Fifth Avenue, New York (1911)

These photographs, first published in Fifth Avenue, New York, from start to finish (1911), depict the fashionable thoroughfare of Fifth Avenue. The images, complete with captions indicating addresses and the names of businesses and shops, show us a Fifth Avenue in the years following the height of its popularity as a fashionable residential district and the early stages of its transformation into one of the world's premiere luxury commercial streets.

Flipping through these photographs allows us to take a virtual stroll along Fifth Avenue from Washington Square up to Central Park, passing other pedestrians, carriages, cops, and storefronts long since gone. Among other gems, you'll come across the newly constructed New York Public Library, now the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, in the days before the lions came to guard the entrance.

The original publication and similar collections of historical images of New York City can be found in the collection of the Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History & Genealogy in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 42nd Street. You can contact the Milstein Division by visiting us in person or by sending us an e-mail at histref@nypl.org.

See more images and information at NYPL.

79 photos | 2,452 views

items are from 11 May 2009.