"Hop a bus, take a car, hail a cab and there you are on Fifth Avenue!" Fifth Ave.came of age at the same moment Midtown became a transit hub following the construction of Grand Central Terminal in the 1910s and the completion of Park Ave., which covered the previously open-air tracks of commuter steam trains.

"Every Joe, every Jane walks along that dreamer's lane." Real estate moguls Benjamin Winter and Frederick Brown began buying up the vacant mansions of Fifth Ave. Descendants of these mansions' original owners had moved to newly built apartments and hotels.

"Where they stop, window shop and their hopes are so high. Pricing rings, pretty things that they can't afford to buy." The mansions were torn down almost immediately in order to make way for mammoth shopping emporiums.

"But they smile, they don't care... everyone's a millionaire when you're strolling on Fifth Avenue!" In 1928, the Magazine of Business claimed it was "the richest and most desirable shopping center in the United State, probably in the world."

"All the world's on parade where the fashions are made on Fifth Avenue!" Retailers seized every opportunity they could. Bergdorf Goodman even occupied the site across from where Cornelius Vanderbilt's mansion had stood on 57th St. At the time, it was a risky move to be higher up on the avenue than any other retailer had been before.

"Fancy shops, small cafes, a cathedral, and then Central Park, Cartier's, and Woolworth's five and ten." Where once tycoon Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings had hosted his famous dinner on horseback, New Yorkers of all stripes could marvel at the newest fashions.

"What a street, what a thrill. Say - you haven't lived until you've been strolling on Fifth Avenue!" Though many of the patrons were indeed residents of the neighborhood, Fifth Avenue attracted a number of out-of-towners as well. Affluent suburban shoppers came from Boston or Philadelphia to stay in the new hotel district and hit the shops.