Fifth Avenue Looking North From 64th Street

From a private collection comes this 1910 photograph of Fifth Avenue looking north from 64th Street. The tree lined west side of the street abuts Central Park. The residential nature of this stretch of Fifth Avenue can be seen by the abundance of mansions as far as the eye can see. 

This desirable locale was nicknamed Millionaire’s Row, as the owners lived as millionaires did: large homes with lots of servants. The extremely light vehicular traffic runs both ways. Scaffolding in front of a residence has some building supplies piled upon it.

The home on the the southeast corner of 65th Street belonged to John Jacob Astor IV, son of William Backhouse Astor and Caroline Astor.  John Jacob Astor IV died when the Titanic went down in 1912.

The house was acquired in 1925 by Temple Emanu-El to build their new synagogue. The house was demolished the following year, but curiously the Astor wine cellar was left intact.

Only a handful of mansions remain on the avenue today, The cost of maintaining and staffing them was impractical. Most were demolished during the twentieth century to make way for apartment buildings.

If someone wants one of these gilded age white elephants, one of the best remaining has an asking price of $80 million.

The Benjamin Duke Mansion on Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street directly across from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is on the market. The 1899 home is owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim who purchased the mansion in 2010 for $44 million.

New York real estate is one of the venues where you can potentially make $36 million profit in 13 years.