Fifth AvenueNew Yorks Fifth Avenue, Americas Street of Dreams, is one of the most remarkable thoroughfares in the world. Shown on the Commissioners map of 1807 emerging from a country road, then in the proposed grid plan of 1811 as one of the major boulevards, by the end of the century, Fifth Avenue was synonymous with a lavish fashionable life, grand mansions, and services catering to the wealthy. Above Washington Square, in the 1840s and 50s, mainly speculative