Vale University Library

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"Y^LE«¥]MII¥EI^Snr¥«'

Gift of
1915

Copyright, 1913,
BY
The Fifth Avenue Bank of New York

Cj a3.580

Photographs copyrighted, 1915, by Perry Walton
Written, designed and printed under direction of the
Walton Advertising and PrirUing Company
Boston, Mass.

"FIFTH AVENUE"
ERRATA
Page 6. Paragraph 4 should read, "Onward from Carnegie .Hill beginning at about
96th Street, the Avenue rapidly degenerates . . ."
6. Paragraph 4. Line 6 should read, "From 131st to 139th Streets, it swarms
with foreigners and negroes."
10. Paragraph 2. Lines 3, 4, 5. " One was Hamilton Square, bounded by Third
and Fifth Avenues, 66th and 68th Streets . . ."
21. Next to last line, "southwest" should read "southeast."
23. Lines 5, 6. Neither Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D., nor Rev. Henry van
Dyke, D.D., was pastor of the Marble Collegiate Church. Dr. Cuyler was
pastor of the Market Street Reformed Dutch Church in New York, and
later of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn. Dr. van
Dyke was pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church. Rev. Daxid J. Burrell,
D.D., LL.D., has been pastor of the Marble Collegiate Church since 1891.
23. Line 10. 1768 should read 1795.
23. Line 6 from bottom. Although the name "Mildenberger" is spelled with
an "n" on the Map of the Farms, Victor R. Mildeberger, descendant, says
the name should be spelled without an "n," and that he possesses the will
of Christopher Mildeberger, in which name is so spelled. He also thinks
Christopher Mildeberger married Matliew Horn's daughter, and not the
daughter of John Horn, the second.
26. Date of view should be early 80's.
'21). Parafjraph 1. Mr. Charles Greer, a descendant of the Greer family, who
ouiieil considerable property in the vicinity of the Caspar Samler farm,
.sa\ s that he is under the impression that the word Samler should be spelled
Semblcr, and that the farm extended to just above the corner of 30th Street.
37. Dale of view should be 1869.
-K). P.iiagraph 1. Line 5. "Opened with impressive ceremonies July 4, 1842."
41. Line 4 should read, "sold later to Mrs. R. T. Wilson for .flH.5.000. The
\\ ilson estate sold the corner to the Five Hundred and Eleven Fifth Avenue
Coinpany for .$1,2(10.000."
4 1. Linos 5-6. " .\lthough Tweed Uved at 511 Fifth Avenue for several years,
his I'seapo was made Di'oember 4. 1875, from the house ul 647 Madison
.\ venue, near 60th Street, in which ho lived later."
45. Paragraph 2. Lines 19-20. Mr. Charles Greer says that "Provost Marshal's
offiei' at 1148 Broadway" should road, ¦'between 28th and 29th Streets."
The row of buihiings that stood there at the time was owned by George
Creer, and during the riots of '<i.'i they were broken into and set on fire by
the women rioters.
54. Lino under print should read, "From an old print of about 1870."
61. Para','raph 2. Linos 8-9 should read. "Commodore X'anderbilt driving his
famous trotter, Maud .'^.; Robert Bonner speeding Dexter."
6!). l.a.st lino 1st pani<;raph should read. "Richard M. Hunt was the architect
retained to design the entrance irateways at 5!Hh Street, which wiTe. however,
never constructed. Olmsted & \'aux were the landscape architects. Olm
sted WHS later made architoct-in-chief."

FOREWORD
Inasmuch as the existence of The Fifth Avenue Bank of New York
has been contemporaneous with the remarkable growth and develop
ment of Fifth Avenue during the past twoscore years, the Bank
deems it appropriate to commemorate its fortieth anniversary on
October 13, 1915, by issuing this brief history of Fifth Avenue. While
a complete story would fill volumes, the Bank has gathered within these
pages the most essential and interesting facts relating to the Avenue's
origin and development. So far as can be learned, this is the first at
tempt to tell the story of Fifth Avenue. There are few, even among
those famiUar with New York, who know how interesting Fifth
Avenue is.
Original authorities, histories, newspapers and magazines have been
freely consulted. A list will be found at the end of the narrative.
Many persons, whose experience has given them a wide knowledge
of the Avenue, have also been interviewed. The Bank desires par-
ticidarly to acknowledge its indebtedness to Messrs. Edward N.
Tailer, Gardner Wetherbee, John D. Crimmins, Robert Weeks de
Forest, Amos F. Eno, Percy R. Pyne, 2nd, J. Clarence Davies, S. B.
Altmayer, John T. Mills, Jr., Francis Jordan Bell, Francis T. L. Lane,
Charles White, George Schmelzel, Frederick T. van Beuren, Jr.,
J. H. Jordan, Robert Fridenberg, Max WiUiams, A. M. Chase,
Stewart Burchard, A. T. Thomas, Mrs. J. J. Blodgett, Lawson Purdy,
President of the Board of Commissioners, Department of Taxes and
Assessments of the City of New York, officials of the New York Public
Library, New York Historical Society, American Geographical So
ciety, and others, for their courtesy and for the valuable information
they have supplied.

1 t

LithogravhbyC.GiUkmdster. C ^^j:,^^ ^. ..^, ^r-L»/ :^''in P«:m,,,r J^i'-l^:^ ^ CoUeMon of Robert Weeks de Forest.
WasliingtOD Square us a pnra.le ground in 1852. The old cuatollated buildings of Now Yorli University appear in tlie bacliground.

Rirjuird M . H unt Mfmonal on tfie wi-d side of Fifth Avenue htiwecn yoth an/I y id Slreet.'i.
FIFTH AVENUE

IFTH AVENUE i.s one of the world's famous streets.
What Regent and Bond Streets are to London, the Rue
de la Paix to Paris, the I nter den Linden to Berlin, the
Ringstrasse to Vienna, Fifth Avenue is to New York. It
is the most lesthetic expression of the material side of the
metrojjolis. A noted English author has characterized it as "architec
turally the finest street in the world." Its general aspect is one of
great beauty, but its details present surprising contrasts and a few
ugly extremes. Long famous for the beauty of its residences, churches
and hotels, it is now rapidly becoming a great business street of pala
tial shops. Close inspection shows that it has a manufacturing centre
and also a tenement quarter. Few, cxen of its residents, know the
Avenue in all its pha.ses.
It is difficult to imagine the contrasts which may be drawn along
the Avenue. At one end is venerable Washington S(|iiare, the beautiful
Washington Arch, and the dignified homes of some of New York's
oldest families. At the other end, 14.'5rd Street and the Harlem River,
is a (luasi-public dump littered with unsightly debris. Within the
se\eii miles that lie between, may be found some of the nrost beautiful
homes in the world and unkempt double-decker tenements; l)uilding
after building given to the manufacture of wearing apparel, or con
taining the heatlciuarters or agencies of almost c\('ry known industry;
luxurious and expensive hotels, and some <>f the most beautiful churches
and clubs in this country. Elbowing the churches and tlic clubs,
and pushing up to the very doors of the stately residences, are some
of the finest shops and art galleries in the world.
This A\enue, the centre of fashion, wealth, society and trade —
where many of the leading business men of America make their home,
and the mart which attracts the most exjjensiye products of America,
Eiu'0])e, Asia and Africa — changes so rajiidly that after an absence of
twenty-five years a former resident would hardly recognize it. To
realize what changes have taken place let us fix in our minds the general

nir, ,,t
'III III.
ri III III
¦a.lr

FIFTH AVENUE

aspect of the Avenue as it now is, sketch its rural aspect a century ago,
and then traverse it leisurely, stopping here and there to catch a
glimpse of its interesting past.

Trade In
vasion

PRESENT ASPECT
Early The earhest residential part of Fifth Avenue, below 12th Street,
Residential is to-day much as it was between 1830 and 1840, when the square.
Section homelike, brownstone and brick houses — the first Fifth Avenue resi
dences — ^were built. Trade has left this section untouched, because
the descendants of the old famihes, some of whom still five in this
locality, have refused to sell; but it has laid an iconoclastic hand upon
the rest of the Avenue below 59th Street. Between 12th and 23rd
Streets the wholesale trade and makers of wearing apparel are en
trenched; no less than 491 garment factories, employing 51,476
hands, were estimated to be on Fifth Avenue in April 1915.
The Avenue from 23rd to 34th Streets is mainly devoted to retail
specialty shops; while from 34th to 59th Streets, department stores
and exclusive shops now predominate, having either swept away or
flowed around churches, clubs, hotels and residences. Jewelry
shops rivalling those of the famous Rue de la Paix; art galleries which
exhibit wonderful collections of world-famous pictures by old and
modern masters; antique and furniture shops, department stores and
other establishments wherein may be found products of the greatest
ancient and modern artisans make this part of Fifth Avenue one of
the most magnificent streets in the world.
Most From 60th to 90th Streets is the fine of beautiful residences
Valuable popularly known as " MiUionaires' Row." This mile and a half of
Residential Avenue — probably the most valuable residential section on the globe
^r^W^ W ^^^ ^ *°*** assessed valuation of $71,319,000. Protected here on
'^ one side by Central Park, the Avenue seems to offer effectual resistance
to business.
Tenements Onward from Carnegie Hill, at 91st Street, the Avenue rapidly
and Open degenerates into a tenement section with many open lots, fenced with
Lots billboards, and with saloons and refreshment stands on some of the
corners. Beyond Mount Morris Park (120th to 124th Streets) for
several blocks it rises to the dignity of small brownstone or brick dwell
ings, but quickly drops to the tenement level again. From 127th to
139th Streets it swarms with foreigners and negroes. Beyond, the
Avenue loses its identity in a rutted dirt road bordered by unsightly
open lots, until, at 143rd Street, it comes to a degenerate end in the
slimy waters of the Harlem River.

FIFTH AVENUE A CENTURY AGO
We need turn back the hands of time less than a hundred years to
find almost virgin country where this wonderful Avenue now extends.
Prior to 1824 Fifth Avenue had no existence save upon the Commis-

F I F T II A V E N U E

Rural Aspect Due
Hundred

sioners' Map of 1811. During the first quarter of the nineteenth
century the line which Fifth Avenue follows to-day wandered over
"the hills and valleys, dales and fields" of a picturesque countryside,
where trout, mink, otter and muskrat swam in the brooks and pools; Years aijo
brant, black duck and yellow leg splashed in the marshes; the fox,
rabbit, woodcock and partridge found covert in the thickets covering
the rough, rocky hills which characterized the upper part of New
York. A few .scattered farms lay about, while the City proper, with a
population of less than 100,000, was still below Canal Street.

^^|^^y'*"'^^Bl^^^WWM^

- j^-^^y^^ -ts -x^^y

/¦I .vr

M.\P UF THI-; 1-AUM8
Prepared for llie Q\Vy in IS 10-1820, by Jotin Randel, Jr. Slmwinti liie farms superimpoeed upon
the Comniisyioners' Map of is 11.

8

FIFTH AVENUE

Manetta Water

Brooks,
Ponds and
Swamps

Snipe-
shooting on the
Waldorf- Astoria Site

Beginning at what is now Washington Square, then Potter's Field,
the line of what afterward became Fifth Avenue left "the Road over the
Sand Hills" or the "Zantberg" of the Dutch, later called Art Street,
and now gone from the map, and went northerly across the estate of
Robert Richard Randall, the founder of Sailors' Snug Harbor. This
estate extended to about 9th Street, in the valley of the beautiful
brook which the Dutch called Bestavaer's Rivulet, and the English,
Manetta Water. This sparkling stream, once filled with trout, rose
in the high ground above 21st Street, flowed southeasterly to Fifth
Avenue at 9th Street, thence to midway between the present 8th
Street and Waverly Place, where it swung southwesterly and flowed
into the Hudson River near Charlton Street. After Fifth Avenue
was built up it frequently flooded cellars and weakened foundations,
and even yet, despite the great sewers which now give it an outlet,
causes trouble at this part of Fifth Avenue after very heavy rains.
After leaving the Randall property the line of the Avenue crossed
the meadow and marshland of what had been Henry Brevoort's
farm, which stretched from 9th to 18th Streets, and had in 1714 been
bought by an ancestor for £400. At 12th Street it met the east
branch of the Manetta Water, which flowed into the main stream
between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. In the centre of the fine of the
Avenue, and midway between 13th and 14th Streets, lay a smaU pond.
Low and level land, with swamp and marsh at Union Square, extended
from 13th Street to Love's Lane, now 21st Street. Isaac Varian owned
the land from 18th to 20th Streets, and Gilbert Coutant from 20th
to 21st Streets. From 21st Street to Madison Square at 23rd Street,
John Horn, John Watts and others had possession. At 23rd Street,
as at present. Fifth Avenue met the old Bloomingdale Road (now
Broadway), the highway to Kingsbridge. From 23rd to 34th Streets
stretched the Common Lands that later became the Parade Ground.
The tract of Common Lands from 28th to 32nd Streets, through
which the Avenue was later projected, was part of the thirty-seven
acre farm which Caspar Samler bought in various pieces, from the
City, between 1780 and 1799 for $12,100. On the Eastern Post-Road
side of the Parade Ground, from 1794 to 1797, was the City's Potter's
Field, which later was removed to Washington Square. At 32nd
Street a small brook crossed Fifth Avenue, which flowed into Sun Fish
Pond, between 31st and 32nd Streets on Madison Avenue. At this
point it is interesting to note that within the lifetime of men still living
snipe were shot about where the Waldorf-Astoria now stands.
The land rose rapidly from the northerly boundary of the Parade
Ground at 34th Street, reaching the summit of the steep slope of
"Inclenburg" (now Murray Hill) at about 38th Street. In the early
days, this hill was used for signal fires, and was known as Beacon Hill.
From 34th to 36th Streets the land belonged to tjie City, and from
35th and 37th Streets was the property of John Murray, Jr., whose
house stood between 36th and 37th Streets, on land which later became
Fifth Avenue. The property from 37th to 40th Streets belonged to

FIFTH AVENUE

9

a number of small farmers, and from 40th to 48th Streets to the City
of New York.
There was a small pond at the northeast corner of what is now 46th
Street and Fifth Avenue, fed by a little brook which flowed across
the line of the Avenue. From Inclenburg the land fell gradually
until it reached 59th Street. At this point, on the sites of the Plaza
and Savoy Hotels, were ponds fed by a stream which flowed easterly
through 59th Street.
The land ascended from 59th Street, marked by abrupt rises and
descents, and crossed by brooks at 64th, 74th and 83rd Streets, until
its greatest height was reached between 90th and 91st Streets, 114
feet above sea level, about where Mr. Andrew Carnegie's mansion
now stands. This was later known as Observatory Hill, and near here,
because of the elevation, was subsequently constructed the Croton
storage reservoir in Central Park. From 87th to 96th Streets were
the Harlem Commons. At 91st Street the height fell away until
Benson's Mill Creek, or Harlem Creek, was reached, now the Harlem
Mere at the northerly end of Central Park. The Benson Farm
extended along the line of Fifth Avenue from 96th to 121st Streets.
Harlem Creek, which was the largest stream that touched Fifth
Avenue, rose in the neighborhood of Tenth Avenue and 123rd Street,
flowed to Fifth Avenue at 116th Street, and swung southerly along
the Avenue almost to 106th Street, whence it flowed into the Harlem
River. Mr. S. B. Altmayer, an elderly gentleman, whose life has been
spent in the upper part of Manhattan, as a boy often rowed from the
Harlem River up this creek, and fished where it crossed the line of
Fifth Avenue.
Traversing the land of Benjamin Vredenburg and Thomas Addis
Emmet, the Irish patriot, who in 1812 was Attorney-General of the
State of New York, Fifth Avenue reached, at 120th Street, the rocky
hill of Mount Morris, called by the Dutch, Slangberg or Snake Hill, from
the numerous rattlesnakes found there. This height was never cut
through. Beginning at 124th Street the Avenue continued over the
lowlands to the Harlem River.

Ponds at
J,r,th and
59th Streets

Other Brooks
and Creeks
and Observa
tory Hill

Roving and
Fishing on
FifthAvenue

THE BEGlXXrXC OF THE AVKXl E
The first appearance of a plan of Fifth Avenue is on the Com- First
missioners' Map of 1811, made in accordance with an act of the Appearanir
Legislature of April 3, 1807, appointing three Commissioners — "j '' '.'"'
Gouverneur Morris, Simeon De Witt and John Rutherford — to lay 'A',', "(J^/,""
out the City above Houston Street. Under their direction John „•,',„. ^^.^
Randel, Jr., surveyed the island and planned the streets and avenues 'jy^^ of 1811
in parallelograms. In the Commissioners' Report and the Map,
published by William Bridges, March 22, 1811, appears for the first
time the name "Fifth Avenue."
The street was not opened, however, until many years later and Opening of
then only in sections. From Waverly Place to 13th Street was the Avenue

10 FIFTH AVENUE
opened in August 1824; 13th to 21st Streets, in May 1830; 21st to
' 42nd Streets, in October 1837; 42nd Street to 90th Street, in April
1838; 90th Street to 106th Street, in August 1828; 106th to 120th
Streets, in April 1838. The grading and paving were not done in
some cases until long after the section was declared open. As late
as 1869 the Avenue at 59th Street is described as "a muddy dirt
road which ran alongside a bog." Few streets in New York have
required more grading and fiUing.
Original As at first laid out the Avenue was one hundred feet wide, providing
Diynensions for a roadway of sixty feet and sidewalks of twenty; but in 1833 and
of the Avenue 1844 the City gave property owners permission to encroach fifteen feet
for stoops, courtyards and porticoes. As traffic grew congestion
increased, and the City advocated taking the full roadway. This led to
emphatic protest from the owners of private and business buildings,
in behalf of their ornamental entrances, stoops, and areas. However,
in April 1908 the Board of Estimate and Apportionment ordered all
the encroachments removed.
Hamilton In addition to the Parade Ground, which, as first planned, extended
Square and from 23rd to 34th Streets, two large squares on the upper part of
Observatory Fifth Avenue were projected by the Commissioners. One was
Place Hamilton Square, bounded by Fourth and Fifth Avenues, 66th and
67th Streets, comprising about twenty acres. Here on October 19,
1847, the Washington Monument Association laid the corner-stone of
a shaft 400 feet high to be known as the Washington Monument, a
subscription list to raise the necessary money having been opened at
the Merchants' Exchange. The monument, however, was not carried
beyond the laying of the corner-stone, and the square itself was finaUy
closed in 1867. The other square, called Observatory Place, was to
' have been between 89th and 94th Streets, Foiu-th and Fifth Avenues,
but was never laid out.
LAND VALUES PAST AXD PRESEXT
Fifth Avenue, which a century ago presented so rough and so im-
promising an aspect, is to-day assessed at $440,336,900. The most
valuable piece of property is the Altman site, at 34th Street, the
total assessed value of which is $13,800,000; diagonally opposite is
the Waldorf-Astoria site, assessed at $12,125,000, the next most
valuable parcel. The average assessed value per block front is
$1,495,627, while each twenty-five foot lot has an average assessed
value of $186,953. This is the more astonishing when one learns
from musty real estate records that early in the nineteenth century
property including Fifth Avenue frontage was sold at valuations
which made twenty-five foot Avenue lots then worth about $15.
Elgin On August 6, 1804 Dr. David Hosack acquired title to four plots
Garden of the common land, or 256 city lots, extending from 47th to 51st
Tract Streets, Fifth to Sixth Avenues, at a price of $4,807.36 and a yearly
quit-rent of sixteen bushels of good merchantable wheat or its equiva-

F I F T H A V E X U E 11
lent in gold or silver coin. To-day this tract, where he laid out the
Elgin Botanical Garden, is assessed for $30,370,000.
One of the first important transfers of Fifth Avenue realty was the Early
sale in April 1836 of the estate of John Cowman, comprising the Important
block between 16th and 17th Streets, Fifth Avenue and Union Square. Transfer of
The twenty-eight lots brought $197,000, of which the seven Fifth ^'f*'} ^"en'ie
Avenue lots brought $57,200. ^^"'''^
In 1850 lots at Fifth Avenue and 58th Street, where the Cornelius Corner
Vanderbilt house stands, brought from $520 to $710 each. Sixty-five Valuations
years ago, so little value had 57th Street corners of Fifth Avenue that '" ^¦'>JC'
a twenty-five by one hundred foot lot sold for $1,025. Three lots
in 45th Street near Fifth Avenue brought $500 apiece at the same
time, while the comer of Fifth Avenue and 46th Street brought $1,300.
Below 34th Street, prices were better, a Fifth Avenue lot near 27th
Street bringing $4,500. On October 12, 1858 A. J. Bleecker & Sons Values in
sold at auction lots on Fifth Avenue between 40th and 46th Streets l8o8
for $6,500 to $7,000 and upwards; Fifth Avenue, 48th and 51st Streets,
$6,000; 52nd and 58th Streets on the Avenue, $5,000. Lots on 59th
Street and Fifth Avenue brought $7,000; Fifth Avenue corners at
106th Street brought $2,500; and at 109th Street, $1,600. Inside
lots were as low as $1,025. The prices decreased from this point until
between the north side of Central Park and the south side of Mount
Morris Park, lots 25 x 100 feet were sold for as little as $385.
KALEIDOSCOPIC CHAXGKS
Having taken a bird's-eye view of the early topography of the
Avenue, learned something about its origin, and delved into its land
values, let us, starting at Washington Square, stroll up this remarkable
thoroughfare, stopping here and there to learn what fact and romance,
time has woven into the Avenue's story.
Little known is the fact that at the very beginning of this patrician Washington
avenue once lay apaupers' burying ground. Three other Potter's Fields square a
were located, at one time or another, along Fifth Avenue. Although the Potter's
one we here encounter is the farthest south, it was not the earliest. Field
As epidemic after epidemic of yellow fever, at the close of the eigh
teenth century, swept the young City of New York, the need became
imperative for a new Potter's Field to succeed the one then at
Madison Square, and, accordingly, the swamp and waste land, on the
site of Washington Square, was bought by the City for £1,800
on April 10, 1797. The land then formed part of the farm of Elbert
Herring, an old resident of wealth and consequence in the New York
of his day, and one from whom many prominent families are descended.
The plot purchased consisted of ninety lots, "bounded on the road
leading from the Bowery Lane at the two-mile stone to Greenwich."
Here were buried, during the yellow fever epidemics of the early part
of the nineteenth century, thousands of bodies, many of which still He
under the soil of Washington Square.

12 FIFTH AVENUE
Reminis- "I remember when heavy guns were drawn over the Square, after
cences of an it became a parade ground, that the weight broke through the ground
Old Resi- into the trenches in which the dead were buried and crushed the tops
dent of the of some of the coffins," said Mr. E. N. Tailer, an elderly gentleman
Square .^^Jjq jjygg a,t 11 Washington Square North, and who has kept a careful
record of the City for almost three-quarters of a century. "At one
time near 4th and Thompson Streets I saw a vault imder the sidewalk
opened and the body found there was still wrapped in the yeUow sheet
in which the yellow fever victims were buried."
In an address before the Historical Society in 1857 Dr. John W.
Francis said that the last tombstone to be removed from Washington
Square was that of Benjamin Perkins, a "charlatan believer in
mesmeric influence who used this speciflc in his own ailment — ^yellow
fever — and his temerity terminated his life after three days' illness."
The site was also used for the town gallows. Rose Butler, a young
negress, who had maliciously set fire to combustible material under
a stairway, was hanged there in July 1819, before a large crowd which
included many young children. The Potter's Field was levelled,
filled in and abandoned in 1823.
Washington Washington Square contains in all about nine and three-quarters
Parade acres, of which six and one-half was the Potter's Field. The additional
Ground land was bought for $78,000 in 1827, when the Square was fenced
and the ^^\\]^ wood at a cost of $3,000, walks laid out and trees planted. It
Stone^ ^g^g ^jjgj^ called the Washington Parade Ground. Here in 1834 oc-
' Riot '^^^^^^ the "stone cutters' riot," which began as a protest against
Sing Sing convicts cutting stone for the New York University Build
ing, then in process of erection on the east side of the Square. The
angry stone-masons held a meeting and paraded to the building, but
were dispersed by the 27th Regiment of the New York Mifitia, now
the 7th Regiment. The regiment was on guard at the Parade Ground
for four days and four nights.
Washington The City had hardly levelled Potter's Field when Washington Square
Square a became a fashionable neighborhood. Society, driven successively from
Society Bowling Green, Broad and Wall Streets, St. John's Park, Lafayette
Centre Place, Bond and Bleecker Streets, found here an abiding place for al
most a century. Among the well-known merchants who built along the
upper side of the Square in 1831 were Thomas Suffern, John Johnston,
George Griswold, Saul Alley, James Boorman and Wilham C. Rhine-
lander. About the Square sprang up houses, some of which to-day have
a beauty of line and color and dignity of aspect unsurpassed in the City.
On the east side of the Square stood until 1894 the old white castellated
stone building of New York University which was opened in 1837. This
has been replaced by a large modern building, which contains important
branches of the University. The rest of the University has been re
moved to a commanding site on the banks of the Harlem River.
Washington Square North is the only section which still preserves
unaltered the characteristics of early days. Some of the houses are
still tenanted by descendants of the original occupants.

FIFTH A \' E X U E

13

t a photograph

RESIDENCI-; OF lOt'GENK DELANO.
At ttie northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and Washington Square Nortti.

Collection of Frank Cousins

Mrs. Emily Johnston de Forest in her interesting life of her grand
father, John Johnston, describes the beautiful gardens of these houses
and charmingly portrays the delightful yet simple life and society of
this aristocratic part of Xew ^'ork from 1833 to 184'i. "The houses
in the 'Row,' as this part of Washington Square was called, all had
beautiful gardens in the rear about ninety feet deep, surrounded by
white, grape covered trellises, with rounded arches at intervals and
lox'ely borders full of old-fashioned flowers." Some of these gardens
may still be seen from Fifth Avenue. Although some of the Row
had cisterns, all the residents went for their washing water ))ecaiise of
its softness to "the pump with a long handle" that stood in the Stjuare.
Concerning this pump ]Mrs. de Forest tells the following amusing
story. One of her grandfather's neighbors retiuested his coachman
to fetch a couple of pails of water for Mary, the laundress. The
coachman said that this was not his business, and upon being asked
what his business was, replied, "To harness the horses and drive
them." Thereupon he was reciuested to bring the carriage to the
door. His employer then invited the laundress with her two pails to

/( III the
jiie" ((.V
rrihed hi/
-.V. I', until
Il iisiuii
FnresI

14

FIFTH AVENUE

Washington Arch

Story of the
Sailors'
Snug Harbor
Property

Misses
Green's
School and
ex-Senator Root

step in and bade the coachman drive her to the pump. There was nc
further trouble with the coachman. The Square and its environs have
been the scene of many incidents in novels written about New York,
and is to-day, with its studios and population of artists and writers,
the nearest approach to "Bohemia" to be found in the Metropohs.
At the entrance to Fifth Avenue stands the Washington Arch, one
of the most beautiful monuments of its kind in America. It was
originally a temporary structure erected by the architects, McKim,
Mead and White, at the expense of William Rhinelander Stewart
and other residents of Washington Square, for the centennial cele
bration on April 30 and May 1, 1889, of the inauguration of Wash
ington as President. So beautiful was the temporary structure that
steps were taken, through popular subscription, to make it permanent.
In May 1892 this stately gateway to the Avenue was completed.
Part of Fifth Avenue between Waverly Place and 9th Street
traverses the Sailors' Snug Harbor property. About this tract hangs
a romantic story. Robert Richard Randall, the donor of the twenty-
one acres "seeded to grass," which were valued at Randall's death
at $25,000, and are now worth twice as many miUions, was the son of
Captain Thomas Randall, a freebooter of the seas, who commanded
the "Fox" and sailed for years in and out of New Orleans, where he
sold the proceeds of his voyages or captures.
After Robert Randall was born, Cap'n Tom, with fat coffers, settled
down and became a respectable merchant at 10 Hanover Street. He
was coxswain of the barge crew of thirteen ships' captains who rowed
General Washington from Ehzabethtown Point to New York, on
the way to the first inauguration. Robert, who inherited the bulk
of his father's estate, added to his holdings by the purchase of "Minto,"
a farm in the Seventh Ward of New York. While dying, in 1801,
propped up in bed, he dictated his will. After making bequests to
relatives and servants, he whispered to his lawyer: "My father was a
mariner, his fortune was made at sea. There is no snug harbor for
worn-out sailors. I would hke to do something for them." Thus
came into being the Sailors' Snug Harbor estate, on the Fifth Avenue
portion of which, between 1830 and 1840, the wealthiest families of
New York settled.
The Misses Green's School, conducted at No. 1 Fifth Avenue, by
Lucy M. and Mary Green, sisters of Andrew H. Green, "the father
of Greater New York," was, for years before and after the Civil
War, one of the most fashionable and select schools of its day. Later
it was carried on by the Misses Graham. Here were educated lie
daughters of the commercial and social leaders of New York. Among
the pupils were Fanny and Jennie Jerome, the latter now Lady
Randolph Churchill, mother of Winston Churchill, recently the First
Lord of the British Admiralty. The Honorable EKhu Root, ex-
Secretary of State and Senator from New York, taught here, at
such an early age that Miss Lucy Green, a martinet for social proprie
ties, thought it best to frequent his classes. Here also the Honorable

F IFTH A ^" E N U E

15

From a photograph. Collection of Frank Cousins.
RESIDENCE OF CHARLES de RHAM, 24 FIFTH AVENUE.
Formerly the home of Henry Brevoort, Jr. One of the most typical early Fifth .Avenue homes.
John Bigelow taught botany and charmed the young ladies of Washing
ton S(|uare because he was "so handsome."
On the northeast corner of 8th Street, where it has stood for many /
years, is the Brevoort House. The family from which the hotel takes /
its name is descended from Hendrick \ an Brevoort, who had served '
Haarlem as constable and overseer, and later "emigrated" to Xew '
York, where he \\:is an alderman from 1702 to 1713. His farm '[
adjoined the Randall farm and ran northeasterly to about 1-lth Street
and Fourth Avenue. Later, one of his descendants, Henry Brevoort,
whose farmhouse was on the west side of Fourth Avenue, stood in
his doorwtiy with a blunderbuss, so tradition says, and defied the
Commissioners to lay 11th Street through his homestead. It is a
fact that, although in maps of ISO? 11th Street runs through Bre
voort's homestead, and in 1836 and 1849 the city aldermen passed
ordinances cutting the street through, such respect was paid to the

r< I <'• ¦ri
'I II i I
nil: !l .'I ¦ I
, II '.!
hi

16 FIFTH AVENUE
opposition of the doughty old burgher, that to this day 11th Street
has never been cut through; nor is it likely to be, for Grace Church,
its rectory and garden, cover the site of old Henry Brevoort's home
stead. One of the most palatial early homes on Fifth Avenue was
the residence, at No. 24, of another Henry Brevoort of the same
family. It was sold in 1850 to Henry de Rham for $57,000, and is
now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Charles de Rham. Brevoort's only
daughter married James Renwick, whose son, James Renwick, Jr.,
was the architect of St. Patrick's Cathedral and Grace Church.
Romance A romantic tale is told of the first masked ball given in New York,
of New which was held in 1840 in the Brevoort house. It was popularly
} ork's First spoken of as "an imported amusement." Among those who attended
Masked Ball jjj fancy dress, domino and mask, was Miss Matilda Barclay, the
beautiful and charming daughter of Anthony Barclay, the British
Consul, who was later dismissed for raising recruits during the
Crimean War. Another guest was a young South Carolinian named
Burgwyne, who, in spite of the opposition of her parents, had won Miss
Barclay's heart. She went as Lalla Rookh and he as Feramorz. At
four o'clock, without changing their costumes, they left the ball and
were married before breakfast. This incident brought masked
balls into such odium that it was many years before another was
attempted in New York.
Early On lower Fifth Avenue are two of New York's earhest churches.
Churches on The Episcopal Church of the Ascension, standing at the northwest
Lower Fifth QQYneT of 10th Street, of which the Rev. Percy Stickney Grant is
Avenue ^^^^ rector, was built in 1840 and consecrated November 5, 1841.
The First Presbyterian Church, between 11th and 12th Streets, built
in 1845, was opened for worship January 11, 1846. Its present pastor
is the Rev. Howard Duffield.
Fifth Avenue to 12th Street, which we have just traversed, has
scarcely changed in appearance since 1845. On an avenue Uned
with trees and dotted here and there with front-yard grass plots,
many of the old houses still stand unchanged. Save for one or two
business offices, recently opened, and several large apartments, it is
the Fifth Avenue of seventy years ago. "Business has never been
able to get a hold below 12th Street," said Mr. Amos F. Eno, who
lives at No. 32, "because most of the residents think too much of their
old homesteads to sell."
But at 12th Street a change so sudden as to be almost startling
presents itself. There begins the portion of Fifth Avenue which
trade has so radically altered. At the northwest corner stands an
eighteen-story office building, a threatening outpost of approaching
business. Opposite, on the west side of the Avenue, Nos. 60 and 62,
until recently the last survivors, north of 12th Street, of the early
homes, are now being razed. No trees are to be seen from this point
northward. Immediately above, as far as 23rd Street, is the section
of large office buildings given almost exclusively to the manufacturing
and wholesale trade.

Copyright, IQ15, by Ftrry Wnlion.

From phoioffraphs. EARLIi:8T CHURCHES ON FIFTH AVENUE.
On the left the Church of the Ascension, northwest corner of lOlh Street. On the right the First Presbyterian Chxarch, northwest comer of 11th Strt-t-t.

18

FIFTH A \' E N U E

Story of the
Spingler
and Van
Beuren Estates

From a painting by W. R. Miller in 1848. Collection of New York Historical Society,
SPINGLER FARMHOUSE.
Shown on the Damage IVIap of 14th Street (1828) as standing about in the centre of the street.
Near its site now stands the old Van Beuren house.
At 14th Street and Fifth Avenue was the Spingler market garden
farm of about twenty-two acres. Long before New York had stretched
above City Hall Park, John Smith, a wealthy slave-holder, bought of
Elias Brevoort, in 1762, part of the Brevoort farm about 14th Street
and Fifth Avenue. On the choicest site, now the centre of 14th Street,
just west of Fifth Avenue, he built his country residence. His widow
continued to live in it until 1788, when James Duane, Mayor of the
City, and others, executors of Smith's will, sold the estate to Henry
Spingler for about $4,750. Here Spingler lived until his death in 1813.
His barn stood on the southwest corner of 14th Street and Fifth
Avenue. Most of the property was inherited by ^Irs. jNIary S. Van
Beuren, Spingler's granddaughter. She built the Van Beuren brown
stone front house on 14th Street and lived there for years, maintain
ing a little garden, with fiowers and vegetables, a cow and chickens.
Spingler's estate, valued in 1845 at $200,000, eventually found its
way into the possession of many well-known New Yorkers. Moses
H. Grinnell of the firm of Grinnell, Minturn & Co., the famous mer
chants of the clipper ship days, had his beautiful home at the northeast
corner of 14th Street and Fifth Avenue. Later the house was leased
to the Delmonicos until they moved in 1876 to 26th Street and Fifth
Avenue.

F I F T H AVE X U E

19

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MAP OF THE FARMS.
I'rcpared for the City in ISUI-ISL'II. hy John^Randel, Jr.
upon the CommisMioniTH^ ^'^.P of ISll, '"^
, the 23rd Str
iiwing the farms superimposed
Parade Ground, Bloomingdale
pass
rela-
art of llii
Road, antTtlie ijastcrn Post-Road.
As we go up the Avenue from 15th to 18th Streets we
across what was the farm of Thomas and Edward Burling,
ti\i-s of tho.se old merchants James and John Burling, whose name
was given to Burling Slip, part of the East River front, and also
o\er the farm owned until 1S,'!(I by John Cowman. The stretch
from 18th to 21st Streets was part of the farm .sold in 17i)l to
Isaac \ariau for $3,000, by the heirs of Sir Peter Warren. The
proi)ertv formed part of tlie complimentary tract of land granted
iiy the corporation of the City in 1744 to Captain, afterward Admiral,
FarmsIrarersed hij
III, Line if
Fifth. 1 rcniic
20

FIFTH A V E N U E

From a photograph.

Collection of J. Clarence Davies.

AUGUST BELMONT'S HOUSE AND ART GALLERY.
Northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 18th Street.
Just before demohtion in 1894-95.
Sir Peter Warren, in commemoration of "Singidar and Imminent
Services done and perfformed by him Not Only for the Kangdom
of Great Brittain in Generall, but for this City and Colony in par
ticular." A valiant character was Sir Peter Warren, who in 1743
was Commodore of the English Squadron off the Port of X^ew
York.
Prominent Worth noting are the names of prominent New Yorkers who, during
Early the fifties, lived on Fifth Avenue between Washington Square and
Residents 21st Street. Among them are Lispenard Stewart, Thomas Eggleson,
Silas Wood, Henry C. de Rham, Thomas F. Woodruff, Francis Cottinet,
David S. Kennedy, James Donaldson, Dr. J. Kearney Rodgers, C. X^.
Talbot, N. H. Wolfe, James McBride, Charles M. Parker, L. M.
Hoffman, August Belmont, Benjamin i\ymar, Henry C. Winthrop,
Eugene Schiff, Captain Lorillard Spencer, Moses Taylor, John H. Cos
ter, Henry A. Coster, Sidney Mason, Marshall O. Roberts, Robert L.
Cutting, Gordon W. Burnham, Robert C. Townsend, George Opdyke,
Robert L. Stuart, whose magnificent art collection was given to the
Lenox Library, and James Lenox, the founder of the Lenox Library.
The fortunes of these gentlemen, as recorded in "Wealth and Biog
raphy of the Wealthy Citizens of New York," averaged between
$100,000 and $300,000. One of the richest men in New York at that
time was James Lenox, who had inherited the then huge fortune of
$3,000,000; another large fortune was that of James McBride, es
timated at $700,000.

FIFTH A V E X U E

21

From a print. Collection of S. B. Altmayer,
UNION CLUB IN 185.i.
Northwest corner of 2l8t Street and Fifth .\ venue.
As early as 1855 clubs had begun to elbow themselves into Fifth
Avenue, and one of the first to intrude among the residences was
the Union Club, organized in 1836 with four hundred of the City's
most distinguished citizens as members. In 1855 it moved from Broad
way near 4th Street into a new club house on the northwest corner of
21st Street and Fifth Avenue, described at the time as "a superb
brownstone structure which cost .$300,000," and which was the first
hou.se erected in New York solely for club purpo.ses. In 1859 the Athe-
neum established itself at the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and
16th Street. The Manhattan Club, in 1876, when August Belmont
was president, occupied the former home of Charles M. Parker at the
southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 15th Street. The Lotos Club
ill 1888 had its home opposite the Union Club at the northeast corner
of 21st Street. The Travellers' Club occupied the large residence
that had belonged to Gordon W. Burnham, at the southwest corner of
18th Street and Fifth Avenue. The Arcadian Club, for promoting fellow
ship among journalists, artists, musicians, literary and theatrical men,
was ;it 146 Fifth iV venue between 19th and 20th Streets. In 1874 the
New \'ork Club, which had been formed in 1846 by a number of young
literary and professional men and "men about town," moved from its
location at loth Street and Fifth Avenue to a building which faced the
Worth Monument at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 25th Street. The
Knickerbocker Club, organized in 1871 and composed of descendants of
the first settlers of Xew York, bought from W'illiam Butler Duncan his
residence on the .southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 28th Street for
$180,000 and fitted it up as a commodious and elegantly appointed club

¦ir.sl Cliih.-
11 Fifth
I renue

FIFTH AVE X U E

c^/tt^e^yS^e-a^^y^^i^i^^-yy^Cj^ n/n/6/€J:.

Earliest Fifth
Avenue
Churches

From a photograph. Collection of Amos F. Eno.
ENGRAVED BUSINESS CARD OF THE MADISON COTTAGE, ANNOUNCING THE
TIME OF THE DEPARTURE OF STAGES.
house. On the northwest corner of 18th Street and Fifth Avenue,
opposite the former home of Gordon W. Burnham, in later years stood
Chickering Hall, famous in its day as a musical and social centre.
As the residences drew the clubs to Fifth Avenue, so even earlier
they attracted the churches. The Church of the Ascension, at 10th
Street, and the First Presbyterian Church, at 11th Street, have been
mentioned. The South Dutch Reformed Church was built in 1850
at the southwest corner of 21st Street, and the Fifth Avenue Presby
terian Church was built at the corner of 19th Street and Fifth Avenue
in 1853. At the northwest corner of 29th Street stands the Marble

F IFTH A V E X U E

23

^¦WWy^.'^T^HSTB-'^

¦=?^2:;]f»^iFr-

1: .#

., i' i.

From a lithograph by T, S, Berry.

Collection of J , Clarence Davies,

FRANCONI'S HIPPODROME.
23rd Street and Fifth Avenue in 1S.53.
Collegiate Church. The corner-stone was laid November 26, 1851,
and the church was opened for worship October 11, 1854. This
massive building of Hastings marble houses the oldest ecclesiastical
organization in New York, the congregation having been formed in
1628. For years the Rev. Theodore Cuyler, D.D., was pastor, and
later the Rev. Henry C. Van Dyke, D.D., now United States Minister
to The Netherlands. In 1878 was held here the celebration of the
two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Collegiate Church. The
bell which stands in the churchyard bears an inscription showing
that it was cast in 1768 at Amsterdam.
Twenty-third Street and Fifth Avenue is an interesting spot in
our antiquarian journey along the Avenue. Back in 1670 Sir Edmund
Andros, Governor of the Province, granted to Solomon Peters, a
free negro, thirty acres of land from 21st to 2(ith Streets, between
Broadway (Bloomingdale Road) and Seventh Avenue. Solomon's
descendants sold the tract in 1710 to John Horn and Cornelius Web
ber, and in 1815 it became vested in John Horn the second. The
Horn farmhouse stood near the centre of Fifth Avenue south of 2.'5rd
Street, and was later occupied by Christopher Mildenberger, who
married Horn's daughter.
When Fifth A\cnue was cut through at 2.'>rd Street, in IK:!?, the
Common Council allowed the okl farmhouse to remain where it was
until ls;i!) when it was removed to the present site of the Fifth .Vvcniie
Building, the northwest corner of 2,'5rd Street and Broadway. Here it

FifthAreii lie
Farm nf
Solomon Filers, a
Free .\egro

Madison( 'ullage at
'.Jrd Sired

24

FIFTH AVENUE

Franconi's
Hippodrome

Fifth
Avenue Hotel

Mr.
Gardner
Wetherbee's
Recollections of the
Prince of
Wales'
Visit to
New York

became a road-house known as the "Madison Cottage," whose sign
was a huge pair of antlers and whose proprietor was Corporal Thomp
son. This was a famous resort of the riders and drivers from the City,
still some miles south, and was also a post tavern in the coaching days.
Madison Cottage was torn down to make room for Franconi's
Hippodrome, opened May 2, 1853. The Hippodrome was built by a
syndicate of eight American showmen, among whom were Avery
Smith, Richard Sands, and Seth B. Howe. It was seven hundred feet
in circumference; of brick, two stories high, with an oval ring in
the centre two hundred feet wide by three hundred feet long. The
arena was covered with canvas and seated about six thousand people,
with standing room for almost one-half as many more. Although
the circus presented here compared very favorably with perform
ances later given at Madison Square Garden, the venture was
not a success, and after two years of losses the Hippodrome gave
way to the Fifth Avenue Hotel (first called the Mount Vernon Hotel).
The property was bought by Amos R. Eno, a New Englander who
had made a fortune in New York. Many predicted that a hotel so
far up town would not pay. In fact, John Brougham, the actor, in
his reminiscences speaks of "shooting birds where the Fifth Avenue
Hotel now stands," and playing cricket in a field near 35th Street as
late as the forties. The hotel was opened in September 1859 under
the control of Colonel Paran Stevens. It fronted 23l'd Street, Broad
way, Fifth Avenue and 24th Street, was six stories high, built of
white marble, and had every convenience then known, including the first
passenger elevator (called a " Vertical Railroad ") ever installed. This
hostelry accommodated one thousand guests, and the rates, including
room and board, were $2.50 a day. Under the management of A. B.
Darling, a native of Burke, Vt., and Hiram Hitchcock, of Claremont,
N.H., who had both gained great popularity while running well-known
Southern hotels, the house filled with a large Southern patronage and
soon became one of the famous hotels of the world. Well-known men
from all over America and from Europe were its guests. Here the
Prince of Wales, later Edward the Seventh, was entertained when
he came to America in 1860.
"I remember the Prince of Wales' visit well," said Mr. Gardner
Wetherbee, who was a clerk at the hotel and who later became one of
New York's most successful hotel proprietors. "He had the suite
on the first floor 23rd Street side, and was pretty much bored, as a
jolly youth of nineteen might well be, by the ceremony he was obUged
to face from the time he set foot in New York. So great was his
relief to escape to the privacy of his suite that he and his imme
diate companions engaged in an enthusiastic game of leap-frog in
the corridor.
"At the time of the draft riots in 1863 when the rioters, after burning
the Orphan Asylum at 44th Street and Fifth Avenue, came down
Broadway to burn the hotel, we put up the iron shutters for protec
tion. A United States officer who was at the hotel told Mr. Hitchcock

From a lithograph.

FIFTH AVENUE AT 23rd STREET ABOUT 1880,
Showing the Fifth Avenue Hotel on the left, the old horse-car hnes and Fifth Avenue stages.

Colltctivn of Percy R. Pyne, znd.

26

FIFTH A V E X U E

From an old print, Charles Magnus, publisher. Collection of J. Clarence Davies,
MADISON SQUARE IN THE EARLY GO's.
that if he could borrow a pistol he would turn back the rioters. He
met them at the corner of 25th Street and succeeded in diverting them
up Broadway. At 27th Street they burned the draft offices."
Emperor Dom Pedro, of Brazil, and the Empress, stayed at the
hotel in 1876. Presidents Lincoln and Grant, senators, congressmen,
governors, judges, generals, admirals, ambassadors, actors and
actresses stopped at the Fifth Avenue. Here for years lived General
W. T. Sherman, William J. Florence, the actor, and ex-Senator
Thomas C. Piatt, the Republican boss. Senator Piatt's "Amen
Corner," where weekly political conferences were held in a corner
of the corridor, made and unmade presidents, governors, senators,
and congressmen, as well as lesser political officials. The old hostelry
was razed in 1908 to make room for the present Fifth Avenue Building,
occupied by stores and offices, and the Aldine Club, an organization
of advertising men, publishers, authors and artists.
Why the When Fifth Avenue was carried through to 23rd Street, where it
Flatiron intersects Broadway there was formed a triangular plot with a base
Bnilding of eighty-five feet on 22nd Street and an apex at 23rd Street. On
has an Apex the 22nd Street side of the plot formerly stood the St. Germaine
Hotel. The Fuller Building, popularly called the Flatiron Building,
now occupies the entire triangle.
Madison As originally laid down on the Commissioners' Map of 1811, the
Square. Parade Ground, extending from 23rd to 34th Streets, and bounded
formerbj the on the east by the Eastern Post-Road and on the west by the
Parade Bloomingdale Road (now Broadway), was largely common land be-
Ijronnd longing to the City. Fifth AA'cnue, as at first planned, did not bisect
the Parade Ground but was continued northward at 34th Street.

F I F T H A \' E X U E

27

From Valentine' s Manual. Collection of Perry Walton,
HOUSE OF REFUGE IN 1832.
The remodelled United States Arsenal building, whicli stood on a site now part of Madison
Square.
Near the lower end stood an old United States Arsenal; to the
northeast was a Potter's Field; while to the west was the land of
General Theodorus Bailey, the City Postmaster; and at the north,
the farm of Ca.spar Samler. The Arsenal was erected in 1808, at
the junction of the Eastern Post-Road and the Bloomingdale Road,
near where the Farragut Statue now stands, on land sold to the
Government in 1807 by the City. A powder magazine stood here
as early as 1785. In 1823 "the barracks," as the Arsenal was
called, were abandoned, and the following year the building and
land were sold, for $6,000, to the Society for the Reformation of
Juvenile Delinquents, the first society in America organized to
care for and reform youthful offenders. The remodelled edifice, the
first House of Refuge in Xew York City, was opened with six boys
and three girls. In 1S39 it was destroyed by fire, and the institution
w;is transferred to the foot of East 23rd Street, where it remained
until its removal, about 18.) 1, to Randall's Island.
At the southern end of the Parade Ground, on the Eastern Post-
Road, :i Potter's Field was opened in 1704, in which the dead of the
almshouse and victims of the yellow fever epidemics were interred
until the new Potter's Field was established at Washington S(|uare, in
1797. In 1837 the Parade Ground, called " a public place," was reduced
to the present dimensions of Madison Stpiare (0.84 jicres), and in 1844
the Eastern Post-Road, which traversed the S<|uare, was closed.
The course of this old road may be still traced by the double row of
trees that runs northeast toward Madi.son St|uare Ciarden. Madison
Stiuare, named after President ^ladison, was formally opened ;is a

r,,./ ,/
>lal'
ui.J ///.
./„,,. ,,•/,
.l.v.y/,,.,

1/,/.'.

28

FIFTH AVENUE

Lithograph I

Weingartner

Collection of Amos F. Eno,

CEREMONIES OF DEDICATION OF THE WORTH MONUMENT NOVEMBER 25. 1857.
The houses in the background are typical of the buildings which then surrounded Madison Square.

park in June 1847. During the Civil War the Square was used as
a camp for recruits.
Prominent The migration of society to Madison Square began soon after the
Early opening of the Square in 1847, during the mayoralty of James Harper,

Residents
of Madison Square

Dedication e)f the
Wejrth
Monument

of the well-known publishing firm of Harper & Brothers. From 1853
until after the Civil War, Madison Square was the social centre of
the City. William Allen Butler's poem, "Miss Flora McFhmsey of
Madison Square," characterizes the frivolity of certain phases of
society at that time. The poem was published in Harper's Weekly,
which was owned by the firm whose head was then Mayor of
the City. Among those who lived in this vicinity were Leonard
W. Jerome, and his elder brother, Addison G. Jerome, who, with
William R. Travers, were social leaders and prominent WaO Street
brokers; James Stokes, who, in 1851, built at No. 37 Madison
Scjuare East, the first residence on Madison Square, and whose
wife was a daughter of Anson G. Phelps; John David Wolfe, whose
daughter, Catherine Lorillard Wolfe, gave her magnificent art collec
tion to the Metropolitan Museum of Art ; Frank W^ork, William and
John O'Brien, Henry M. Schieffelin, James L. Schieffelin, Samuel B.
Schieffelin, Benjamin H. Field, Peter Ronalds and William Lane.
The triangular piece of ground bounded by Broadway and Fifth
Avenue, 24th and 25th Streets, was set apart by order of the Com
mon Council, December 5, 1854, for the erection of a monument
dedicated to the memory of Major-General William J. Worth, of

FIFTH A V E X U E

29

^ s

From a photograph. Collection of J. Clarence Danes.
FIFTH AVKME AXD 33ed STREET.
Showing Grant's funeral proce&-<ion, August 8, 18S.5. On the right-hand side are the residences
of John Jacob and William B. Astor, now the site of the Waldorf-.Astoria Hotel.

Mexican War fame, who died at San Antonio, Texas, June 7, 1849.
On November 25, 1857, when the monument was dedicated, with a
parade and a review. General Worth's remains were interred under
its south side.
Within the confines of the old Caspar Samler farm, which comprised
the greater part of Fifth Avenue from Madison Square to 31st Street,
have stood some well-known buildings. Among them were the old
Brunswick Hotel, at the northeast corner of 2Gth Street, once famous
as the headquarters of the Coaching Club, now replaced by ;i modern
office building, and the Victoria Hotel, at the southwest corner of 27th
Street, patronized tit one time by Grover Cleveland, and recently de
molished to make way for a twenty-story business structure. The
Marble Collegiate Church at 2i)th Street and the Holland House at
30tli Street also stand on sites once part of the Samler farm.
North of the Cas])ar Samler farm, extending on Fifth Avenue from
near .'i2nd almost to 36th Streets, were the twenty acres of land bought
in 1799 by John Thomp.son for £4S2 U)s. In 1827 William B. Astor
bought a half interest, including Fifth Avenue from :!2iid to .'55th
Streets, for $20,500. He built an unpretentious ,s(|uare red brick
house on the southwest corner of 34th Street and Fifth Avenue, while
John Jacob Astor erecletl a home at the northwest corner of 33rd

InleresiingSites on Ihe
Old Samler
Farm

TheThiinijisiiti
Fiirm.
Iininihl III/
Wdliam li.
Adnr

Collection of The /• ifth Aienue Bank Collection of J C larince Danes
THE Northwest corner of 34th siREet and fifth aviijnub as it was.
Showing the Dr. Samuel P. Townsend mansion (1861) on the left and the A. T. Stewart mansion (1876) on the right.

FIFTH A ^¦ E X U E

31

From a photograph. Copyright, igij, by Perry Walton.
.34th street and FIFTH A\'ENUE TO-DAY.
Sliowing the Waldorf-.\storia, and the Columbia Trust Ccimpaiiy building on the site of the
TowrLsend and Stewart mari-sinnH.
Street. The Waldorf Hotel, named after the little town of Waldorf, WalilnrJ-
Germany, the Astors' ancestral home, occujjies the former site of John Aslnna
Jacob Astor's house, and was opened for business March 14, 1893. The '"''
Astoria, named after Astoria, Ore., founded by John Jacob Astor, Sr.,
in 1811, stands on the site of William B. iVstor's house. It was opened
No\ember 1, 1897. The two hotels, under one management, are now , ,
,, , , TT7 1 1 !• 1 . • Sarsaiia-
called the Waldorf-Astoria. r/Z/n"
On a site which was also part of the Thompson farm, at the north- y-,,,,.,,,,.,,,/,,
west corner of 34th Street, stood, at the beginning of the Civil W;ir, //„„,,,. (,„,/
the residence of "Dr." Samuel P. Townsend, known as "Sarsaparilla" //„¦ .1. '/'.
Townsend. Townsend, who had been a contractor, made his money Sten-art
by successfully advertising Towusend's Sarsaparilla. His house, Mnii-imn

32

FIFTH A\EXUE

Picking
Blackberries on the
Site of the
Altman Block

From an old print. Putnam's Magazine.
COVENTRY WADDELL MANSION.
Northwest corner of 37th Street and Fifth Avenue. Now the site of the Brick
Presbyterian Church.
which cost about $100,000, was one of the wonders of the City. He
sold it in 1862 to Dr. Gorham D. Abbott, uncle of Dr. Lyman Abbott
of The Outlook, and here Dr. Gorham D. Abbott, who had been princi
pal of the Spingler Institute on Union Square, conducted a school
until the site was sold to A. T. Stewart, the famous merchant. Stewart,
as a lad, came to America from Belfast in 1818; began life as a school
teacher; opened a small shop for trimmings; entered the dry-goods
business; and when he died in 1876, left an estate worth $40,000,000.
The estate included the Italian marble palace which he had bmlt at
the corner of 34th Street at a cost of $2,000,000. His w-idow occupied
it until her death in 1886, after which the Manhattan Club leased the
property. It was later torn down to make room for the building of
the Columbia Trust Company.
As remarkable a transformation as may be found anywhere on
Fifth Avenue is the development of the section in the neighborhood of
34th Street and Fifth Avenue. Within the span of a lifetime it has
changed from a rural district into the most exclusive residential locality
in the City, and, finally, into the notable business section which it now
is. Benson J. Lossing, the historian, writes that in 1845 he and a com
panion, while strolling up the country lane then known as the Middle
Road, picked blackberries at what is now the corner of 35th Street
and Madison Avenue — the northeast corner of the Altman block.

FIFTH A ^ E X L E

33

From a photograph. Copyright. IQ15, by Perry Walton.
BRICK PRESBYTEUIAN CHURCH.
37th St net and Fifth Avenue.
Showing the remarkable transformation of tlir Wadilfll site sinft- ls4.Ti.
The Middle Road, then a typical country thoroughfare, ran north
westerly from the Eastern Post-Road (at about Fourth Avenue and
28th Street) and intersected Fifth Avenue at 41st Street. This road
was the eastern boundary of the Thompson farm, portions of which
have become the two most valuable parcels on Fifth A\enue, namely,
the Altman and Waldorf-Astoria properties.
The block from 37th to 38tli Streets, between Fifth and Sixth
.\venues, was the country-seat of W. Coventry H. Waddell, a close
friend of President Andrew Jack.son. Wtiddell's fortune sprang from the
services he rendered as financial representative of Jackson's Adminis
tration. His villa stood on the site of the Brick Presbyterian Church,
at the northwest corner of 37th Street. In 1845, when Mr. Waddell
went "into the wilderness" to build. Fifth Avenue above Madison
S(|uare was a country road lined with farms, and while Mr. Waddell

( 'iirenlri/
Waddell
Man.^iiin at
¦j:ih Street

34

FIFTH AVE X U E

7h,
From JL photograph- tjp^r.jt.t, IQI^, by Perry Walton,
UNION LEAGUE CLUB.
Northeast corner 39th Street and Fifth Avenue, once the site of Dickel's Riding Academy.
was bargaining for the land his wife sat under an apple-tree in a neigh
boring orchard. He paid $9,150 for the tract, which was sold ten
years later for $80,000, and for part of which in 1856 the Brick Church
paid $58,000. His villa was of yellowish gray stucco with brownstone
trim, Gothic in style, and had so many towers, oriels and gables,
that when Waddell's brother saw it and was asked what he would
call it, replied, "Waddell's Caster; here is a mustard pot, there is a
pepper bottle and there is a vinegar cruet." The house stood con
siderably above the street level upon grounds which descended by
sloping grass banks to the street. It was elegantly furnished and had
a large conservatory and picture gallery. From a broad marble
hall a winding staircase led to a tower, from which a charming view was
obtained of both the East and Hudson Rivers, the intervening semi-
rural landscape, ;ind the approaching city. Mr. and ]\Irs. Waddell
were noted for princely hospitality, and among their frequent guests

F I F T H A \' E X U E

35

From a photograph.

JOHN G. WENDEL HOUSE
Northw(;st corner of 39th Street and Fifth .\ venue

CopyriglU, IHIJ. by Perry Walton.

were the social, political and literary celebrities of the time. Having
lost his fortune in the financial crash of 1857, Mr. Waddell was obliged
to sacrifice his estate. The grounds were levelled to make way for
the growing city, and the villa, after standing less than a dozen jears,
was torn down.
At the northeast corner of 39th Street and Fifth Avenue is the
home of the Union League Club, built at a cost of $400,000 in 1879-
1880. The interior decorations are the work of Louis Tiffany, John
La Farge and Franklin Smith. The club, organized in 1863, "to
oppose disloyalty to the Union, to promote good Government, and
to elevate American citizenship," had been housed from 1868 until
it moved into its present quarters, in the former Jerome residence on
Madison Square.
Opposite the Union League Club, on the northwest corner of 39th
Street, with a yard along Fifth Avenue, guarded by a high board
fence, is an old-fashioned brick and brownstone house, dating back
to 1856. Three elderly sisters of the late John Gottlieb Wendel live
there amid surroundings which recall the simple days of fifty years ago.

J nun
J.eaiie(In),

Til,
II. •

36

FIFTH AVENUE

Mrs.
Murray's Madeira and
Generals
Washington
and Putnam save Ihe
Fleeing
('ontenentals at Mvrrai/ Hill

From \ alentine s Manual 1865 Collection of J Clarence Davies
CROTON COTTAGE
Southeast corner of 40th Street and Fifth Avenue.
These three women, with a married sister, are the sole heirs of the
$80,000,000 in real estate left by their brother. The Wendel name is of
Revolutionary fame, a direct ancestor. General David Wendel, known
as "Fighting Dave," having fought in the War of Independence. The
fortune, like that of the Astors', began with a furrier who bought and
sold real estate, the original John G. Wendel (great-great-grandfather
of the late John G. Wendel). He and the original John Jacob Astor
were partners in the fur business in a little house that stood on Maiden
Lane. They married sisters, and both the Astors and the Wendels
have since continued to buy and hold real estate. The passion for
holding became so great with the late John G. Wendel, that he would
never sell, and before he died his holdings, which were second only
to the Astors', extended all over the City. He collected his own
rents, would not lease to a saloon, gave only three-year leases, and
was characterized as "one of the squarest landlords in the City." He
lived with his three sisters in the most simple manner in a house
assessed at $5,000, on a site valued at $1,897,000.
Fifth Avenue, from 34th to 42nd Streets, was once part of "Inclen
burg," the estate of Robert Murray, a Quaker. The entire estate
extended from Broadway to Fourth Avenue. At the manor house,
which stood near Park Avenue and 37th Street, Mrs. Murray enter
tained British officers so hospitably with her fine old Madeira, on
Sunday morning, September 15, 1776, that Washington and Putnam
had time to rally the Continental troops. The Continentals had
been routed at Kip's Bay (the foot of East 34th Street), and panic-
stricken soldiers filled the farms and fields in the neighborhood of
Murray Hill. General Washington strove so desperately to stop the
panic, that General Greene subsequently remarked, "He sought

FIFTH A \' E X U E

37

From a photograph. Collection oj .\ cw York Historical Society.
UtTCKRS FEMALE COLLEGE. ABOUT IsiiO.
41st to 42nd Streets on the cast side of Fifth Avenue.
death rather than life." On Lowe's Lane, an old road crossing Fifth
Avenue at 42nd Street, and in the field now occupied by the Library
and Bryant Park, Washington and Putnam stopped the rout and
withdrew their troops to Harlem Heights, where the battle was fought
which enabled the Continentals to escape to White Plains.
In 1804 John Murray, Jr., a .son of Robert, and the brother of '^^ '"^^^^ .^
Lindley Murray, the famous grammarian, bought a tract of five acres 'jj''^'^^"'"-^^^
between 35th and 37th Streets, for .$5,000, and built a large square iii^."^[;'i''ii,
mansion :i short distance from the Middle Road, directly in the ^^j fiju^
line of Fifth Avenue between 36th and 37th Streets. Murray, who |,,,„,„
was a brewer and wealthy philanthropist, helped to establish public
.schools in New York and to organize the American Academy of Fine
Arts; lie w;is also one of the first commissioners of the State Prison.
His ani])le grounds were bordered by a .sparkling brook, and the mansion
house is shown on the Colton Map of 1836 in the midst of a beautiful
formal garden and screened from the road by a row of trees.
At the .southeast corner of 40th Street and Fifth Avenue, in 1854, '" ' ''"'""
.stood a small country tavern known as the Croton Cottage, which ,^^' ,'yj'/ '""
took its name from the Croton Reservoir, located diagonally opposite „"-,y,,,|,,, //
on the Avenue. It was built of wood, painted yellow, and surrounded i -„,„/, r/,,/;
by trees and shrubbery, and here ice-cream and refreshments wei^e //,,„,,
.served to those who came to view the City from the top of the reservoir
walls. The cottage was burned down during the draft riots in 1863,
and on this site later lived William H. Vanderbilt, who bought it in

Collection of J. Clarence Davies. Copyright, 1Q04, by Max WiUiams.
VIEW OF FIFTH AVENUE.
Looking south from 42nd Street. Croton Reservoir on the right. From a photograph in 1879
by John Bachman.

Collection of J. Clarence Davies. CopyriglU, IQ04, by Max Williams.
VIEW OF FIFTH AVENUE.
Looking north from 42nd Street. Temple Emanu-El, 43rd Street and Fifth Avenue, in the
foreground; St. Patrick's Cathedral, before its spires were raised, in the background.
From a photograph in 1879 Dy John Bachman.

From a photograph. Collection of J. Clarence Davies.
CROTON RESERVOIR. FIFTH AVENUE AND 42nd STREET.
As it appeared when the work of demolition began in 1 'MO.

From a photograph.

Copyright, IQI5, by Perry Wallvn.
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY.
Occupying the site of the old Croton Reservoir, Fifth Avenue, 40th to 42nd StruLis.

40

F I F T H A V E X U E

Potter's
Field at
Bryant
Park and
the Old
Croton
Reservoir

Rutgers Female
College and
'"The
House of
Mansions"

From an old engraving by Capewell & Kimmel. Collection of John D. Crimmins.
CRYSTAL PALACE AND THE LATTING TOWER IX 1853.
The Crystal Palaee waa erected at the rear of the Reservoir, on the site which subsequently
became Bryant Park.
1866 for $80,000. Mr. Vanderbilt left the house to his son, Frederick
W. Vanderbilt, and it was only recently demolished to make room for
the new Arnold, Constable & Co. building.
The land between 40th and 42nd Streets, Fifth and Sixth Avenues,
now covered by Bryant Park and the Library, was used as a Potter's
Field from 1822 to 1825. Later, on the eastern part of this ground,
was erected the distributing reservoir of the Croton Water system,
which was opened with impressive ceremonies October 14, 1842.
The reservoir, which occupied more than four acres, was divided into
two basins by a partition wall. In appearance its exterior was hke an
Egyptian temple. The enclosing walls had an average height of forty-
four and one-half feet and were constructed of granite. It was thirty
feet deep and contained 20,000,000 gallons of water. The introduction
of Croton water had the immediate effect of reducing insurance rates
forty cents on one hundred dollars. The reservoir was demolished in
1900, to make way for the New York Public Library, a consolidation
of the Lenox, Astor and Tilden Foundations, which was opened May
23, 1911. The Library, constructed of Vermont marble, cost about
$9,000,000 and is one of the most beautiful buildings on Fifth Avenue.
Opposite the reservoir on Fifth Avenue, between 41st and 42nd
Streets, was located for years Rutgers Female College. This institu
tion occupied the buildings known as "The House of Mansions" or
"The Spanish Row." They were erected about 1855 by George
Higgins, who thought "that eleven dwellings, uniform in size, price
and amount of accommodation, of durable fire-brick, and of a chosen

B. F. Smith, Jr., artist. Collection of Percy R. Pyne. 2nd.
NEW Y^ORK IN 1855. J ^ y , .
A view from the Latting Tower, looking southward from 42nd Street.
The corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street (in the left foreground) gives an idea of the unimproved character of the land in this vicinity as late as 1x55

42

FIFTH A V E X U E

'

r

'^'ilZIIkk^,

-.'. _.E :

snnir^,,^.

7^  1  ^  -1 — r^ i*^ /r' 1 I

¦a:

Square y

I r-—

'Ml,
7. >./>/. ('^tfJ

i 1-B3 16 I ¦ . . ,-. ¦ ..-. ' I --B T :
M. Dripps, publisher; John M. Harrison, surveyor. Collection of New York Geographical Society.
JVIAP OF FIFTH AVENUE FROM 40th TO 50th STREETS IN 1852.
Showing the cattle-yards on Fifth Avenue, from 44th to 46th Streets.
cheerful tint of color and variegated architecture," would suit the
most fastidious home-seeker. He notified the public in his prospectus
that the view from the windows was unrivalled, as it commanded
the whol« island with its surroundings. The project was not, how
ever, a success, and, later, most of the block was occupied by Rutgers
Female College. This institution was first opened in the spring of
1839, on ground given it by WiUiam B. Crosby, at 262-264-266
Madison Street, which had been part of the estate of Colonel Henry

F I F T H A V E X U E 43
Rutgers, a distinguished Revolutionary officer after whom the col
lege was named. It was the first seminary for the higher education
of yoimg ladies in the City. Dr. Isaac Ferris, long chancellor of the
University of New York, was the first president. In 1860, after
the institution had been in existence over twenty years, it moved to
the Fifth Avenue location. Here it conducted a complete college
course for young ladies. The encroachments of business soon drove
it from Fifth Avenue to a site farther up town. On the south half of
the block now stands the new Rogers Peet Company building.
On land immediately west of the reservoir, from 1853 to 1858, Crystal
stood the Crystal Palace, opened by President Franklin Pierce, July 14, Palace and
1853, as a World's Fair for the exhibition of the arts and industries p'^f"^
of all nations. The building, which cost $650,000, was constructed "''''
in the shape of a Greek cross, of glass and iron, with a graceful dome,
arched naves and broad aisles. Its prototype was the famous Crystal
Palace of London. Here in 1858 an ovation was given to Cyrus W.
Field upon the completion of the Atlantic cable. As a place of exhibit
the palace was not a financial success. It was burned, October 5,
1858, burying in its ruins the rich collection of the American Institute
Fair. The site of the Crystal Palace, used as an encampment for Union
troops in 1862, was laid out into what was known as "Reservoir Park"
in 1871. In 1884 the name was changed to Bryant Park.
On 43rd Street with an entrance on 42nd Street, opposite the Crystal Latting
Palace, was the famous Latting Tower, an observatory, which, with its Tower
flagstaff, was three hundred and fifty feet high. From the summit a mag
nificent view of New York and the country about could be obtained. It
was designed by Warren Latting, and cost $100,000. The tower was an
octagon seventy-five feet across the base, built of timber, well braced
with iron and anchored at each of the eight angles with about forty tons
of stone and timber. There was a refreshment room immediately over
the first story, and an opening one hundred and twenty -five feet from the
ground, whence one obtained the first view of New York. An elevator
ran as far as the second landing. The highest landing was three hundred
feet from the base, or one hundred and seventy feet higher than the
topmost window in St. Paul's spire. At each landing there were tele
scopes and maps. The proprietors took a ten-year lease of the ground,
and hoped to reap a fortune from those who would pay an admission
to view New York and the surrounding country. The venture was
a failure, however, and the structure was sold under execution. It
was destroyed by fire August 30, 1856.
The land on the east side of Fifth Avenue, from 42nd almost to Interesting
44th Sti-eets, about 1825 was the property of Isaac Burr, whose estate Sites about
extended along the Middle Road which here coincided with Fifth i~"d >>treet
Avenue. On the Burr property, at the northeast corner of 42nd
Street, in 1889 was the Hamilton Hotel, later the site of ex-Clovernor
Levi P. Morton's home, and now the Seymour Building. Of interest
is the fact that the immediate predecessor of Governor Morton, ex-
Governor Roswell P. Flower, lived on Fifth Avenue, at No. 597, and

44

FIFTH AVENUE

""-/ ¦«',/,

From an old print.

Collection of S. B. Altmayer.

COLORED ORPHAN ASYLUM, FROM 1842 TO 186.3.
44th Street and Fifth Avenue.

Edwin D. Morgan, also a former Governor of the State, lived at the
corner of 37th Street and Fifth Avenue. At No. 511 Fifth Avenue,
near the corner of 43rd Street, stood the former residence of "Boss
Bill" Tweed, sold later to R. T. Wilson for $1,200,000, and recently
demolished to make way for a business structure. From this house
Tweed made his escape after his arrest for robbing the City. Ha\'ing
secured permission to return to his home for clothes, he escaped by
a rear alley, while policemen were on guard at the front door, and
made his way to his yacht, which lay with steam up, in the East River.
He fled to Spain, whence he was extradited.
Across the Avenue, on the northwest corner of 42nd Street, stood
a small tavern before the Civil War. On the lot next to it was the
garden of William H. Webb, the shipbuilder, who lived at No. 504
Fifth Avenue. On this corner later stood the Hotel Bristol, which
has been transformed into an office building. No. 506 Fifth Avenue,
on the same block, was once the home of Mr. and Mrs. RusseU Sage.
Temple The Temple Emanu-El has stood at the northeast corner of Fifth
Emanu-El Avenue and 43rd Street since 1868, when it was completed at a cost
of $600,000. It was designed by Leopold Eidlitz, and is considered
one of the finest examples of Moorish architecture in the country.
The congregation was organized by a combination of the reformed
congregation of the Rev. Leo Merzbacher with an association of
young Hebrews who had organized a Kultur ^'erein. The congrega
tion thus formed has widespread influence in reformed Judaism.
Rev. Samuel Adler, father of Felix Adler, was for years Rabbi of
the Temple. The present Rabbi is the Re\'. Joseph Silverman.

FIFTHAVEXUE 45
The block between 43rd and 44th Streets, on the west side of Fifth Colored
Avenue, was the scene on July 13, 1863, of the burning of the Colored Orphan
Orphan Asylum during the terrible Draft Riots. This asylum, which Asylum
stood a short distance back from Fifth Avenue, was under the man
agement of the Association for the Benefit of Colored Orphans, or
ganized in 1836 by Miss Anna Shotwell, Miss Mary Murray, and
twenty other ladies. The Association received from the City in 1842
twenty-two lots on Fifth Avenue between 43rd and 44th Streets, and
there the building was erected which contained two hundred and
thirty-three children at the time of the riot. The asylum was not
only a place of refuge for colored children, but here they were taught
trades so that they could earn their living.
The riot was precipitated by the conscription law passed by Con- The Draft
gress, which forced over 30,000 reluctant men from New York into Riots of
the ranks of the army. The names of those first drafted were an- ISCS
nounced in the evening papers of Saturday, July 11th, and all that
night and Sunday the City was a cauldron of excitement. On
Monday morning the rioters found a leader in a Southerner,
under whose command the worst elements of the city ranged
themselves. A mob surrounded the draft oflSces, and at eleven
o'clock, as the name of Z. Shay, 633 West 42nd Street, was called, a
stone was thrown through the window of the drafting-room. The
crowd poured into the room, the furniture was shattered, and the
officers barely escaped with their lives. The rioters then set fire to
the building, cut telegraph wires and successfully routed the police.
A squad of soldiers sent to the assistance of the police were set upon
after they had fired a blank volley, were disarmed, routed and many
of them horribly beaten. The mob pillaged the home of William
Turner on Lexington Avenue, destroying the furniture and valuable
paintings, and burned it to the ground. Bull's Head Hotel on 44th
Street was set on fire. Croton Cottage met the same fate. A whole
row of stores and the Provost Marshal's office at 1148 Broadway were
plundered. About three o'clock a party attacked an arms factory on
Seventh Avenue and 21st Street, which was partially owned by Mayor
Opdyke. After stealing the arms they burned the place and killed a
number of people.
The Colored Orphan Asylum was then attacked, but before the Burning
rioters arrived the children were taken to the Police Station and later of the
conducted under guard to the Almshouse on Blackwell's Island. Colored
When the mob reached the Asylum they pillaged and burned it to Orphan
the ground. Here and there they overtook colored men and sum- Asylum
marUy hanged them to the nearest trees or lamp-posts. The Arsenal
on Seventh Avenue was threatened, but troops sent from Fort
Hamilton and Governor's Island saved it. After having destroyed
over half a million dollars' worth of property, which the City had
to make good, the rioters were finally put down by troops from the
front under General Wood and General Sanford.
The property of the old Asylum was sold by its proprietors in 1866

46

FIFTH A\ENUE

Willow
Tree Inn and
Recollections of One who
lived there

From a photograph. Collection of J. Clarence Davies.
" YE OLDE WILLOW COTTAGE," THE WILLOW TREE, AND TYSON'S MARKET, 18S0.
Southeast corner of 44th Street and Fifth Avenue, now the site of the American Real
Estate Co.'s building.
for $170,000, and a lot was bought at Amsterdam Avenue and 143rd
Street, where a new building was erected. Since 1907 the asylum has
been located at Riverdale, N.Y. Part of the site of the Colored
Orphan Asylum is now occupied by Sherry's.
At the time of the riot there stood near the southeast corner of
Fifth Avenue and 44th Street a little frame cottage, named from the
willow tree which stood in front of it, the Willow Tree Inn. At
one time this was run by Tom Hyer, the noted pugilist. According
to Mr. John T. Mills, Jr., whose father owned the cottage, the draft
rioters made it their headquarters during the riot. "My mother
planted the old willow tree," said Mr. Mills, "and I remember dis
tinctly the Orphan Asylum fire. The only reason our home was not
destroyed was that father ran the Bull's Head stages which carried
people down town for three cents, and the ruffians did not care to
destroy the means of transportation. There were many vacant lots
in this section of Fifth Avenue at the time of the Civil War, arid a
small shanty below the Willow Cottage was the only building that
stood between Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue. On the north
west corner of Fifth Avenue and 45th Street, then considered far

FIFTHAVEXUE 47
north, stood a three-story brick building. The stockyards were be
tween Fifth Avenue and Fourth Avenue from 44th to 46th Streets,
and Madison Avenue was not then cut through. The stockyards
were divided into pens of fifty by one hundred feet into which the
cattle were driven from runs between the yards. On the east side
of Fifth Avenue, just above 42nd Street, stood four high brownstone
front houses, the first to be built in this neighborhood. In the rear
of these were stables that had entrances on Fifth Avenue."
The Willow Tree Inn corner illustrates the appreciation of Fifth Apprecia-
Avenue real estate. In 1853 this corner was the extreme southwest '"?» of the
angle of the Fair and Lockwood farm, and was sold for $8,500. Here ^ '"°"
in 1905 a twelve-story office building was erected, replacing Tyson's ^/^^ ""
meat market and the old WiUow Tree Inn. The corner was then
held at $2,000,000. The property was bought in 1909 for $1,900,000
by the American R«al Estate Company.
At the northeast corner of 44th Street, where Delmonico's now
stands, was located, from 1846 to 1865, the Washington Hptel, also
called "AUerton's," a low white frame building surrounded by a plot
of grass. The rest of the block was a drove-yard. In 1836 Thomas
Darling bought the entire block for $88,000 and leased it to George
W. Archibald, M. and David Allerton. The latter ran the tavern
during the Civil War. After the cattle-yards were removed to 40th
Street and Eleventh Avenue, AUerton's was discontinued. John H.
Sherwood bought the site after the war and erected the Sherwood
House, a well-known family hotel. Mr. Sherwood was a promi
nent builder who, as a pioneer in the erection of high-class resi
dences north of 42nd Street, materially assisted in establishing
upper Fifth Avenue as a residential part of the City.
It was in the basement of the old Sherwood House, at No. 531, Story of
that The Fifth Avenue Bank of New York first opened for business. The Fifth
The Bank was founded by John H. Sherwood, William H. Lee, l'""""
Philip Van Volkenburgh and others, to furnish a place of deposit '^
for those who resided or did business in this part of the City. There
was no other bank in the vicinity, and it was estimated that there
were at least fifty thousand people in the neighborhood without
banking facilities. The Bank was organized October 7, and com
menced doing business October 13, 1875. Philip Van Volkenburgh
was president, John H. Sherwood, vice-president, and A. S. Frissell,
cashier; comprising the board of directors, were the officers and
James IJuell, John B. Cornell, Jonathan Thorne, Gardner Wetherbee,
William H. Lee, Russell Sage, Webster Wagner, Joseph S. Lowery,
Charles S. Smith and Joseph Thompson, many of whom were Fifth
Avenue residents. The original minute book of the Bank furnishes
an interesting record of early Fifth Avenue rental values. The
Bank's offices in the basement of the Sherwood House were secured
"at a rental of $2,600 per year, said rental to include the gas used, and
the heating of the rooms." The Bank moved to the northwest corner
of Fifth Avenue and 44th Street in April 1890, to the house of

From. Valentine's Manual. Collection of John D. Crimmins.
OLD HOUSE, 45th STREET NEAR FIFTH AVENUE, 1849.

Collection of The Fifth .irenue Bank.

From a photograph. THE SHERWOOD HOUSE, 1889.
Northeast corner 44th Street and Fifth Avenue. The first offices ot The Fifth Avenue Bank are
shown in the basement.

^.^'^^^^^ !ir'.

CoUection of The Fifth Arcinic Bank.
JOHN B. CORNELL AND MANTON MARBLE RESIDENCES. 1SS9.
Cornell house on the corner, and Marble residence adjoining, before they
became the home of The Fifth Avenue Bank.

Collection of The Fifth .-irenue Bank.
THE FIFTH AVENUE BANK OF NEW YORK. 1015.
44th Street and Fifth Avenue. Showing the Cornell and Marble residences
as now occupied by the Bank.

50

FIFTH AVENUE

Bank's Site
Transferred but Four
Times since
Manhattan was bought
from the
Indians

Buchanan's
Fifth Avenue Estate

Church of the
Heavenly Rest
Windsor Hotel

John B. Cornell, which had been built in 1866. Later, it bought the
adjoining residence of Manton Marble, former editor of the World.
In these quarters it has been ever since. From the day in 1626,
when Peter Minuit bought Manhattan Island from the Indians for
about $24 in cheap trinkets, to the present, there have been but four
transfers of the corner on which the Bank stands. It became the
property of the City under the liberal Dongan Charter on April 27,
1686, which granted to the corporation all the vacant, waste and un
appropriated lands of the island. The plot, fifty by one hundred feet,
on the northwest corner of 44th Street, was sold by the City in 1848
to Samuel White for $3,850. White sold it to Amos R. Eno in 1862
for $15,000. Eno sold it to John B. Cornell in 1865 for $40,000, and
on April 22, 1889, the executors of John B. Cornell sold to the Bank
for $232,066, the comer lot. No. 530, with a frontage of thirty feet on
the Avenue, together with No. 1 West 44th Street. The adjoining
Avenue lot. No. 532, twenty feet wide, was sold by Cornell, in Janu
ary 1867, to Matthew Byrnes, a builder, for $21,540. Byrnes sold
the property, November 6, 1868, to Manton Marble for $85,000.
The Bank acquired the property on March 5, 1897 for $125,000.
From the time of its organization the Bank has given especial atten
tion to personal and family accounts, of which it has a great number.
So many prominent bank officials have received their training in
its employ that it is often referred to as the "Kindergarten of
Bankers." On the east side of Fifth Avenue, extending from 45th almost to
48th Street, was a portion of the fifty-five acre estate which Thomas
Buchanan bought between 1803 and 1807 from the City, which was
then disposing of its common land, for the ridiculously low sum of
$7,537. This property is now worth over $20,000,000. Buchanan,
after being educated at the University of Glasgow, came to America
when but nineteen, and soon took prominent part in the business
activity of early New York. In 1800 he purchased real estate in
Wall Street which became the site of the United States Custom House,
and later the National City Bank. He also purchased for his coun
try-seat a beautiful tract of ground on the East River between 54th
and 57th Streets. Buchanan died in 1815, leaving his real estate to
his widow and eight children. A daughter, Almy, married Peter
Goelet, and another daughter, Margaret, married Peter's brother,
Robert Ratzer Goelet; thus the Goelets inherited much of their
Fifth Avenue holdings.
On Fifth Avenue near 45th Street stands the Church of the
Heavenly Rest, noted for its stained glass windows and wood carv
ing. The Windsor Hotel formerly stood at 46th and 47th Streets on
the east side of Fifth Avenue. Under the management of Hawk &
Wetherbee it long enjoyed a patronage as distinguished as that of
the Fifth Avenue Hotel. It was, after Mr. Wetherbee had rethed
from its management, the scene of one of the most tragic fires in
the history of New York, when many guests were fatally burned

FIFTH A V E X U E

51

From a photograph. Collection of J. Clarence Davies.
WINDSOR HOTEL, FIFTH AVENUE, 4Uth TO 47th STREETS, l.SOS.

or injured by leaping from the windows of the burning structure.
In 1869 part of the block later occupied by the Windsor was a
small skating pond. On the north half of the block now stands the
palatial building of W. & J. Sloane.
The story of the Elgin Botanical Gardens which occupied the tract
from 47th to 51st Streets between Fifth and Sixth Avenues begins in
1793 in the garden of Professor Hamilton near Edinburgh, where
Dr. David Hosack, a young American, who was studying with the
professor, was much mortified by his ignorance of botany, with which
subject the other guests were familiar. Hosack took up the study
of botany so diligently that in 1795 he w;is made professor of botany
at Columbia College, and in 1797 held the Chair of Materiti Medica.
He resigned to take a similar professorship in the College of Physicians
and Surgeons, where he remained until 1S2(>. For over twenty years
he was one of the leading physicians of Xew York, bore a conspicuous
part in all movements connected with art, drama, literature, city or
slate affairs, and was frecpiently mentionetl as being, with Clinton
and Hobart, "one of the tripods upon which the City stood." He
was one of the physicians who attended Alexander Hamilton after
his fatal duel with Burr. While professor of botany at Columbia he
endeavored to interest the State in establishing a botanical exhibit
for students of medicine, but failing to accomplish this he acquired

/:7./.'. II, .III, in
( uirii, II
I'omn.
nf Dr.
Ihllnl
lliLie!
tin . r
F.nnnii

52

FIFTH AVENUE

4^

'rriC^^,

From \ alentine s Manual Collection of hew \ ork Historical Society
THE ELGIN BOTANIC GARDENS.
Between 50th and 51st Streets, and Fifth and Sixth Avenues, 1825.
from the City, in 1801, the plot mentioned above, for the purpose of
establishing a botanical garden. In 1804 the Elgin Botanical Gardens
were opened. By 1806 two thousand species of plants with one
spacious green-house and two hot-houses, having a frontage of one
hundred and eighty feet, occupied what to-day is one of the most
valuable real estate sites in New York, the tract being now valued
without buildings at over $30,000,000.
Land The financial burden of maintaining the garden was more than
given to the doctor could carry, and he appealed to the Legislature for sup-
Columbia port. Finally on March 12, 1810, a bill was passed authorizing the
( allege State, for the purpose of promoting medical science, to buy the
garden. The doctor sold it for $74,268.75, which was $28,000 less
than he had spent on it. The State finally conveyed the grounds
in 1814 to Columbia College, and this property, part of which the
College still holds, has largely contributed to the wealth of this great
University.
Cejilegiate The Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas, a Dutch Reformed Church,
Church dedicated in 1872, is located at the northwest corner of 48th Street,
(f St. on part of the Elgin Garden site. In the tower hangs a bell, cast in
A icholas Amsterdam in 1731, which for years hung in the Middle Dutch Church
on Nassau Street, where the Mutual Life Building is now situated.
This bell was taken down and secreted while the British held New
York. In the Consistory of the Church of St. Nicholas are portraits
in oil of all its ministers from Dominie Du Bois, who in 1699 preached
in the old Church in the Fort, to the present.
In the centre of the block between 51st and 52nd Streets, on the
west side of Fifth Avenue, there stood back from the street in 1868 a

FIFTH A V E X U E

53

Drawn and engraved by M. Osborne. Collection of Xew York Historical Society.
DEAF AND DUMB ASYLUM, 1829-1853.
Between 49th and 50th Streets, near Madison Avenue. Later occuiiied by Columbia CoIleEe.

t „./•,/.»
hi tin '11
I'lst and
.:,.'iid Stre,

small three-story frame house kept by Isaiah Keyser, whose vegetable Keyser's
garden supplied the residents along lower Fifth Avenue, and who ^ egelahle
also dealt in ice and cattle. Occupying this block are the famous
Vanderbilt "twin mansions," handsome brownstone structures prac
tically identical in design. They were built in 1882 by William H.
Vanderbilt, the 51st Street house for himself, and the 52nd Street
house for his daughter. They stand now, island homes in a flood
of business, and it is probable that before long they too will be
engulfeil, despite the fact that the Vanderbilts spent several mill
ions in purchasing property to protect themselves against business
encroachments. The east side of Fifth Avenue, from 48th to 53rd Streets, and
the west side, from 54th to 55th Streets, were long used for philan
thropic and religious purposes. Between 48th and 50th Streets and
Fourth and Fifth Avenues stood the Xew York Institute for the
Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb. The Asylum was incorporated
in 1817 and occupied a room in the almshouse then on Cluimbers
Street. The corner-stone of the 50th Street building was laid October
19, 1S27, and the new (piarters opened in 1829. It was one hundred
and ten feel long, sixty feet wide, four stories high, with a beautiful
colonnailc fifty feet long in front. The Asylum stood on one acre of
ground tlonated by the City, from which the directors leased nine
adjoining acres. 'I'liey had also a donation from the State of ;i per
centage of the tax on lotteries. The grounds were beautifully laid
out in lawns and gardens, planted with trees ;ind shrubbery. There
were workshops in which taiUtring, shoemaking, cabinet-making,
garilening and other trades were taught. Girls were instructed in

Deaf and
Dumli. isgl mil
In In. . n
1,1 el :^//(
.1,,,! Ia..l
r...i!i ^ir, , ;

From a photograph.

Copyright, IQ15, hy Perry WaMon.
TWIN VANDERBILT HOUSES.
51st and 52nd Streets.
' Island Hom.es in a Flood of Business."

From an old print of about 1858.
FIFTH AVENUE IN THE

Collection of S. B. Altmayer.
NEIGHBORHOOD OF THE CATHEDRAL SHORTLY
AFTER ITS ERECTION.
The two houses in the left foreground were occupied by the school of the Rev. C. H. Gardner;
in the background are the Cathedral, the site of the twin Vanderbilt houses, and St. Thomas'
Church.

From a photograph.

Copyright, JQ15. l-y Perry Walton.
ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL.
Fifth Avenue, 50th to olst Streets.

56

FIFTH AVENUE

Potter's
Field at
Both Street
near Fifth
Avenue

The Site of
St. Patrick's
Cathedral

New York
Literary
Institution

Steps in
acquiring
the Cathedral Site

Church of
St. John the
Evangelist

needlework and other useful occupations. In 1853 the Asylum
sold the property and moved to Washington Heights between 162nd
and 165th Streets. The Buckingham Hotel and National Democratic
Club for many years have stood on part of the land of the Deaf and
Dumb Asylum.
Somewhat east of Fifth Avenue, with irregular boundaries from
48th to 50th Streets, was a Potter's Field. Speaking of this Potter's
Field, Mr. John D. Crimmins recalls that when excavations were
made for the Women's Hospital on the eastern side of the land wide
trenches were found into which many bodies had been thrown without
having been enclosed in coffins. Hundreds of barrels of bones were
removed from the field to Hart's Island.
The property on which St. Patrick's Cathedral stands, between
50th and 51st Streets, was originally part of the Common Lands of
the City. It was sold to Robert Lylburn in 1799 for £405 and an
annual quit rent of "four bushels of good merchantable wheat, or
the value thereof in gold or silver coin." Lylburn, who was a
merchant at No. 8 Garden Street, now Exchange Place, sold the
property to Francis Thompson and Thomas Cadle for $9,000, and they
in turn conveyed it to Andrew Morris and Cornehus Heeney for
$11,000. In describing a part of the purchase. Cardinal Farley, in
his history of the Cathedral, says, "a mansion on the property was
occupied by the Jesuit Fathers as a school known as the New York
Literary Institution which had been transferred from its original
location opposite old St. Patrick's (on Mulberry Street). In the
summer of 1813 the New York Literary Institution was closed. The
title to the property remained with the Jesuits. The price they
paid for it above the mortgage was $1,300. In 1814 the Trappist
Monks occupied the building and conducted an orphan asylum.
They left New York in the autumn of that year, and their
work disappeared with them." The New York Literary Institu
tion, referred to by Cardinal Farley, was started by Father
Kohlmann. It was so successful on Mulberry Street that Father
Kohlmann bought for it the site on upper Fifth Avenue, but in
the new situation it was maintained with difficulty, although it
possessed such an excellent teacher as Professor James Wallace, the
distinguished writer on astronomy. In 1813 the college sold the
property to the diocese for $3,000.
Subsequently the remainder of the land bought by Morris and
Heeney was mortgaged to the Eagle Fire Company, and under fore
closure sale in 1828, was acquired for $5,550, by Francis Cooper, act
ing in behalf of the trustees of St. Peter's Church, on Barclay Street,
and St. Patrick's Cathedral, on Mulberry Street. These churches had
contemplated establishing a new burying-ground, but found the Fifth
Avenue land, on account of its rocky nature, unsuited for the purpose.
In 1842 the trustees of the two churches conveyed about one hun
dred feet square on the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 50th
Street to the Church of St. John the Evangelist. A little frame church

FIFTH AVEXUE

57

From a pnoiograpti.

Collection OJ Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum. Bronx.

OLD CATHOLIC ORPHAN ASYLUM, ABOUT 1852.
51st Street and Fifth Avenue.
was erected on the site, and the old mansion of the Literary Institu
tion used as a rectory. The church was later moved from this site
to a position east of Madison Avenue (then not cut through), between
50th and 51st Streets. Two of the well-known pastors of this little
church were Fathers Larkin and McMahon. The church was burned
while the Cathedral was being erected, but was immediately rebuilt
and used until the Cathedral was occupied.
A partition suit brought in 1852 by St. Peter's and St. Patrick's
Churches finally vested the title in St. Patrick's upon the payment
of $59,500 to St. Peter's for its .share. In 1853 Archbishop Hughes,
acting for the trustees of St. Patrick's Cathedral, acquired the corner
belonging to the Church of St. John the Evangelist. Thus the entire
cathedral site came into the hands of the trustees of St. Patrick's
Cathedral. The idea of the Cathedral had originated in 1850 in the mind of /
Archbishop John Hughes, of the diocese of Xew Vork, who plannetl "/
a cathedral to cost $807,000. He announced that one hundred and ' '
three persons, including two Protestants, had started a subscription
of $1,000 each to help defray the cost. James Renwick, Jr., who
designed Grace Church, was selected as the architect. Archbishop
Hughes died in 1864. The work was in turn carried on by Cardinal
McCloskey, Archbishop Corrigan and Cardinal Farley. After
years of effort to obtain the means to build this magnificent edifice
—the ultimate cost of which was $4.000,000— the Cathedral was
formally opened and blessed on May 2.5, 1879, and dedicated on
October 5, 1910.

'III,. In, I

58

F IFTH AVEXUE

From a photograph. Collection of The Tribune.
EASTER SUNDAY PARADE PASSING ST. THOMAS' EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
Northwest corner Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street. Showing the results of a heavy
snowstorm, April 2, 1915.
Roman North of the Cathedral, between 51st and 52nd Streets, on the
Catholic east side of Fifth Avenue, stood the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum,
Orphan which was organized in 1817 as the Roman Catholic Benevolent
Asylum Society, and first established at Prince and Mulberry Streets. The
number of inmates, only thirty at first, so increased that a new
building was taken on Prince Street, which later had to be enlarged.
Finally the property on Fifth Avenue was occupied in 1852. The
first budding had accommodations for five hundred boys, and a wing
built in 1893, as a trade school, accommodated two hundred more.
The girls' wing, completed in 1890, held eight hundred. There was
every facility for religious, moral and social training. The asylum
is now located at Sedgwick Avenue and Kingsbridge Road. At the
northeast corner of 51st Street since 1903 has stood the Union Club,
on land once part of the Orphan Asylum site.
,S7. Thomas' St. Thomas' Church, at the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and
Church 53rd Street, one of the most beautiful examples of Gothic architecture
in this country, was organized in 1823. The first church stood at
Broadway and Houston Street, then a rural community. Later, the
need of a building farther up town was felt, and in 1870 an imposing
structure of brownstone was built, the work of Richard Upjohn,
who regarded it as one of his masterpieces. It was decorated by

FIFTH AVEXUE

59

From a photograph. Collection of The Fifth Avenue Bank.
54th STREET LOOKING WEST FROM FIFTH AVENUE, 1867.
The dweUing on the left is No. 4 West 54th Street, now the home of John D. Roclcefeilcr, Sr.,
and on the right is St. Luke's Hospital, now the site of the University Club and the Hotel
Gotham.
La Farge and Saint-Gaudens, and with its rectory cost about
$1,000,000. It was burned in 1906, and the present structure has
but recently been erected.
A landmark gone from Fifth Avenue is St. Luke's Hospital, which
occupied the block ort, the west side between 54th and 55th Streets,
where now is the home of the University Club, and near which stood
until 1861 the Public Pound. St. Luke's Hospital, built of red brick,
faced south, and consisted of a central edifice with towers. It was
opened, with three "Sister Nurses" and nine patients, May 13, 1858,
having cost $225,000. St. Luke's was the idea of the Rev. W. A.
Muhlenberg, D.D., Rector of the Church of the Holy Communion,
who had organized in 1845 the "Sisters of the Holy Communion,"
the first organization of Protestant Sisters of Charity in America.
He incorporated the hospital in 1850, with thirteen managers, and
opened beds in a house adjoining the Church of the Holy Communion
on Sixth Avenue and 21st Street. Here more than two hundred
patients were received prior to the erection of the Fifth Avenue build
ing. The funds for the new hospital were rai.sed by public sub.scrip-
tion. The hospital accommodated about two hundred patients.
The corner-stone of its present buildings, opposite the Cathedral of
St. John the Divine, on Morningside Heights, was laid JSIay 0, 1893.
The Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, long known as Dr. John
Hall's Church, has stood at the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and
55th Street since 1875, at which time it moved from its old location at
19th Street and Fifth Avenue. Diagonally opposite, on the southeast
corner of 55th Street and Fifth Avenue, stands the St. Regis Hotel.
The block from 57tli to 58th Streets, on the etist side of the A\enue,
was known for years as the "Marble Row." The row was built by
Mrs. Mary Ma.son Jones, daughter of John Mason, a former jjresident

,s7//.
.11. hii

Liii^e
.l.ihil I ,1.:
'Ill

I- .'11,
Ate I'r.

It '('
v/t /,

60

FIFTH AVENUE

I— *¦
From a photograph. Copyright, 1915. by Perry Walton.
THE "MARBLE ROW," FIFTH AVENUE BETWEEN EAST 57th AND EAST 58th
STREETS.
Part of the Estate of John Mason, from which the Joneses, Iselins, and the Hamersleys inherited
their Fifth Avenue holdings.
of the Chemical National Bank, from whom she inherited the site.
Mason, who was long prominent in business and social circles early
in the nineteenth century, invested largely in real estate. Among
the parcels he purchased, most of which were Common Lands of the
City, were sixteen blocks from Park to Fifth Avenues, and from 54th
to 63rd Streets, excepting the block from 56th to 57th Streets on
Fifth Avenue. The tract between 57th and 58th Streets, Fourth
and Fifth Avenues, he bought from the City in 1825 for $1,500. Mason
died in 1839, leaving a will in which he cut off with a small annuity
both his son, James Mason, who had married Emma Wheatley, a
famous actress of 1838, and his daughter, Helen, who also had married
against his wishes. The will was set aside, and in the division of
the estate the block from 57th to 58th Streets became the property
of Mrs. Mary Mason Jones, who in 1871 built the Marble Row. The
erection of these houses, built of white marble, and in a style of archi
tecture unlike anything heretofore seen on Fifth A^'enue, marked the
passing of the era of long-fashionable brownstone fronts. On the
57th Street corner lived Mrs. Mary Mason Jones, at one time a
New York social leader, and later, Mrs. Paran Stevens, also pronii-

FIFTH AVEXUE

61

From a lithograph, Currier & Ives, i86q. Collection of Perry Walton.
FASHIONABLE TURNOUTS IN CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK.
(Sketched from life by T. Worth in 1869.)

nent in society. Most of the houses of the Marble Row have been
altered or torn down to make room for business buildings.
Although in 1869 Fifth Avenue below 59th Street was an almost Inrasion of
unbroken row of brownstone mansions, as early as 1882 trade had Treide^ a.i
invaded the Avenue as far north as Central Park. Between 34th and J f/ '':'/' "•*
59th Streets are now established many of the foremost jewellers, art ^' ' '' '''''
dealers, publishers and high-class shops.
Not until 1847 was Fifth Avenue lighted with gas as far as 18th Lighting the
Street, and not until 1850 as far as 30th Street; about 1870 gas was Aimue
carried as far as 59th Street. As early as 1869 the Sunday parade
of fashion on Fifth Avenue had become a feature of Xew York life.
The Easter Parade still continues, but the fine equipages, with spirited
horses and uniformed footmen, have given w:iy to the automobile.
Another notable feature of former days was the dri^'ing in Central
Park. Here might be seen old Commodore N'anderbilt, driving his
famous trotter, "Dexter"; Robert Bonner, sjieeding "Maud S. ";
Thomas Kilpatrick, Frank \'\'ork, Russell Sage, and other horsemen
driving to their private quarter- or half- mile courses in Harlem ; leaders
of society and dowagers in their gilded coaches; and e\en maidens
of the "Four Hundred" driving their phaetons.
John D. Crimmins, most of whose long life has been spent in Xew
York, gives an interesting picture of Fifth Avenue before the war.
His father was a contractor, who, before entering business, had been
employed by Thomas Addis Emmet as a gardener. The Emmet coun
try-seat was on the Boston Post-Road in the vicinity of 59th Street,

The Sunday
Parade eind
Drieiii.j in
Ceitlrul
Park

FIFTH AVENUE

t

Business Methods
of OU Fifth
Avenue
Residents

Market
Gardens
near Fifth
Avenue

Early
Improve ments on
Fifth Avenue

then designated as Mount Vernon, from the Mvern and race-track of
that name kept at one time on the East River shore.
" In the immediate vicinity were the country-seats of other prominent
New Yorkers, such as the Buchanans, who were the forebears of the
Goelets, the Adriance, Jones, and Beekman families, the Schermerhorns,
Hulls, Setons, Towles, Willets, Lenoxes, Delafields, Primes, Rhine-
landers, Lefferts, Hobbs, Rikers, Lawrences, and others," writes Mr.
Crimmins. "A little further to the north were the country-seats of
the Goelets, Gracies, and the elder John Jacob Astor. With all these
people, who were practically the commercial founders of our city, my
father had an acquaintance.
"The wealthy merchants of New York at that period frequently
invested their surplus in outlying property and left its care largely
in the hands of my father, who opened up estates, as he did the Anson
Phelps place in the vicinity of 30th Street, which ran north and ex
tended from the East River to Third Avenue. He also opened up
the Cutting and other large estates. When a lad, as I was the oldest
son, my father would take me with him to the residences of these
gentlemen, several of whom had their permanent homes on Fifth
Avenue or in the vicinity. At that period, these wealthy citizens con
ducted much of their business at their homes. James Lenox had his
office in the basement of his house at 12th Street and Fifth Avenue.
R. L. Stuart attended to much of his business at his residence, 20th
Street and Fifth Avenue, and the same may be said of the Costers,
Moses Taylor and others. These men had no hesitation in receiving
in their homes after business hours the people whom they employed.
I remember distinctly before gas was generally introduced, how very
economical in its use those who had it were. In the absence of the
butler, the gentleman of the house would often walk to the door with
his visitor and then lower the gas.
"The estates of many of these wealthy merchants were rented to
market gardeners. And it was not an unusual sight to see a merchant
drive in his carriage to the vegetable garden, select his vegetables
and carry them to his table, showing the economy and simple man
ners of the people of that older day as compared with our present
extravagance. "After the Board of Aldermen had acceded to the petition of the
residents of Fifth Avenue for permission to enclose a part of the road
way in a closed yard or area, it was not an uncommon sight to see
many of the older men standing at their gates, in high stocks, white
cravats, cutaway coats with brass buttons, greeting their neighbors
as they passed along the Avenue — a custom which survived to about
1870 when the white cravat, too, passed into history.
"The improvement of Fifth Avenue, north of 34th Street, began
with the erection of the Townsend house, which was a feature of the
City and shown to visitors. The location was the foot of a high hill.
I recall very vividly the old Waddell mansion. I was taken into it
by my father the day they began to dismantle it, and remember very

FIFTHAVEXUE 63
distinctly the courteous manner in which we were received by Mrs.
Waddell, and how she regretted the destruction of her home.
"At that time the Reservoir was an attraction for the view it fur- Sight-
nished. There were no buildings high enough to interfere, and visi- seeing from
tors could get a bird's-eye view of the entire City and the Palisades, the
The neighborhood at that time is well illustrated in the old New York Reservoir
print showing the Reservoir and the Crystal Palace, 1855. There
were no pretentious houses north of 42nd Street. It was interesting
to see the drovers, — tall men, with staffs in their hands, herding eight,
ten, or twenty cattle, — driving the cattle to market, generally on
Sunday, as Monday was market day.
"On the corner of Fifth Avenue and 50th Street, where the Cathedral Reminis-
now stands, stood the frame church, thirty by seventy feet, in which cences of the
I was baptized in May, 1844. A path and a road led to the Post Road Cathedral
which ran east of the church and bordered the Potter's Field. To "^'^
the north was the Orphan Asylum, and further on was another cattle '^ eighbonng
yard, Waltemeir's, a family well known to cattle men. From 50th ' ^*
Street to St. Luke's Hospital at 54th Street, there were a few frame
houses, and the ground extending to Sixth Avenue was used for
market gardens. Old maps of New York show the lanes crossing this
section at the time, much like the country roads we see to-day thirty
or forty miles distant from the City. Walls ran along these roads
with an occasional house with its gable of the old Dutch type. Mr.
Keyser, who dealt in ice gathered from ponds, and slaughtered cattle,
occupied the site of the present Vanderbilt houses, 51st to 52nd Streets.
The Decker house of Dutch architecture occupied the block between
Fourth and Fifth Avenues, 56th to 57th Streets.
"Peter and Robert Goelet I recall very well. Those who called Ways and
on Peter Goelet would find him in a jumper, bluish in color, such Habits of
as we see mechanics wear, with pockets in front. He loved to be Peter and
occupied and always had a rule and other articles in his pockets. Robert
His brother, Robert, was the grandfather of the present Goelets; ^o^'*'
Peter was the elder and a bachelor. Robert lived a few blocks
below him in 17th Street, the northwest corner. They accompanied
each other on walks, Peter, the more active of the two, in front,
and Robert a pace behind. They dealt directly with their tenants
and those whom they employed in taking care of their properties.
I can recall them coming on foot to my father to have him repair a
sidewalk or a fence. I doubt if these men in their day, except for
ordinary living expenses, spent five thousand dollars a year. They
were simple in their manners and tastes.
"The older generation was noted for industry, thrift and economy.
An old merchant, an executor of the Burr estate which owned property
opposite the new Public Library, extending to Fourth Avenue, once
stated that no man who had a million dollars invested, could spend
his income in a year. This was a frank statement from an impor
tant man, made in his office where I visited him many times. Money
at that time brought 7% per annum. The contents of his office

64 FIFTH AVENUE
possibly did not exceed in cost fifty dollars, a pine desk and table,
a few chairs and no carpets or rugs, but everything neat and clean
and sufficient furniture to transact business. The men of that day
wrote their own letters. I have many letters of James Lenox, James
H. Titus, Robert L. Stuart and others. There were no stenographers,
and typewriters were unknown.
Simple "I met practically all the noted merchants of that day as at the
Customs of age of fourteen I became my father's clerk, made out bills and col-
Early lected them, often working after dinner. These old merchants at-
Merchants tended to their own personal accounts, drew their own checks, and
occasionally corrected errors in my accounts. They were always will
ing to give advice, particularly to a lad. I recall very well Mr. Has-
sard, who established the Hassard Powder Company, a man at that
time more than eighty years of age. He told my father, in my
presence, how, before the introduction of gutta percha fuses for
exploding powder in blasts, he sold straw fuses. He spoke of his early
determination to become a business man and not to work for a salary,
and that whatever he manufactured must be of the best.
Transporta- "Transportation was principally by stage. There were car hnes on
tion before Second, Third, Sixth and Eighth Avenues. The gentlemen who kept
the War carriages were few and they generally lived in Harlem or Manhattan-
ville. Occasionally smart four-in-hands were seen, and I recall
Madam Jumel driving to town and how we boys would run to the
side of the road to see her coach pass. Many business men would
go to the city driving a rockaway with a single horse. Few of the
streets were paved, and there were but two classes of pavements,
macadam and cobblestones. Where streets were not paved, the
sidewalks were in bad condition. In some places the high banks of
earth on either side of the street were washed down by heavy rains
and deposited on the sidewalks.
Street- "Oil lamps were in general use as street lights, and the hght was
lighting easily blown out by the wind. The lamplighter was usually a tall
man, a character, and his position was considered an important one.
Politics affected the general administration much more than is the
case to-day, and people were obliged to protect themselves. Con
ditions to-day are better in many respects and I believe that the moral
tone of the people is better.
"Fifth Avenue, north of 59th Street, remained undeveloped for
years and it was not until sometime in the 70's that my father and I
finished grading upper Fifth Avenue. Sixty years ago saw the be
ginning of the substantial situation we have to-day. On both sides
of Fifth Avenue were stone walls where there were deep depressions.
There was no traffic except drovers coming down to market with
cattle. There were but two main thoroughfares, Boston Post-Road
on the East side, and Bloomingdale Road on the West side. From
the Boston Post-Road, long lanes led to the residences of gentlemen
who had country-seats on the East River, and similar lanes led from the
old Bloomingdale Road to the country-seats on the Hudson River."

FIFTH AVEXUE

65

From an oil painting executed for John D. Crimmins. Cotltction of John D. Crimmins.
POND OF THE NEW YORK SKATING CLUB IN 1860.
At 59th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues.
The sites of the Plaza, the Savoy and the X'etherland Hotels at
59th Street and Fifth Avenue were once rocky knolls. A brook which
came down 59th Street here formed several shallow ponds which re
mained for a number of years after the Civil War. A large pond
where the Plaza now stands was turned into a skating rink, from
which the owner, John Mitchell, gained a respectable livelihood.
There was another pond at 58th Street, extending to 59th Street,
across Madison Avenue, made by this same stream, where the New
York Skating Club had its quarters. An old ledger owned by Mr.
Crimmins shows that many well-known residents of the City paid
annual subscriptions of $10 for the privilege of belonging to the Club.
In 1859 at the northeast corner of 59th Street, now the site of the
Hotel Netherland, stood Disbrow's Riding Academy. The original
Plaza Hotel, which occupied the site of the present one, on the
block from 58th to 59th Streets, west of the Plaza, was built in 1890;
the Savoy in 1892; and the Netherland in 1893.
Before Central Park was laid out, 59th Street was the dividing
line between the most exclusive section of Xew York and the most
promiscuous. Below 59th Street was the centre of fashion and
wealth; while above, along the country road which was then Fifth
Avenue and throughout the unsightly waste land taken later for
the Park, lay what was jeeringly termed "S(|uatters' Sovereignty"
section. It extended almost to Mount Morris Park. Here lived
over five thousand as poverty-stricken and disreputable people as
could be seen anywhere. The stjuatters' settlements in the Park
were surrounded by swamps, and overgrown with briers, vines and
thickets. The soil that covered the rocky surface was unfit for
cultivation. Here and there were stone quarries and stagnant ponds.

Staling I'oiiils'al
the Vhi'.a
aiul ¦^.iri'H
Silis

The
" ^ijnatti r.-i
,.f C. ..Iral
I 'ark .u.d
I ',(lli
An: .e

FroTn a print.

VIEW IN CENTRAL PARK SOUTHWARD FROM THE ARSENAL, 64th STREET.

Collection of J Clarence Davies
JUNE, 1858.

Fifth Avenue 19 the roadway on the left.
No. 1. Columbia College, Madison Avenue near 49th Street. No. 2. Roman Catholic Orphan Aaylum at 51st Street.
64th Street. No. 4. Crystal Palace, 42od Street and Sixth Avenue.

No. 3. St. Luke's Hospital,

FIFTH AVEXUE

67

In this wilderness lived the squatters, in httle shanties and huts
made of boards picked up along the river fronts and often pieced
out with sheets of tin, obtained by flattening cans. Some occupants
paid $10 to $25 rent, but the majority paid nothing. Three stone
buildings, two brick buildings, eighty-five 'or ninety frame houses,
one rope-walk and about two hundred shanties, barns, stables, pig
geries and bone factories, appear in a census made just before Central
Park was begun. Some of the shanties were dugouts, and most had
dirt floors. In this manner lived, in a state of loose morality, Amer
icans, Germans, Irish, Negroes, and Indians. Some were honest and
some were not; many were roughs and crooks. Much of their food
was refuse, which they procured in the lower portion of the City, and
carried along Fifth Avenue to their homes in small carts drawn by
dogs. The mongrel dogs were a remarkable feature of squatter
life, and it is said that the Park area contained no less than one
hundred thousand "curs of low degree," which, with cows, pigs, cats,
goats, geese and chickens, roamed at will, and lived upon the refuse,
which was everywhere. In the neighborhood of these squatter settle
ments, of which one of the largest was Sebeca Village, near 79th
Street, the swamps had become cesspools and the air was odoriferous
and sickening.
The largest building on the site of Central Park was the Arsenal,
on the Fifth Avenue side at 64th Street. Completed by the State
in 1848 at a cost of $30,000, it was then the largest arsenal in the
State. In the rear of the main building was a small magazine.
The building was two hundred feet long by fifty feet deep, eighty-
two feet high and had towers at each angle. The basement was
used for heavy cannon and ball; the second story for gun-carriages,
and the third for small arms. It was sold to the City in 1857 for
$275,000, and became a museum and office of the Park Department.
The basement for a time was used as a menagerie. The top floor
has long been used as a weather observatory, in which accurate
records have been kept since 1869.
McGowan's Pass 'Tavern, about which the tide of war ebbed and
flowed during the Revolution, had in 1847 after various vicissitudes
come into the possession of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de
Paul, who paid $6,000 for a plot of nearly seven acres. They opened the
academy and convent of Mount St. Vincent. When Mount St. Vincent
became Central Park property, the sisters looked elsewhere for a
site, and in 1856 bought the estate of Edwin Forrest, the actor,
known as Font Hill, now Mount St. Vincent-on-the-Hudson. The
last commencement was held in the Central Park building in 1858.
During the Civil War, the government used old Mount St. Vin
cent as a hospital, where the sisters gave noble service until the
close of the war. Mount St. ^'incent reverted in 1866 to its old
use by becoming a tavern under a lease granted by the Park Com
missioners; the chapel, however, was used as a museum. In 1881
both the museum and the tavern were burned. Owing to protest

Shantiesand Huts
on Upper
Fifth
Avenue

CentralParkArsenal

Mount
St. Vincent

:*^^

From prints. Collection of J. Clarence Davies.
CENTRAL PARK BEFORE AND AFTER.
The upper view shows Central Park before it was laid out. The lower is the Martel view of the
completed Park. A lithograph by Henry C. Eno in 1864.

FIFTHAVEXUE 69
against the use of the land for other than park purposes, the site
was cleared, but finally in 1883 another refreshment house was built
there. The idea of creating a central park came first from the imaginative Andrew J.
brain of Andrew J. Downing, a landscape architect, who, while abroad. Downing
studied the great parks of the world and wrote a series of eloquent suggests a
letters upon the need of a central park for the increasing population ^^^
of New York. These letters were pubhshed in The Horticulturist
and created wide comment. Mayor Ambrose C. Kingsland took the
project up, and in 1851 commended it to the attention of the Board
of Aldermen. This action finally led to the introduction and peissage
by the legislature, July 21, 1853, of the bill creating Central Park. Bill
Eleven commissioners were appointed to construct the Park, and creating
Andrew H. Green was made comptroller of the work. The com- Central
missioners in 1858 offered prizes for the best design, and of the ""'''"
thirty-three submitted, that of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert
Vaux was selected, and the Park was built in accordance with their
plans. Richard M. Hunt was the architect.
The original boundaries of the Park were 59th and 106th Streets, Boundaries
Fifth and Eighth Avenues. It contained seven hundred and seventy- and Titles
six acres, but later when the Park was extended to 110th Street it
included eight hundred and forty-three acres. Traversed by a rocky
backbone, diversified by streams and ponds and natural gorges,
the land lent itself to picturesque landscape work. Roads, walks,
terraces, ponds and bridle-paths were built, and no less than half a
million trees, shrubs and vines were set out. The Park was not
finally completed until 1876. Taking the land for Central Park
involved searching the titles of, and buying, seven thousand lots on
the borders of a rapidly growing city, the adjustment of many claims
and the payment of $5,069,693.70 in awards, of which $1,667,590
was assessed upon the adjacent owners who were to derive benefit
from the increase in value of their property. The era of speculation
which followed the passage of the law creating the Park showed the
justice of the assessment, for a tract from 69th Street to 78th Street,
Fifth Avenue to Madison Avenue, which was sold in 1852 for $3,000,
brought $40,000 in 1857; twelve years later William H. Vanderbilt
offered in vain $1,250,000 for it.
The development of Fifth Avenue above 59th Street, begun shortly Completion
before the completion of Central Park, has continued ever since, and of Central
now Fifth Avenue from the Plaza and entrance to Central Park, ^'"¦^"
to Mount Sinai Hospital is the site of the most costly residences ^?.°™*
in America. Numerous magnificent houses, the homes of some j';;^,^^^
of the wealthiest and most representative New York families, ^^^^^ ^y^j^
extend in an unbroken line north of 60th Street. At the north- street
east corner of Fifth Avenue and 60th Street stands the Metro
politan Club, a palace of white marble, built in 1903. Among its
members are so many men of great wealth that it is called the
"Millionaires' Club."

70

FIFTH AVE N U E

The

.-ivcn
Farm" and
"the
Village"

From a photograph. Copyright, iQis, by Perry Walton.
HENRY C. FRICK'S RESIDENCE.
Occupying the site of the Lenox Library, between 70th and 71st Streets. At the left is Mr.
Friek's art gallery, which contains one of the finest private art collections in the world.
Lennox At the corner of 68th Street begins what in 1839 was the farm of
Fifth Robert Lenox, whose uncle was a British commissary during the Revo
lution. This farm extended from 68th to 73rd Streets, from Fifth to
Madison Avenues. The land value of the farm, which was bought some
time prior to 1829 by Robert Lenox for about $40,000, is now over
$9,000,000. Lenox was wiser than his generation, for when he bought
his farm at the five-mile stone, he was strongly of the opinion that the
growing city would greatly increase land values, even so far out in the
country. Under the various sections of his will which bear the dates
of 1829, 1832 and 1839, he devised his farm to his only son, James
"Lennox" (then spelled with two n's), with his stock of horses, cattle,
and farming utensils, during the term of his life and after his death
to James' heirs forever. The farm then comprised about thirty acres.
The will reads: "My motive for so leaving this property is a firm
persuasion that it may, at no distant date, be the site of a ^'illage, and
as it cost me more than its present worth, from circumstances known
to my family, I will to cherish that belief that it may be realized to
them. At all events, I want the experiment made by keeping the
property from being sold." Under a clause in the will dated 1832,
however, he withdrew the restriction covering the sale of the farm,
but, nevertheless, urged his son not to sell it, as he was still of the
firm conviction that some day there would be a village near by, and
the property would appreciate.
On the lot between 70th and 71st Streets, now occupied by the
home of Mr. H. C. Frick, was opened in 1877 the Lenox Library,
which owed its creation to the generosity and love of books of James
Lenox. This library was completed in 1875, a solid and graceful
structure with two projecting wings of white stone, designed by

The Lenox
Library

FIFTH A \' E X U E

71

From a photograph.

Copyright, IQ15, by Perry Walton,
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART.
View southward from 84th Street and Fifth Avenue.

Richard M. Hunt. Here was housed, until the building was torn
down, a collection of priceless paintings, masterpieces of ancient and
modern literature, sculpture, missals, bibles, incunabula Americana,
autographs, ceramics, the Drexel musical collection, and other treas
ures now in the New York Public Library.
The Temple Beth-El, which stands at the southeast corner of
Fifth Avenue and 76th Street, is a magnificent synagogue, built of
Indiana limestone. It was completed in 1891. The congregation is
a consolidation of the congregations Anshi-Chesed and Adas-Jesurun,
and represents the first German-Jewish congregation in this country,
dating back to 1826.
On the site formerly called Deer Park, in Central Park, near 82nd
Street, is the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which, from small be
ginnings, has grown until it has become one of the great art museums of
the world. It sprang from a meeting of the art committee of the Union
League Club in 1869, which purchased an art collection and exhibited
it at 681 Fifth Avenue. The eoniniittee rented a house :it 12(i West
14th Street in which it kejit the exhibition for a while, but in 1872,
having purcha.sed the antiquities unearthed in ('v[)rus l>y General
L. P. di Cesnola, it applied to the Park Commissioners for a site in
Central Park. Here in 1880 the first wing of the Museum was opened.
Where now are some of the most beautiful homes in the world
about 1836 on the north side of 88th Street ne.ar Fifth .V venue, stood
the New York Magdalen Benevolent Society, an institution for the
reformation of fallen women. This Society occupied a plot of ground
containing twelve city lots and an old frame building, which was

Tiii.rle
LUili-l-J

M.lni,,
lull Mil
,'i .{,-1

.l/r,,

From a photograph. Collection of J, Clarence Davies,
NORTHEAST CORNER OF 81st STREET AND FIFTH AVENUE.
Showing the small frame houses which stood here prior to the erection of an ultra-luxurious apart
ment house, the first to be erected in this exclusive section of Fifth Avenue.

From an old print Collection of John D Crimmins
THE MAGDALEN BENEVOLENT ASYLUM, ABOUT 1856.
Fifth Avenue and 88th Street.

FIFTH AVEXUE

73

From a photograph. Copyright, igis, by Perry Walton,
NORTHEAST CORNER OF 83iu) STREET AND FIFTH AVENUE.
Showing at the right the tiny frame house of Mrs. Hicks Arnold.
purchased for $4,000. After occupying the building for almost twenty
years, the ladies who managed the institution erected a fine three-story
brick building, which cost about $30,000, and which fronted on 88th
Street near Fifth Avenue. In this institution, which could accommo
date about one hundred women, the inmates were trained in useful
occupations and given rehgious instruction.
On the block where squatters long held sway, between 90th and
91st Streets, is now the beautiful house and grounds of Mr. Andrew
Ciirnegie. So well have the architect and the landscape gardener
co-operated, that this mansion and its surroundings have already the
dignity and picturesqueness which age alone can give, although the
building is of comparatively recent date. It is the only house on all
Fifth Avenue which looks as if it might have been transplanted from
historic old England.
Mount Sinai Hospital, originally known as the "Jewish Hospital
in the City of New York," occupies the whole block on Fifth Avenue
between 100th and 101st Streets. The hospital, which was opened on
Fifth Avenue March 15, 1904, was founded in 1852 by a num
ber of benevolent Hebrews headed by Samson Simpson, who gave
land on 28th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, where the
hospital remained until 1871 when it was moved to building.s on Lex
ington Avenue between 66th and 67th Streets. From there it moved
to its Fifth Avenue location.

The
Carnegie
Home

Mount ^ . iini
li..llil.L!
, . ¦ I Is
r :lh

From a photograph . Collection of J. Clarence Davies.
THE SQUATTERS' SETTLEMENT WHICH OCCUPIED THE SITE OF ANDREW
CARNEGIE'S RESIDENCE.

From a photograph. Copyright, igis,
ANDREW CARNEGIE'S RESIDENCE.
90th to 91st Streets on Fifth Avenue.

I Perry Walton

FIFTHAVEXUE 75
Another philanthropic institution, opened between Fourth and Leake and
Fifth Avenues, 111th to 112th Streets, in 1843, was known as the Watts
Leake and Watts Orphan Asylum. This institution was established Orphan
by a legacy left in 1827 by John G. Leake, a wealthy lawj'er, and Asylum
added to by his friend and executor John Watts, who was a noted
philanthropist, Recorder of the City, and Speaker of the Assembly
from 1791-1794. A building two hundred feet in length, fronting
toward the south and with two wings, was erected on twenty-six
acres of land purchased with income from the estate. The insti
tution accommodated two hundred children and commanded a wide
view of the surrounding country. It later moved to the present
site of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
The land now covered by Fifth Avenue and the adjacent streets Fifth
north of Mount Sinai Hospital, was, during the Revolutionary days. Avenue's
the scene of much marching and counter-marching by troops of both Diiys of
the American and the British armies, for a part of the Avenue '^ °-''
is on the line of the old road leading to McGowan's Pass Tavern,
where, during the Revolution, both Americans and British built
fortifications. Extending from 96th Street, as far north as the Harlem Mill Creek A Colored
at 106th Street, was the estate of Laurence Benson, the ancestor of Woman's
many well-known New Yorkers. The creek and meadow extended Small
from 106th to 109th Streets, where an old road crossed upon a bridge. P'^"'
This was a famous resort for sportsmen, for the marshes, creeks and ^^*'^"'"'
the pond, known as Harlem Mere, were favorite haunts of duck and
snipe, which were once numerous in the streams and ponds about
New York. North of the bridge, where tenements now line Fifth
Avenue, was one of the smallest, yet most picturesque, of the early
Harlem farms. It was four acres in extent and skirted the creek.
It was bought for eighteen pounds in 1793 by Lanaw Benson, a
colored woman, who had once been a slave of the Benson family
and whose name she had taken. On Fifth Avenue, north of Mount
Sinai Hospital to 110th Street, are many vacant lots, and a few
tenement houses. At 110th Street, the northerly end of Central
Park, is another plaza, quite different in appearance, however, from
the one at 59th Street. In place of stately residences, beautiful hotels
and luxurious clubs, are saloons, moving picture theatres and crowded
tenements. That part of Fifth Avenue immediately to the south of Mount Mount
Morris Park ran through the Vredenburg farm. Later Thomas Morris
Addis Emmet acquired a strip directly south of the hill for a conn- Park and
try home. To the east of the hill stretched Harlem Village. Mount P'f"'
Morris Park has always been an abrupt, rocky knoll, heavily wooded. Avenue
During the Revolution there was an American battery upon its sum
mit, succeeded in 1776 by a Hessian battery, which commanded the
Harlem River. And here for years was a fire tower, which was used
to call together the volunteer fire department of Harlem. Some say
the hill was named after Lewis Morris, a resident of Harlem, who

76

FIFTH AVENUE

Two Old
Harlem
Churehes

End ejf flu
Aveiiiii

From a photograph. Collection of J, Clarence Davies.
118th street and fifth AVENUE ABOUT 1880.
Fifth Avenue is the street shown on the left, with Mount Morris Park in the distance.
took an active part in obtaining the passage of the bill to secure the
land for the Park, and others that it took the name of Robert H.
Morris, mayor of New York City in 1841 and 1844, during whose
administration this Park was laid out. The City acquired title to
the property in 1839, paying $40,000 for it, and it has ever since been
maintained as a public park. It extends from 120th to 124th Streets,
directly in the line of Fifth Avenue, which has never been cut through
but is continued above the Park at 124th Street.
Beyond Mount Morris Park Fifth Avenue passed through the
old village of Harlem, which long maintained its corporate entity
distinct from the growing City of New York. In the middle of the
block on the west side of Fifth Avenue, between 126th and 127th
Streets, is Mount Morris Baptist Church. On the northeast corner of
Fifth Avenue and 127th Street is St. Andrew's Protestant Episcopal
Church, which goes back to the early days of this Republic. Among
the vestrymen were Aaron Clark, mayor of the City from 1837 to
1839, Lewis Morris, Edward Prime, Jacob Lorillard, Colonel James
Monroe, Archibald Watts, and members of the Blount, Sands, Ray,
Wilmerding, Slidell and Anderson families. In the vicinity of these
two churches clustered all the social life of Harlem, evidences of
which may still be seen in the fine old brownstone houses of earlier
days. Beyond these churches and private dwellings. Fifth Avenue con
tinues among squalid surroundings for a few blocks to its end in the
made land which now covers the marshy meadows along the Harlem
River.

FIFTH AVEXUE

77

From a photograph. Copyright, IQIS, by Perry Walton.
THE END OF FIFTH AVENUE, 143hd STREET AND THE HARLEM RIVER.
A story of Fifth Avenue would not be complete without referring
to the many great parades of which it has been the scene. Within
the past fifty years more processions, pageants and parades have
marched along Fifth Avenue than on any other street in America,
not excepting even Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington, D.C.
During gala celebrations commemorating historical events, or on
occasions when the country has been steeped in sorrow. Fifth Avenue
has been fittingly chosen as the scene for public exhibition of the
Nation's emotions. Among the most noteworthy events were the
Evacuation Day parade in 1883; the vast parade in 1889 at the Cen
tennial of Washington's Inauguration; the series of pageants in 1892
celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the Discovery of America; the
Dewey Celebration; the Hudson-Fulton parades; Lincoln's and
Grant's funeral processions, and those of Horace Greeley and General
Sherman. An endless number of political, police and firemen's
parades, and other exhibitions of local importance, have also taken
place on Fifth Avenue.

The Se. ;.,'
-f Man.,
S.-jh ivurthii
Parade:^

From an obscure beginning to a position of world-wide importance,
from a country road to the Nation's greatest street — within the span
of a single century — this is the remarkable transformation of Fifth
Avenue. Uni)aralleled in progress and achieveinent, lield in high
esteem for its historic tissoeiations and present importance, who
can foretell to what higher plane destiny may lift this mar\-elloiis
thorouglifare ?

AUTHORITIES
Among the authorities consulted in the preparation of this brochure,
and to whom the author desires to acknowledge his indebtedness, are
the following :
History of the City of New York, by Mrs. Martha J. Lamb (1877).
History of the City of New York, by Benson J. Lossing (1884).
Reminiscences of New York by an Octogenarian, by Charles H. Haswell (1896).
Phelps New York City Guide (1854).
Miller's New York as It Is (1876).
Francis' Handbook of New York (l853).
A Pen and Ink Panorama of New York City, by Cornelius Mathews (1853).
Manual of the Common Council of the City of New York, ed. by D. T. Valentine (1857).
New York Illustrated, pub. by D. Appleton & Co. (1869).
New York by Sunlight and Gaslight (1882).
King's Handbook of New York City, pub. by Moses King (1893).
Historical Guide to the City of New York, by F. B. Kelley (1909).
History of the Metropolitan Museum, by Winifred E. Howe (1913).
Minutes of the Common Council (unpublished).
Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York, ed. by John Hardy (1870).
Redfield's Traveler's Guide to the City of New York, by J. S. Redfield (1871).
New York and Its Institutions, by J. F. Richmond (1872).
History of and How to See New York, by Robert Macoy (1875).
Historical Sketch of Madison Square, pub. by the Meriden Britannia Co.
New York in a Nutshell, by Frederick Saunders (1853) .
Phelps' New York City Guide (1857).
Old New York, by Dr. Francis (1866).
Glimpses of New York City, by a South Carolinian (1852).
The Citizens and Strangers' Pictorial and Business Directory of the City of New York (1853).
Reminiscences of a Hotel Man, by Henry S. Mower (1912) .
The City of New York, pub. by Taintor Bros. (1867).
Wealth and Biography of Wealthy Citizens (1845).
The Stranger's Hand-Book (1853).
Backward Glances, by Thomas Floyd Jones (1914).
A History of the Churches of New York, Jonathan Greenleaf (1846).
The Earliest Churches of New York, by Gabriel Poillon Disosway (1865).
"New York in 1870" in Belgravia Magazine, October, 1870.
A Manual of the Reformed Church in America, by Rev. Edw. T. Corwin (1902).
"Clubs" in The Galaxy (1876).
The Diary of Philip Hone, ed. by Bayard Tuckerman (1889).
How to Know New York, by Moses F. Sweetser (1888).
Elite Directory.
A Description of the City of New York, ed. by O. L. Holley (1847).
History of the City of New York, by Mary L. Booth (1867).
Ov,ide to the Central Park, by T. Addison Richards, pub. by James Miller (1866).
The Island of Manhattan, by Felix Oldboy (J. F. Mines) (1890).
History of St. Patrick's Cathedral, by the Most Rev. John M. Farley, D.D. (1908).
The Old Merchants of New York, by Walter Barrett (1863).
The Wealthy Citizens of the City of New York (1855).
Old Streets of New York City, by John J. Post (1882).
Queens of American Society, by Mrs. E. F. EUet (1867).
The Elgin Botanical Gardens, by Judge Addison Brown, in Bulletin of the New York
Botanical Gardens, Vol. 5, No. 18.
"Value of Real Estate, New York," by a retired merchant, from Evening Post.
The Memorial History of the City of New York, ed. by James Grant Wilson (1892-93).
Life of John Johnston, by Mrs. Robert Weeks de Forest.
Deeds in Register's Office, magazine articles in Century, Harper's, Putnam's, Scribner's,
Magazine of American History, Architectural Review, and many old maps and plans.

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