562 Fifth Avenue, ca. 1919.

This corner building at no. 562 was an Italianate brownstone constructed sometime prior to 1846 when it came into the possession of the Harper family. Various members of the family, who owned the publishing house Harper & Brothers, lived in the residence over the next six decades. The lovely curved mansard roof was added during renovations in the late 1870s, giving the building a slight French Second Empire look. In 1909 Joseph Harper's widow leased her home to florist Charles Thorley for $27,000 a year (nearly $700,000 in today's market).

Thorley, who was 16 years old when he opened his first flower shop downtown in 1874, had become the go-to florist for both New York's high society AND lovesick young men looking to dazzle their sweethearts. After occupying a series of shops, Thorley's business took up residence here at no. 562. And he transformed the building into a 'House of Flowers.'

During his first few years here Thorley undertook a series of "greening" renovations: painting the building white with green trim, placing vines and shrubs all along the facade, installing window boxes with overflowing vegetation. This Midtown jungle was a sight to be seen. From this shop Thorley decorated the mansions of NYC's elite for weddings, funerals, and other fancy occasions. His business could not have been more successful; in 1912, during the Easter season only, he sold more than $45,000 in flowers.

In 1915 Mrs. Harper passed away and the building—by then largely known as the Thorley Building— was sold. With the new owners raising the already exorbitant rent, Thorley choose to move on in 1920. Charles Thorley died in 1923 but his assistant Rose Fallon took over the business which prospered in various midtown locations (including lastly the Carlyle Hotel) until the mid 1960s.

The corner mansion turned flower shop was demolished in the early 1920s, and replaced with a 12-story commercial building. That building, known as the I. Miller Building (for the shoe company that built it), was purchased in 2015 and soon after demolished (along with its neighbors to the north) for an as-yet unknown new development.