Fifth Avenue: From Washington Square to Marcus Garvey Park

Art historian Hennessey (Walking Broadway) takes a diverting stroll down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue in this sparkling guide, revealing the street’s evolving social, cultural, and economic history. Envisioned as the city’s central boulevard in the 1811 Commissioners’ Plan, Fifth Avenue became Manhattan’s preeminent residential locale before developing into the posh, store-lined thoroughfare it is today. In the 1880s, gilded age mansions took over Fifth Avenue, starting with the Vanderbilts’ construction of several luxurious homes, but the area later evolved into a “center for high-end retail and luxury hotels” after the construction of Grand Central Terminal and Rockefeller Center. Harlem consisted mainly of farmland until the 1870s, and its development followed shortly after the first Grand Central Depot was completed. In the wake of the housing collapse of 1904, African American businessman Philip A. Payton Jr. acquired many of Harlem’s declining buildings and procured high-end tenants, transforming the area in the 1920s into the “vibrant cultural capital of Black America.” Richly illustrated with vivid photographs, vintage illustrations, and maps, this “book about strolling and looking, about observing and wondering” serves as a winning homage to its famous subject. Architecture and history buffs will be enthralled. (Oct.)