Fifth Avenue in the 19th Century, New York

Fifth Avenue in the 19th Century

In the early 19th century, Fifth Avenue was a country road to Yorkville. Construction of 5th Avenue began in 1824. The site of Washington Square, where 5th Ave. begins, became a public park in 1827. By mid-19th century, part of the avenue in Midtown Manhattan was home of institutions like the Colored Orphan Asylum, the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum, and Saint Luke’s Hospital. Later, it became place of mansions, cultural institutions, fashionable life and luxury hotels.

Central Park opened for public use in 1859. In the same year, the Fifth Avenue Hotel opened at the intersection of Broadway, Madison Square. The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened 1872. The Cathedral of Saint Patrick was dedicated in 1879. In 1889, to mark the centennial of Washington's inauguration, the Memorial Arch was erected in Washington Square to frame the beginning of Fifth Avenue. The first installation of truly ornamental electrified cast-iron posts occurred on Fifth Avenue, in 1892. Waldorf Hotel opened in 1893. Asphalt pavement was laid down in 1898.

North from Fifty-first Street.

Looking south from 39th Street. Brick Presbyterian Church is in the distance.

Looking south on Fifth Avenue from 22nd Street in the 1870s. Illustration drawn from a rare photo in possession New York Historical Society. Published in Fifth Avenue Old and New, 1824-1924, by Henry Collins Brown.

The view shows the Union Club at right and the South Dutch Reformed Church at 21st Street, now site of the 160 Fifth Avenue building, completed in 1892.

The beginning of 5th Avenue.

Hotel Bristol is on the left.

Statue of Liberty torch on the right.

Photo between 1893 and 1904.

Site of the later Fifth Avenue Hotel.

Fifth Avenue between 46th and 47th Streets.

Lower Manhattan, looking south from 42nd Street, showing the Croton Reservoir and the Crystal Palace, built for the Exhibition of the Industries of All Nations, 1853/1854.

The Hotel Savoy about the time it was open in 1892, before the first expansion.

Fifth Avenue in the 19th Century