Park Avenue: Street of Dreams

For luxury apartment houses, Park Avenue has few rivals. In this interesting historical and architectural survey of the famed thoroughfare, due attention is paid to the mystique--``more a state of mind''--of the prestigious address. Trager ( West of Fifth ) takes a reader on a tour of the avenue, noting its origin as a legacy of Commodore Vanderbilt and his railroad in the 1850s. Past and present grandeur and the great building boom of the 1920s that produced mansions for the robber barons are noted in a block-by-block travelogue studded with anecdotes of the prominent denizens of the neighborhood. The avenue's less affluent extremities and commercial intrusions are noted, but it is the opulent residential enclave that provides spice. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Feb.)