to Third Avenue. He also opened up the
Cutting and other large estates. When I was a lad, as I was the oldest
son, my father would take me to the residences of these gentlemen,
several of whom had their permanent homes on Fifth Avenue or in the
vicinity. At that period, these wealthy citizens conducted much of their
business at their homes. James Lenox had his office in the basement of
his house at Fifth Avenue and Twelfth Street. R.L. Stuart attended to
much of his business at his residence, Twentieth Street and Fifth
Avenue, and the same may be said of the Costers, Moses Taylor, and
others. These men had no hesitation in receiving in their homes after
business hours the people whom they employed. I remember distinctly
before gas was generally introduced how very economical in its use those
who had it were. In the absence of the butler the gentleman of the house
would often walk to the door with his visitor and then lower the gas.
The estates of many of these wealthy merchants were rented to market
gardeners. And it was not an unusual sight to see a merchant drive in
his carriage to the vegetable garden, select his vegetables, and carry
them to his table, showing the economy and simple manners of the people
of that older day as compared with our present extravagance.

"After the Board of Aldermen had acceded to the petition of the
residents of Fifth Avenue for permission to enclose a part of the
roadway in a closed yard or area, it was not an uncommon sight to see
many of the older men standing at their gates, in high stocks, white
cravats, cutaway coats with brass buttons, greeting their neighbours as
they passed along the Avenue--a custom which survived to about 1870,
when the white cravat, too, passed into history. The improvements on
Fifth Avenue, north of Thirty-fourth Street, began with the erection of
the Townsend house, which was a feature of the city and shown to
visitors. The location was the foot of a high hill.

"On the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fiftieth Street, where the Cathedral
now stands, stood the frame church, thirty by seventy feet, in which I
was baptized in May, 1844. A path and a road led to the Post Road which
ran east of the church and bordered the Potter's Field. To the north was
the Orphan Asylum, and farther on was another cattle yard, Waltemeir's,
a family well known to cattle men. From Fiftieth Street to St. Luke's
Hospital at Fifty-fourth Street there were a few frame houses, and the
gr