"The street outside the George Gould house at 67th Street & 5th Avenue. Horse-drawn carriages are lined up outside the house for the wedding of Anna Gould to Count Boni de Castellane, 1895."

857 Fifth Avenue, 1929. In 1906, after seeing the new mansions of Fifth Avenue rise around him, particularly the new gleaming white Thomas Fortune Ryan mansion next door, George Gould decided to demolish his home and built something new. He hired Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer, who created an Italianate mansion that matched its neighbor's style, down to a rusticated base that was nearly exactly the same. The home once again became the host to a couple society wedding, this time for the daughters of George. George would die in 1923 and following his death, a major battle ensued over his wealth and real estate between his older children and his second wife (and former mistress with whom he had children while still married to his first wife). The house was eventually purchased by a Vanderbilt relative. Sold by that owner in 1951 for a mere $400,000 (it was built in 1907 for $1.25 million), it was torn down in the early 1960s and replaced with a 19-story building.

As the city expanded and the relentless churning of commerce caused New York's population to explode, the city pushed northward. As the city itself moved northward, so did its elite. They settled along the undeveloped edge of the brand new Central Park, building enormous homes and mansions to celebrate their fabulous wealth. This walk takes you through a selection of the Fifth Avenue mansions that would have once dominated the Avenue.

George Gould Residence, ca. 1900. George Gould was the son of millionaire railroad man Jay Gould. In 1892 George had built a new mansion for his growing family. The mansion, built in a French Neo-Gothic style, was made of dark brownstone and was ornamented with turrets, balconies, and peaked gables. It was the location of the 1895 wedding of George's sister Anna to a French count, where the social elite of New York and European royalty arrived by carriage, and New Yorkers lined the street to try and glimpse the guests. In 1906 the dark, Gothic style mansion was terribly out of fashion with the new mansions of the Upper East Side. So George had his home razed and constructed a new building on the site.