Two hundred years ago today, on November 1, 1824, Fifth Avenue was born, with the opening in Greenwich Village of the first segment of New York’s most iconic thoroughfare. While it took decades for the avenue to be built out, with initial development not truly gaining momentum until the 1840s and ’50s, Fifth Avenue went on to become not just a prime street in Greenwich Village, but in many ways the central artery of New York.

On its bicentennial, we look back at Fifth Avenue’s start, chronologically and geographically, in Greenwich Village. Our new StoryMap, painstakingly researched and illustrated, tells the story of the development of every site on the avenue south of 14th Street, from millionaires’ mansions and lavish hotels to recording studios, publishing houses, civil rights headquarters, and cutting-edge cultural hotspots. 

You’ll be surprised to discover that almost 90% of the buildings on the avenue are either the first and only or just the second building ever constructed on these sites. But you’ll also learn about some of the legendary homes and gathering spots once found here that are long gone, as well as the surprising past lives of some of the buildings that survive today. 

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.