FIFTH   AVENUE
 

65
 

From an oil painting executed Jar J utin V. L'nin::iins.                        Collection of John D. Crimmins.

POND OF THE NEW YORK SKATING CLUB IN 1860.
At 59th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues.

The sites of the Plaza, the Savoy and the Netherland Hotels at
59th Street and Fifth Avenue were once rocky knolls. A brook which
came down 59th Street here formed several shallow ponds which re¬
mained for a number of years after the Civil War. A large pond
where the Plaza now stands was turned into a skating rink, from
which the owner, John Mitchell, gained a respectable livelihood.
There was another pond at 58th Street, extending to 59th Street,
across Madison Avenue, made by this same stream, where the New
York Skating Club had its quarters. An old ledger owned by Mr.
Crimmins shows that many well-known residents of the City paid
annual subscriptions of $10 for the privilege of belonging to the Club.
In 1859 at the northeast corner of 59th Street, now the site of the
Hotel Netherland, stood Disbrow's Riding Academy. The original
Plaza Hotel, which occupied the site of the present one, on the
block from 58th to 59th Streets, west of the Plaza, was built in 1890;
the Savoy in 1892; and the Netherland in 1893.

Before Central Park was laid out, 59th Street was the dividing
line between the most exclusive section of New York and the most
promiscuous. Below 59th Street was the centre of fashion and
wealth; while above, along the country road which was then Fifth
Avenue and throughout the unsightly waste land taken later for
the Park, lay what was jeeringly termed "Squatters' Sovereignty"
section. It extended almost to Mount Morris Park. Here lived
over five thousand as poverty-stricken and disreputable people as
could be seen anywhere. The squatters' settlements in the Park
were surrounded by swamps, and overgrown with briers, vines and
thickets. The soil that covered the rocky surface was unfit for
cultivation.    Here and there were stone quarries and stagnant ponds.
 

Skating
Ponds at
the Plaza
and Savoy

Sites
 

The

''Squatters"
of Central
Park and
Fifth
Avenue