Los Angeles herald., 1909-07-30
OLD ABODE OF
WEALTH CHANGED
BUSINESS ENCR0ACHES ON
HOMES OF MILLI0NAIRES
FAMOUS FIFTH AVENUE SAID TO
BE CHANGING SPOTS
Invasion of Commercial Buildings Is
Rapidly Doing Away with Resi-
dences of Americas Rich
est Citizens
fsnecial 20 The Herald.l

avenue-most famous of fashionable
American streets--s swiftly passing
from the glory of re sidential eXclu-
siveness to the more obscure if not less
useful role of an ordinary commercial
thOroughfare. only few days ago
the police found it necessary to make
wholesale arrests in order to prevent
the blocking of the sidewalks in what
was only few years ago the most
aristocratic section of the avenue, by
workers in the big manufacturing es-
adjustments that have invaded It's
once sacred precincts.
Throughout the lower two miles of
its course which, twenty years ago was
sOlidly lined with the broWnStone fronts
that typifed wealthy ownership in that
period of the city's development, there
are today only few scattered resi-
dences where a handful of stubborn
Knickerbockers continue to defy the IN
vasion of trade and commerce. Even
these few homes are OVershadoWed by
the lofty skyscrapers that rear their
fronts in ever-increasing numbers
along the stately avenue and most of
them remain with barred doors and
windows during the greater part or
the year.
Lower Avenue Rapidly Changing
Ill dllOllltl lltilL hS1t tlNiN NAAN A'.h'N
them probably will have disappeared
or will have been converted into shops
and it is only a matter of very brief
time when there will not be a private
residence left along Fifth avenue be-
low Central park. This includes prac-
ticaHy all that the New Yorker of
generation ago meant 10y Fifth avenue,
for the upper portion of the street was
then given over to scattered novels and
unsigbtly heaps of rock
Fifth avenue is not an old street as
compared with Broadway or the Bow
cry or Wall street or any of the thor
oughfares that extend to the lower por-
tion of Manhattan island. 1t dates back
only to 1911, when the present plan of
the city was adopted. Its name then
stgnifed no more than did those of
Sixth and Seventh or any other of the
numerically designated avenues eX-
tending up and down the island. In
fact its development was slower than
that of some of these others for many
years, due probably to the clrcum-
stances that it took its beginning at
what was then the Potter's field, now
Washington square, while its upper
course was flanked by rocky elevations,
which competent engineers asserted
could not be turned into building sites
with any profit.
thereafter Second avenue-and Stuy-
vesant square through which ii ran
was the fashionable residence section
OF the metropolis. Here were grouped
the ab0des of such wealth and fash
ion as New York then bOasted, the
Rutherfords, StuyVesants and GouVer-
Heurs, who ruled the social life of the
day. All semblance Of wealth and
fashion has long since departed from
the locality and the last of the famous
homes, that of Senator and Secretary
of State William NJ. EVaTts, was torn
down year or two ago to make way
for cheap apartment houses, Today
Second avenue is one of the business
thorouEhfares of the teemtng east side,
d region of delicatessen shops and for
cign cafes on which the signs bear
names about equally distributed be-
tween German and Italian. It's fallen
state, however, may be only fore
runner Of the fate which is to over
take its more celebrated successor, for
the signs of the foreign invasion are
already beginning to appear in lower
Fifth avenue.
Only Fifty Years Old
The prestige of Fifth avenue as a
street of luxurious homes dates back
about fifty years and was COntempOr-
aneOus with two important develop
ments in its history. The first of these
was the building of the city reservoir
at Fifth avenue and Forty second
street and the second was the cree
ton of the Fifth avenue hotel at the
intersection of the avenue with Broad
way and Twenty third street. The ho-
tel was for many years the most fam
GUS CaraVansary in the country while
the reservoir soon became the favor
ite terminus for Sunday strolls, the
inception of the famous church parade
which was for many years a feature Of
avenue life and which is still kept up
after a fashion on Easter Sunday.
Between these two points and along
the part of the avenue below Twenty
third street the aristocracy of wealth.
which came into existence following
the civil war. built its homes. A little
later the opening of Central park set
a new northern limit 20 the fashionable
residence district and as the ranks Of
those who numbered their wealth by
hundreds of thousands instead Of by
tens multiplied. this new territory was
gradually occupied until the avenue
was hanked by double lire of million
aires residences extending in an al
most unbroIcE succession for two miles
and a half.
Following and overlapping the era
when Fifth avenue was solely resi-
dence street came what may be called
the hotel era, when it was the center
of fashionable hotels and restaurants.
Besides the Fifth Avenue, which drew
great fame from it's entertainment of
the prince of Wales and other distin-
guished foreigners and Americans, was
the Hotel Brunswick, a few blocks
above, which was even more fashion
able and exclusive in its clientele. This
was a faovrite dining place of William
TraVers Sam Ward and many another
bon vivant of the period. 1t was also
the scene of many public dinners and
social affairs which were the talk of
half a continent. Further down was
the Brevoort, whose clientele included
many notable foreign visitors to Amer
lea, and further up, at Forty-second
street, was the Bristol, where people
of ample means and quiet tastes found
an abode to their liking. Another ia
NOUS hotel of this period was the
Windsor, which retained share of its
fashionable support down to its de-
struction by a disastrous fire half
dozen years ago. All three except the
first named have given way to bust
ness structures
Longacre Square Wins
For a time it seemed that Fifth ave-
nue. would become the great hotel
..+,o.1.+ ~ Nyau- Work. and il still con-