This social history documents 175 years of America's most glorious main street. Jerry E. Patterson explores the avenue from its beginning, journeying uptown from Greenwich Village to Harlem and highlighting such famous landmarks along the way as the Washington Square Arch, the Flatiron Building, the Empire State Building, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Patterson's tour of Fifth Avenue is not limited to famous points of interest, but explores the avenue's colorful history as well. The lore surrounding the lives and achievements of notable Manhattanites - from the descendants of the island's earliest Dutch settlers to such luminous American figures as Stanford White, Mark Twain, and Edith Wharton - vividly imbues Fifth Avenue: The Best Address.