“After the Board of Aldermen had acceded to the petition of the residents of Fifth Avenue for permission to enclose a part of the roadway in a closed yard or area, it was not an uncommon sight to see many of the older men standing at their gates, in high stocks, white cravats, cutaway coats with brass buttons, greeting their neighbours as they passed along the Avenue—­a custom which survived to about 1870, when the white cravat, too, passed into history.  The improvements on Fifth Avenue, north of Thirty-fourth Street, began with the erection of the Townsend house, which was a feature of the city and shown to visitors.  The location was the foot of a high hill.

“On the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fiftieth Street, where the Cathedral now stands, stood the frame church, thirty by seventy feet, in which I was baptized in May, 1844.  A path and a road led to the Post Road which ran east of the church and bordered the Potter’s Field.  To the north was the Orphan Asylum, and farther on was another cattle yard, Waltemeir’s, a family well known to cattle men.  From Fiftieth Street to St. Luke’s Hospital at Fifty-fourth Street there were a few frame houses, and the ground extending to Sixth Avenue was used for market gardens.  Old maps of New York show the lanes crossing this section at the time, much like the country roads we see today thirty or forty miles distant from the city.  Walls ran along these roads with an occasional house with its gable of the old Dutch type.  Mr. Keyser, who dealt in ice gathered from ponds, occupied the site of the present Vanderbilt houses, Fifty-first to Fifty-second Street.  The Decker house of Dutch architecture occupied the block between Fourth and Fifth Avenues, Fifty-sixth to Fifty-seventh Street.

“Peter and Robert Goelet I recall very well.  Those who called on Peter Goelet would find him in a jumper, bluish in colour, such as we see mechanics wear, with pockets in front.  He loved to be occupied and always had a rule and other articles in his pockets.  His brother, Robert, was the grandfather of the present Goelets.  Peter was the elder and a bachelor.  They accompanied each other on walks, Peter, the more active of the two, in front, and Robert a pace behind.  They dealt directly with their tenants and those whom they employed in taking care of their properties.  I can recall them coming on foot to my father to have him repair a sidewalk or fence.  I doubt if these men in their day, except for ordinary living expenses, spent five thousand dollars a year.  They were simple in their manners and tastes.

“The older generation was noted for industry, thrift, and economy.  An old merchant, an executor of the Burr estate which owned property opposite the new Public Library, once stated that no man who had a million dollars invested, could spend his income in a year.  Money at that time brought seven per cent.  The contents of an office did not exceed in cost fifty dollars, a pine desk and table, and a few chairs.  There were no stenographers and typewriters were unknown.