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FIFTH   AVENUE
 

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From a photograph.                                                                         Copyright, 1915, by Perry Walton.

THE  "MARBLE ROW,"  FIFTH  AVENUE  BETWEEN  EAST 57th AND EAST 58th

STREETS.
Part of the Estate of John Mason, from which the Joneses, Iselins, and the Hamersleys inherited

their Fifth Avenue holdings.                            '

of the Chemical National Bank, from whom she inherited the site.
Mason, who was long prominent in business and social circles early
in the nineteenth century, invested largely in real estate. Among
the parcels he purchased, most of which were Common Lands of the
City, were sixteen blocks from Park to Fifth Avenues, and from 54th
to 63rd Streets, excepting the block from 56th to 57th Streets on
Fifth Avenue. The tract between 57th and 58th Streets, Fourth
and Fifth Avenues, he bought from the City in 1825 for $1,500. Mason
died in 1839, leaving a will in which he cut off with a small annuity
both his son, James Mason, who had married Emma Wheatley, a
famous actress of 1838, and his daughter, Helen, who also had married
against his wishes. The will was set aside, and in the division of
the estate the block from 57th to 58th Streets became the property
of Mrs. Mary Mason Jones, who in 1871 built the Marble Row. The
erection of these houses, built of white marble, and in a style of archi¬
tecture unlike anything heretofore seen on Fifth Avenue, marked the
passing of the era of long-fashionable brownstone fronts. On the
57th Street corner lived Mrs. Mary Mason Jones, at one time a
New York social leader, and later, Mrs. Paran Stevens, also promi-