Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The section in Midtown Manhattan is one of the most expensive shopping streets in the world.
Fifth Avenue carries two-way traffic between 143rd and 135th Streets, and one-way traffic southbound for the rest of its route. The entire avenue carried two-way traffic until 1966. From 124th to 120th Streets, Fifth Avenue is interrupted by Marcus Garvey Park, with southbound traffic diverted around the park via Mount Morris Park West and northbound to Madison Avenue. Most of the avenue has a bus lane, but no bike lane. Fifth Avenue is the traditional route for many celebratory parades in New York City and is closed to automobile traffic on several Sundays each year.
Fifth Avenue was originally a narrower thoroughfare, but the section south of Central Park was widened in 1908. The Midtown blocks between 34th and 59th Streets were mostly residential until the early 20th century, when they were developed for commercial use. The section of Fifth Avenue in the 50s is consistently ranked among the most expensive shopping streets in the world. The stretch between 59th and 96th Streets along Central Park was once known as "Millionaire's Row" because of its high concentration of mansions. The portion between 82nd and 110th Streets, also along Central Park, is nicknamed Museum Mile for its many museums.
History
Early history
Fifth Avenue between 42nd Street and Central Park South was relatively undeveloped through the late 19th century. The surrounding area was once part of the common lands of the city of New York, which was allocated "all the waste, vacant, unpatented, and unappropriated lands" as a result of the 1686 Dongan Charter. The city's Common Council came to own a large amount of land, primarily in the middle of the island away from the Hudson and East Rivers, as a result of grants by the Dutch provincial government to the colony of New Amsterdam. Although originally more extensive, by 1785 the council held approximately, or about 9 percent of the island.The lots along what is now Fifth Avenue were laid out in the late 18th century following the American Revolutionary War. The city's Common Council had, starting in June 1785, attempted to raise money by selling property. The land that the Council owned was not suitable for farming or residential estates, and it was also far away from any roads or waterways. To divide the common lands into sellable lots, and to lay out roads to service them, the Council hired Casimir Goerck to survey them. Goerck was instructed to make lots of about each and to lay out roads to access the lots. He completed his task in December 1785, creating 140 lots of varying sizes, oriented with the east–west axis longer than the north–south axis. As part of the plan, Goerck drew up a street called Middle Road, which eventually became Fifth Avenue.
The topography of the lots contributed to the public's reluctance to buy the lots. By 1794, with the city growing ever more populated and the inhabited area constantly moving north towards the Common Lands, the Council decided to try again, hiring Goerck once more to re-survey and map the area. He was instructed to make the lots more uniform and rectangular and to lay out roads to the west and east of Middle Road, as well as to lay out east–west streets of each. Goerck's East and West Roads later became Fourth and Sixth Avenues, while Goerck's cross streets became the modern-day numbered east–west streets. Goerck took two years to survey the 212 lots which encompassed the entire Common Lands. The Commissioners' Plan of 1811, which prescribed the street plan for Manhattan, was heavily inspired from Goerck's two surveys.
19th century
From the early 19th century, some plots on Fifth Avenue in Midtown were acquired by the wealthy and by institutions. In the mid-19th century, Fifth Avenue between 40th and 59th Streets was home to several institutions such as the Colored Orphan Asylum, the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum, and St. Luke's Hospital. Other uses such as a cattle farm remained until the 1860s. One of the first large houses to be built on Fifth Avenue was Henry J. Brevoort's three-story residence at Ninth Street, which was completed in 1834. Subsequently, other farm owners decided to build houses along Fifth Avenue and its cross-streets.The portion of Fifth Avenue in Midtown became an upscale residential area following the American Civil War. Among the first people to develop such structures was Mary Mason Jones, who built the "Marble Row" on the eastern side of Fifth Avenue from 57th to 58th Streets between 1868 and 1870. Her sister Rebecca Colford Jones erected ornate houses of her own one block south. Further development came in the late 1870s with the construction of three Vanderbilt family residences along Fifth Avenue between 51st and 59th Streets. In the 1880s and 1890s, the ten blocks of Fifth Avenue south of Central Park were known as "Vanderbilt Row".
The Vanderbilts' relocation prompted many business owners on Fifth Avenue between Madison Square and 34th Street to move uptown. The upper section of Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side, facing the newly created Central Park, was not developed at that time because of what the Real Estate Record and Guide described as the presence of "no opposite neighbors", as the Upper West Side was not yet developed. Wealthy New Yorkers were buying land between 50th and 80th Streets and developing houses there in the 1880s. By 1915, the mansions on Fifth Avenue stretched all the way to 96th Street.
Early 20th century
Midtown Fifth Avenue remained primarily residential until the early 20th century, when commercial development intensified. Rising traffic by 1900 led to proposals to limit vehicle access.In 1908, the section south of Central Park was widened to accommodate growing traffic. This involved removing stoops and other sidewalk encroachments, including those at the Waldorf–Astoria Hotel. By early 1911, widening had reached south of 47th Street, and later that year, the stretch between 47th and 59th Streets underwent similar changes. Many mansions were truncated or demolished, while the facades of St. Patrick's Cathedral and Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church were shifted back. Gardens at the St. Regis and Gotham hotels were also removed.
The first commercial building on Fifth Avenue was developed by Benjamin Altman, who acquired the northeast corner of 34th Street in 1896. The resulting B. Altman and Company Building, completed between 1906 and 1914, spanned the entire block front. This helped establish a high-end shopping district catering to fashionable clientele. In 1914, the Lord & Taylor Building was constructed at Fifth Avenue and 38th Street, followed by the Saks Fifth Avenue Building between 49th and 50th Streets in 1924, and the Bergdorf Goodman Building between 57th and 58th Streets in 1928–29.
By the 1920s, Fifth Avenue was the most active development corridor in Midtown. Developers expanded north of 45th Street, previously seen as the limit for viable construction. In 1926 alone, thirty office buildings rose on Fifth Avenue. The two-block-wide area between Fifth and Park Avenues, just 8% of Manhattan’s land, accounted for 25% of all developments initiated between 1924 and 1926. On the Upper East Side, many Fifth Avenue mansions were replaced by luxury apartment buildings, as upkeep became too costly for private owners.
Traffic control innovations also emerged in this period. Patrolmen were first deployed in 1914 to direct vehicles at key intersections. The first traffic towers were installed in 1920 as a gift from Dr. John A. Harriss at key junctions such as 34th, 38th, and 42nd Streets. In 1922, the Fifth Avenue Association funded seven bronze towers designed by Joseph H. Freedlander, spanning from 14th to 57th Streets. These towers cut travel time between 34th and 57th Streets from 40 minutes to 15.
Freedlander's towers were removed in 1929. They were replaced by corner-mounted bronze signals topped with statues of Mercury, which remained in place until 1964; and several statues were restored in 1971.
Mid- and late 20th century
In 1954, rising traffic led to a proposal to limit use of the avenue to buses and taxis only. On January 14, 1966, Fifth Avenue below 135th Street was changed to carry only one-way traffic southbound, and Madison Avenue was changed to one-way northbound. Both avenues had previously carried bidirectional traffic.Through the late 1960s and early 1970s, many of the upscale retailers that once lined Fifth Avenue's midtown section moved away or closed altogether. According to a 1971 survey of the avenue, conducted by the Office of Midtown Planning under the leadership of Jaquelin T. Robertson, only 57 percent of building frontages between 34th and 57th Street were used as stores. The remaining frontage, including was used for companies such as banks and airline ticket offices. The section between 34th and 42nd Street, once the main shopping district on Fifth Avenue, was identified in the survey as being in decline. The section between 42nd and 50th Street was characterized as having almost no ground-level retail. The section between 50th Street and Grand Army Plaza was identified as having a robust retail corridor that was starting to decay.
In February 1971, New York City mayor John Lindsay proposed a special zoning district to preserve the retail character of Fifth Avenue's midtown section. The legislation prescribed a minimum percentage of retail space for new buildings on Fifth Avenue, but it also provided "bonuses", such as additional floor area, for buildings that had more than the minimum amount of retail. The legislation also encouraged the construction of several mixed-use buildings with retail at the lowest stories, offices at the middle stories, and apartments at the top stories. The types of retail included in this legislation were strictly defined; for example, airline ticket offices and banks did not count toward the retail space. Furthermore, new skyscrapers on the eastern side of the avenue were allowed to be built up to the boundary of the sidewalk. To align with the buildings of Rockefeller Center, new buildings on the western side had to contain a setback at least deep at a height of or lower. The New York City Planning Commission approved this legislation in March 1971. The legislation was adopted that April. Just before the legislation was enacted, American Airlines leased a ground-level storefront on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street; Robertson initially disputed the move, even though it had been finalized before the legislation was proposed. As part of an experiment in 1970, Lindsay closed Fifth Avenue between 42nd and 57th Street to vehicular traffic for seven hours on Saturdays.
In 1997, a midblock crosswalk was installed south of the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 50th Street, part of an experiment to allow vehicular traffic to turn without conflicting with pedestrians. The former southern crosswalk at Fifth Avenue and 50th Street was fenced off; the relocated crosswalk was one of a few midblock crosswalks in the city. A similar crosswalk was later installed south of 49th Street. Both of the recessed crosswalks were removed in 2018.