Fifth Avenue : Architecture and Society: A History of America's Street of Dreams

New York's Fifth Avenue, America's 'Street of Dreams', is one of the most remarkable thoroughfares in the world. Shown on the Commissioners' map of 1807 emerging from a country road, then in the proposed grid plan of 1811 as one of the major boulevards, Fifth Avenue by the end of the century was synonymous with a lavish fashionable life, grand mansions and services catering to the wealthy. Above Washington Square, in the 1840s and 50s, mainly speculative brownstone rowhouses marched steadil...