To borrow from Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca, Last night I dreamt I went
back to 'Manderley' again. Instead, we will time travel back to 1824 and
a similar little unpaved road that crossed the Brevoort's farm--land
holdings that stretched, since 1701, from the Bowery up past today's
Washington Square to 14th Street. Brevoort generations developed the
land to the northern outskirts of the village of Manhattan.
Tales of Fifth Avenue Through Time connects that past with the present
via yellowed archival photos--the closest we have to time travel.
Historical; yes, hysterical; oh yes, scandalous; but of course--all
while being documented via panorama, box and brownie, digital and
selfie, cinema, silent and sound, capturing the environs of the
wealthiest families on the planet that lived on the only avenue to lend
its moniker to a candy bar.
Tourist and locals will take a tour bus, and you will too, literarily
and visually, past the surviving and ghosts of mansions; past the
churches and museums; and past the most exclusive stores credit cards
can handle, down the canyon of high-rises that is Fifth Avenue,
Manhattan.