Becoming Fifth Avenue: Rise of the New York Mansion
“Becoming Fifth Avenue” is a series of posts in celebration of the bicentennial of the avenue, which was first laid out in 1824. The first segment, in Greenwich Village between Washington Square North and 13th Street, officially opened on November 1st of that year.
On November 1, 1824, the first segment of Fifth Avenue opened in Greenwich Village. This was 200 years after the first founding settlers arrived in New York City in 1624, and the city bore little resemblance to what we know it as today. In fact, when Fifth Avenue was first laid out, it was a simple country road. In those early years, the landscape in this north section of Greenwich Village was primarily farmland owned by a handful of prominent families. After a few years, however, there was momentum to develop the avenue and construction soon progressed rapidly along Washington Square North and up Fifth Avenue to 14th Street, in this prime location at what was once the northernmost edge of the city.
As we neared the Fifth Avenue bicentennial, Village Preservation was inspired to tell the full story of the avenue’s development from a country lane to one of the most storied and iconic thoroughfares in the world. The culmination of months of thorough research, Village Preservation has created a highly detailed resource that recounts the development of every site along the avenue south of 14th Street.
We’ve analyzed each building type and use along Fifth Avenue, including the grand mansions that once lined the avenue in the early to mid-19th century; the hotels and apartment buildings of the early 20th century that often replaced them; the original Gothic Revival style churches, which remain to this day; and the commercial lofts that began to proliferate around 14th Street and Union Square in the late 19th century, which housed recording studios, publishing companies, civil rights headquarters, and cutting-edge cultural hotspots. You can learn about all of these fascinating layers of history, interspersed with tons of historical maps and images, in our Story Map.
To whet your appetite, let’s now take a more detailed look at the first buildings to dot the avenue, which were some of New York City’s earliest and grandest mansions. These new residences were often custom-built for some of the wealthiest 19th-century New Yorkers who had left the more crowded city south of here in favor of opportunities in a young, newly developing Greenwich Village. They were among the most elaborate and grand structures not only in this neighborhood, but in all of New York City.
21 Fifth Avenue (1851)
The Romanesque Revival–style house in the photograph above is No. 21, the first building to be constructed at the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 9th Street. It was built in 1851 and attributed to the renowned architect James Renwick Jr., who designed the home for the Renwick estate. Renwick’s family had been deeded the land from Henry Brevoort Sr., James Renwick Jr.’s maternal grandfather. Just starting out in his career as an architect, Renwick Jr. was simultaneously completing his first commission a couple of blocks away, the Gothic Revival Grace Church.
No. 21 Fifth Avenue became known as the “Mark Twain House,” as the author lived there from 1904 to 1908. Acclaimed 19th-century short-story writer Washington Irving, who was a friend of the Renwick family, is also said to have frequently stayed at the house, adding to its significance in American literary history.
24 Fifth Avenue (built in 1834)
One of the earliest mansions to be built along the avenue was 24 Fifth Avenue, designed by A.J. Davis for Henry Brevoort Jr., in 1834. It epitomizes early Fifth Avenue’s status as a prestigious place to build a distinguished home, described in the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designation report for the Greenwich Village Historic District as “one of the finest free-standing Greek Revival mansions in the city.”
The three-story-plus-basement corner brownstone house featured multi-lite windows along its two street-facing facades, with balconettes at each opening. Bowed central bays contoured its south (West 9th Street) and north (interior-facing) facades.
32 Fifth Avenue (built in 1850)
No. 32 Fifth Avenue, which was the first building constructed on its lot, in 1850, also had the distinction of being the first building to feature a mansard roof along Fifth Avenue (and, possibly, in the entire city). The three-story mansion was designed by Danish architect Detlef Lienau.
47 Fifth Avenue (built in 1852-53)
Built for railroad and coal magnate Irad Hawley in 1852–53, No. 47 Fifth Avenue (at right in the above image) was designed in the early Italianate style. Like many of the mansions that once lined Fifth Avenue, it was one of the first to have a facade entirely of brownstone. It was also among the first buildings to be granted individual landmark status by the LPC, and as the designation report states, “it is an outstanding example of a very grand mansion.” It became the Salmagundi Club in 1917.
Visit our Story Map to learn about the fate of these impressive buildings. While many first generation Fifth Avenue mansions were replaced by larger apartment buildings in the early to mid-20th century, several remain to this day. This is just one of more than a dozen Village Preservation maps that highlight the incredible history of our neighborhoods — view them all here.