SELF-GUIDED GILDED AGE NYC TOUR
This self-guided Gilded Age NYC tour centers around Fifth Avenue. Fifth Avenue used to be residential and was dubbed “Millionaires Row” for all the Gilded Age mansions built by Manhattan’s elite at the time. Many of these mansions have since been demolished, kept alive only by historians, tour guides, and recreations in movies and television shows. Others have been adapted and converted for other uses such as flagship stores, and one is still residential.
For this tour, start at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue. This area is also known as Grand Army Plaza. We walk north from Grand Army Plaza.
As you stand in Grand Army Plaza, you should notice a few important landmarks.
Gilded Statue of William Tecumseh Sherman
Civil War hero William Tecumseh Sherman moved to NYC after his service, and enjoyed Central Park. It seems fitting he is immortalized on the southeast corner of the park. Sherman himself was a figure of the Gilded Age and was often seen as a symbol of progress. His statue depicts Sherman riding triumphantly on a horse behind a figure known as Victory. The model for Victory was an African-American gilded age model known as Hettie Anderson. The feet of Sherman’s horse are trampling a Georgia pine branch, a symbol of the south. The Statue itself is gilded in 24 karat gold, making it the perfect symbol to begin a Gilded Age tour.
THE PLAZA HOTEL
The Plaza Hotel might technically have opened in the waning years of the Gilded Age, but in many ways it still exhibited the opulence of the era. It’s been associated with many non-Gilded Age celebrities, ranging from Jospehine Baker to the Beatles. Step into the lobby to be transported into old-world glamour.
PULITZER FOUNTAIN
Next to the Plaza Hotel is a beautiful fountain with the figure of a maiden atop it. The is known as the Pulitzer Fountain, named for Joseph Pulitzer, the biggest newspaper publisher of his day. His newspaper, The New York World, can be credited with raising funds for the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal and for lending its name to baseball’s World Series. He was prominent during the Gilded Age.
The model for the fountain was Audrey Munson, often referred to as America’s very first supermodel. She was so beautiful men were literally willing to commit murder for her. In 1919, her landlord murdered his wife so he could be available to marry Audrey. Needless to say this frightened Audrey, and her mother then decided to leave NYC. Audrey lived a very sad life after that, being admitted to a mental asylum in 1931, where she lived until age of 104.
BERGDORF GOODMAN AND THE VANDERBILTS
Behind the Pulitzer Fountain is the luxury retail store Bergdorf Goodman. While certainly a modern-day store the Gilded Age elite would positively adore, it did not exist during the Gilded Age. What stood there was the home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, grandson of the railroad robber baron Cornelius Vanderbilt. The mansion was completed in 1882, and was essentially a NYC Chateau. Designed by celebrity architects George B. Post and Richard Morris Hunt, the house was six stories tall and took up the entire block front. It was, and impressively remained, the largest single family residential home ever built in NYC.
As time progressed, the gold from the Gilded Age began to chip off. In 1926, Cornelius Vanverbilt II’s widow was forced to sell the home. Once the mansion was demolished, Bergdorf Goodman quickly built its current building, where it has been operating ever since.
Walk North to 60th and Fifth
THE METROPOLITAN CLUB
J.P. Morgan founded a social club for millionaires called THE METROPOLITAN CLUB. It was a Gilded Age club for Manhattan’s elite to socialize and not be bothered by well…non-millionaires. This is also a great moment to mention that J.P. Morgan was an extremely interesting man. Childhood rosacea left him with a “purple bulbous” nose. As such, nearly all photos of him were touched-up in an attempt to minimize it. He was so rich that he bailed out the US government twice. J.P. Morgan was also supposed to be on the Titanic, but was having so much fun with his mistress in France, he chose to skip the voyage.
Walk north to 63rd Street and Fifth Avenue
The Pierre
Just a few blocks north of Grand Army Plaza, you will find NYC’s Pierre Hotel. Even today, the Pierre is one of the most esteemed luxury hotels in NYC. It was created by a 25-year old immigrant named Charles Pierre Casalsco. He had practically been born and raised in the hospitality industry, starting off by working at his father’s restaurant before making his way to New York, where he worked at fine dining establishments. At this point, he has taken the professional name Charles Pierre. When Charles Pierre finally decided to set off on his own, he found backers such as Walter P. Chrysler. With such clout, he was able to create the Pierre. For 2 years, it was the toast of the town, but Prohibition and the Great Depression brought on hard times. The Pierre went bankrupt, yet the hotel endeavoured to persevere, regaining its glamour when an oil tycoon bought it and turned its fortunes around. Today it is, as their website states, a “quintessential monument to NYC affluence.”
Walk North for 64th Street
Berwind Mansion
828 Fifth Avenue NYC (also sometimes called 2 East 64th st.) is the site of the Edward J. Berwind House. This was where coal robber baron Edward J. Berwind resided. Berwind worked closely with J.P. Morgan, and created a coal empire. He was the world’s largest individual owner of coal mining properties in the world during the Gilded Age. He broke the mold with Fifth Avenue mansions, many of which were designed by Richard Morris Hunt, and hired Nathan Clark Mellen to design this mansion in the style of an Edwardian townhouse.
After Berwinds sold this mansion, it was home to the Institute of Aeronatuical Sciences and then the American Heart Association. Today it is once again residential and its rumored Madonna almost bought one of the apartments within the old Berwind Mansion. The only reason she declined was there wasn’t parking near enough for her to enter the building free from the gaze of paparazzi.