The Washington times., 1924-10-31
FIFTH AVENUE
IS 100 YEARS
| OLD
centellial ceIebrationof Amer
ica's Most Famous Street
Marks Many Changes

TO celebrate the Tooth anniversary
sOf the founding .of Fifth avenue
What Regent and Bond streets are
10 London, the Rue de Ia Paix t.
Paris and the Rinestrasse ii
Vienna, Fifth avenue Is to- North
America.
No other new world tiloronghfars
has been the scene OF so many his
tory-making events, and the Zig
.nificance and sentiment attaching
to It apply nct only in the nations
metropolis, but throughout the en-
tire country. And while not by
many years the oldest street in NeH
York, its history intrigues the
rapt attention OF young and old
alike, by portraying the play 81
every emotion to which mankind Ii
heir.
/. Flowing out from venerable Wash
ton Square, originally a Potter's
Field and later drill ground for
militia troops, under the classically
wrought Washing ton Arch past Stlle
dignified homes Of some OF New
York's Oldest families and the old
Hotel Brevoort, where, in 1860, the
then Prince of Wales was snter.
tanned at a dinner attended oy The
elite of those days, 1t progresses
north for seven miles past kaleido
sscopic review of wealth and pow
erty, culture and boorishness, and
finally crosses q Quasi-public dump
Uttered with nauseating debris to
end in the Shiny waters OF the Har
lem river.
Prior to 1924, Fifth avenue existed
only upon the commissioner map
of 1911. During the first quarter
of the nineteenth century the line
which it now follows travarsed q
picturesque countryside of hills and
valleys, daIes and fields. Al few
scattered farms gave little promise
of the development to come. Few
streets n New York have required
more grading and filling. In his
"reminiscences John BroughaGn, the
actor, tells OF bird shooting as late
as the 1905 on the spot where the
Fifth Avenue building now stands
on Broadway facing Fifth avenue.
4 Picked BIaclberries.
Benson ]. Tossing, the historian
writes that ips 1916 he and com,
panicn picked blackberries where
lThirty-fiftn street now crosses Fifth
avenue. Indeed, within the lifetime
! of men still living. snipe were shot
about where the Waldorf Astoria
Hotel now stands, on one of the
most valuable sites along Fifth ave.
/ nue.. its worth running into many
] millions Of dollars. All the more
astonishing is this when one learns
from musty real estate records thai
early in the nineteenth century
property facing on Fifth avenue was
sold at figure which made twenty
five foot avenue lots at that time
!. worth about SIS. !.
Before Central Park, when ID
bounded on one side by Fifth ave
nue., was laid out, as authorized BY
the passage Of d bill dated July 81
1853, the southern extremity of what
IL now, the park, at Fifty-ninth
street, was the dividing line between
the extremes Of social existence
Blow was a center of fashion and
wealth. Abov lay 'Squatters Sow
( ereignty," dotted over with little
Hhanties and huts made of boards
picked UP along the river fronts ans
pieced out with. sheets of tin %.
tained by flattening cans, and what
not else-au area where the mongrel
dogs numbering mo less than one
hundred thousand" to say nothing
of cows, pigs, cats, goats, geese
and chickens abounded.
In those days oil lamps were n
general use for street lights, and
the lanap-lighter was ever on the
move, particularly when the wind
was high. Not until l847 was Fifth
avenue lighted with gas, ARD then
only as far as Eighteenth street;
not until 1870 was the gas carried
as Tar as Fifty-ninth street. II
was not until September. 4, 1882,
at the first Edison central station
257 Pearl street, that the swapping
of q switch brought the dawn Of q
new era in the development OF
Fifth avenue-the city and the
listed to combat time, distance and
darkness. The New York Tri
bune's headline read, ELECTRICITY
Instead Of Cas-" The New York
Suns story Of this occasion con
tained a delightful glimpse Of Ed
son wearing q white, high crowned
derby hat and a collarless shirt
Il have accomplished all ! prom
Used, |" he said.
First New Lights.
. The old New York Times buildinp
was among the first equipped with
the new light, and, as work on a
morning paper under previous con
. ditions had been. the ruin Of many
q pair Of eyes, there was sincere
tribute in the words Of g. reporter
who wrote: "It seemed almost like
, writing by daylight"
Edison's executive headquarters Al
this time were at 65 Fifth avenue
Here nightly electricity, the new
light" was turned on and all sorts
and conditions Of people shown
through the premises until mid
night.
Wont 1t explode?''
"Don's you use any matches?"
These and many other such ques,
tons were asked and answered
times without number.
That the welcome to this new
force in the development of Fifth
avenNe was slSeptical at first. is
shown by the fact that current was
supplied free to lighting customers
for nearly five months. But before
that time was over IL had become
indispensable, although its effects
upon all phases of human activity
were not foreseen by even the most
enthusiastic.
Lights and the "Aside."
As high an authority on the
. drama as Brander Matthews stated
that the. credit for banishing the
aside" should be divided equally
between Ibsen and Edison. For,
he goes on to say, when incandes.