Tiffany Building at 550 Broadway, near Prince Street.  Then, in Union Square, it presided over the fortunes of the house, again to be removed to serve as guardian of the destinies of the present structure, which is of marble, adapted from the Palazzo Grimani of Venice, of which Ruskin once wrote:  “There is not an erring line, not a mistaken proportion throughout its noble front.”  On the corresponding corner above Tiffany’s is Bonwit, Teller and Company, and directly facing the latter on the west side of the Avenue is Franklin Simon and Company.  Conspicuous on the next block are Lord and Taylor’s, and Vantine’s, the former Italian Renaissance, with vestibules finished in Bitticino marble and Travertine stone, ceilings of Guastavino tile, and aisles bordered with black Egyptian marble.  Today this establishment represents the last cry in construction and administration.  Adjoining it to the north is Vantine’s, its dimly lighted and incense-scented aisles running between counters covered with rare and costly curios from the Orient.

Northward to the Plaza commerce has moved with giant stride.  The march might be studied and pictured block by block, corner by corner, and page after page blackened with detail and description.  Any one of a dozen or a dozen dozen shops of the Avenue might be made the subject of a fat volume.  For the present purpose it is enough to mention a few of them by name, and in the order of march.  At the south-east corner of Fortieth Street, on land that was formerly occupied by the residence of Frederick W. Vanderbilt, is the department store of Arnold, Constable and Company.  It is the new home of a house that dates from 1827.  To the west of the Avenue, on the north side of Forty-second Street, is Stern’s.  Other names that have a commercial significance, that are conspicuous in the stretch from the Public Library to the Plaza are W. and J. Sloane, the well-known rug house, on the east side of the Avenue, between Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Streets; Davis, Collamore and Company (china and glass), Fifth Avenue and Forty-eighth Street; Duveen Brothers (antiques), 720 Fifth Avenue; Fleischman and Thorley (florists), respectively at 500 and 502 Fifth Avenue; the jewellers and silversmiths, Black, Starr, and Frost, 594 Fifth Avenue; Carlton and Company, 634 Fifth Avenue; Kirkpatrick and Company, 624 Fifth Avenue; and Gattle and Company, 634 Fifth Avenue; and such emporiums designed to delight the hearts of extravagant women as J.M.  Giddings and Company, L.P.  Hollander and Company, and Alice Maynard, all on the Avenue in the neighbourhood of Forty-fifth Street.

CHAPTER XVI

Beyond Murray Hill

Stretches of the Avenue—­The Public Library—­Temple Emanuel—­The Draft Riots—­The Coloured Orphan Asylum—­The Willow Tree Inn—­Remaining Residences—­Clubs of the Section—­As Seen by Arnold Bennett and Henry James—­Three Churches and a Cathedral—­The Elgin Botanical Gardens—­Old Land Values.