is currently on the market in the Jeffersons’ building, but if you wanted to move nearby, you might pick up this two-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,800-square-foot penthouse, with a wraparound terrace. It’s far fancier than the Jeffersons’ place, though; they didn’t have a 40-foot-long living room and a 22-foot-long master bedroom. This one is $4.8 million, steep even for a dry-cleaning mogul. Slightly more affordable is this three-bedroom, two-bathroom condo in a full-service luxury building, for a mere $2.5 million.
Would the Jeffersons be able to afford this piece of the real estate pie today? The current average home price is $1,995,000. But the price of dry cleaning hasn’t risen as sharply as real estate in recent years—at many shops in New York, it’ll still cost you only 99 cents to spruce up a stiff-collared shirt. It would take a whole lotta laundry for the Jeffersons to afford their apartment today.