FIFTH   AVENUE
 

53
 

Drawn and engi-aved by M. Osborne.                                   Collection of New York Historical Society.

DEAF AND DUMB ASYLUM, 1829-1853.
Between 49th and 50th Streets, near Madison Avenue.    Later occupied by Columbia College.

small three-story frame house kept by Isaiah Keyser, whose vegetable
garden supplied the residents along lower Fifth Avenue, and who
also dealt in ice and cattle. Occupying this block are the famous
Vanderbilt "twin mansions," handsome brownstone structures prac¬
tically identical in design. They were built in 1882 by Wilham H.
Vanderbilt, the 51st Street house for himself, and the 52nd Street
house for his daughter. They stand now, island homes in a flood
of business, and it is probable that before long they too will be
engulfed, despite the fact that the Vanderbilts spent several mill¬
ions in purchasing property to protect themselves against business
encroachments.

The east side of Fifth Avenue, from 48th to 53rd Streets, and
the west side, from 54th to 55th Streets, were long used for philan¬
thropic and religious purposes. Between 48th and 50th Streets and
Fourth and Fifth Avenues stood the New York Institute for the
Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb. The Asylum was incorporated
in 1817 and occupied a room in the almshouse then on Chambers
Street. The corner-stone of the 50th Street building was laid October
19, 1827, and the new quarters opened in 1829. It was one hundred
and ten feet long, sixty feet wide, four stories high, with a beautiful
colonnade fifty feet long in front. The Asylum stood on one acre of
ground donated by the City, from which the directors leased nine
adjoining acres. They had also a donation from the State of a per¬
centage of the tax on lotteries. The grounds were beautifully laid
out in lawns and gardens, planted with trees and shrubbery. There
were workshops in which tailoring, shoemaking, cabinet-making,
gardening and other trades were taught.    Girls were instructed in
 

Keyser's
Vegetable
Garden
between
51st and
52nd Streets
 

Deaf and
Dumb
Asylum
between
East mh
and East
50th Streets