Kip built a large brick and stone house, near the modern intersection of Second Avenue and East 35th Street.

[12] Its orchard was famous, and, when first President George Washington was presented with a specimen of its Rosa gallica during his first administration (1789–1793), when New York was serving as the first national capital city, it was claimed to have been the first garden to have grown it in the Thirteen Colonies.

Howe's forces defeated about 500 American militiamen stationed at Kips Bay by Washington and commanded by Colonel William Douglas.

[16] A single survivor of the late 18th or early 19th century in the neighborhood is the simple vernacular white clapboard house, much rebuilt, at 203 East 29th Street.

South of the Kips Bay Farm stood the substantial Federal-style villa erected facing the East River by Henry A. Coster,[19] in the thirty-acre estate[20] that was purchased in 1835 by Anson Greene Phelps;[21] towards the city, the Bull's Head cattle market fronting the Boston Post Road extended southwards from 27th Street to 23rd Street, affording a distinctly less rural aspect;[22] the villa was removed to make way for row houses in the 1860s and the cattle market was moved farther out of town, to 42nd Street.

[23] The neighborhood has been rebuilt in patches, featuring both new high-rise structures often set back from the street, and a multitude of exposed party walls that were never meant to be seen in public.

[29] Located between East 30th and 33rd streets, the NYU-Bellevue urban renewal project resulted in the development of Kips Bay Towers, a 1,112-unit apartment complex designed by architect I. M. Pei and completed in 1963.

There were plans to build additional above-water apartments, offices, and a hotel in the 1980s, but environmental concerns and community opposition doomed the project.

[33] Based on data from the 2010 United States census, the population of Murray Hill-Kips Bay was 50,742, a change of 2,323 (4.6%) from the 48,419 counted in 2000.

[37] In 2018, an estimated 10% of Kips Bay and East Midtown residents lived in poverty, compared to 14% in all of Manhattan and 20% in all of New York City.

Based on this calculation, as of 2018[update], Kips Bay and East Midtown are considered to be high-income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying.

Further north on First Avenue, in Murray Hill between East 37th and 38th streets, is the former Kips Bay Brewing Company, originally constructed in 1895 and now occupied by offices.

The project was the winner of a competition sponsored by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development to design, construct and operate a microapartment building on a city-owned site and pilot the use of compact apartments to accommodate smaller households.

In 2018, this population of uninsured residents was estimated to be 3%, less than the citywide rate of 12%, though this was based on a small sample size.

[34]: 14 The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in Kips Bay and East Midtown is 0.0102 milligrams per cubic metre (1.02×10−8 oz/cu ft), more than the city average.

[34]: 13  In Kips Bay and East Midtown, 10% of residents are obese, 5% are diabetic, and 18% have high blood pressure—compared to the citywide averages of 24%, 11%, and 28% respectively.

[34]: 10 The Bellevue Hospital Center and NYU Langone Health are located in Kips Bay, as is the Margaret Cochran Corbin campus of VA New York Harbor Healthcare System.

[34]: 6  The percentage of Kips Bay and East Midtown students excelling in math rose from 61% in 2000 to 80% in 2011, and reading achievement increased from 66% to 68% during the same time period.

[55] Kips Bay and East Midtown's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is lower than the rest of New York City.

[34]: 6 [35]: 24 (PDF p. 55)  Additionally, 91% of high school students in Kips Bay and East Midtown graduate on time, more than the citywide average of 75%.