I’m not sure when this postcard was made, but the postmark is stamped 1906; I think it has to be a bit earlier.
It’s a view of the corner of Fifth and 57th Street, then a luxe address lined with mansions and now a luxe address lined with much taller hotels and grander apartment houses (and a few surviving mansions).
The mansion on the right was owned by the very wealthy Mary Mason Jones. The building in the middle of the block is the former Savoy Hotel, later the site of the Savoy Plaza Hotel and now home to the GM Building, which houses the Apple Store and FAO Schwartz.
Tags: Fifth Avenue 1900, Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, Hotel Savoy, Marble Row Fifth Avenue, Mary Mason Jones mansion, New York City postcards, Upper East Side street, vintage postcards NYC
Ephemeral New York 
September 20, 2012 at 1:54 pm |
Who is the owner of this blog? Great writing, great posts!
September 20, 2012 at 2:58 pm |
Thank you!
September 20, 2012 at 3:11 pm |
Is there anyway to email you? Thanks.
September 20, 2012 at 3:19 pm
Sure: Ephemeralnewyork -at- gmail dot com
September 21, 2012 at 1:46 pm |
Thanks for not cropping out the message from “Alice” to “Aunty”, sending her love to “uncle” and (what appears to be) “Freddie”. Even though Alice makes no mention of her experience in The City, the little message reminds us of all the people who once passed through, and, in their own small way, contributed to its wonder.
September 21, 2012 at 2:31 pm |
I love these leftover notes. Who is Alice? Who is Freddie? It’s all lost to the ages….
September 21, 2012 at 7:44 pm |
Mary Mason Jones was the real-life inspiration for the eccentric elderly aunt in The Age of Innocence (both the novel and the film).