Fifth Avenue Was Born November 1, 1824; Our New Map Tells Its Story
We’re thrilled to share our latest interactive map, marking the 200th anniversary of the opening of Fifth Avenue on November 1, 2024. Our new StoryMap tells the story of the beginnings in Greenwich Village of New York’s most celebrated street, and lays out in meticulous detail how the iconic thoroughfare has grown and evolved between Washington Square, where it began, and 14th Street — the first section of the street, which was opened 200 years ago this Friday.
The new map is packed with historic images of lower Fifth Avenue, from its founding until the present, and explores the history of each and every lot along this first section of the avenue in Greenwich Village. You’ll learn how many and which of the current buildings on this stretch of Fifth Avenue are the first and only structures to ever be built on their sites (nine) and that every extant building on lower Fifth Avenue except four are either the first or second buildings ever constructed there. You’ll see some of the long-since demolished mansions and grand hotels that once lined the avenue below 14th Street, and learn when its imposing houses gave way to apartment buildings, lofts, department stores, and music venues. And you’ll meet some of the incredible captains of industry, philanthropists, artists, writers, bohemians, and revolutionaries who called its various edifices in the Village home.
Fifth Avenue is a defining street not only for Greenwich Village, but New York City, the nation, and the world. This first-of-its-kind interactive map allows you to explore its history, evolution, and architecture in ways never before possible.
This is just one of more than a dozen Village Preservation maps that highlight the incredible history of our neighborhoods, from Women’s Suffrage to Landmarks of Civil Rights, Bob Dylan’s Greenwich Village to Hip-Hop History, and the East Village, NoHo, South of Union Square, and the Greenwich Village Historic District, among many others.