Fifth Avenue (The Long Run)

Fifth Avenue is the most expensive shopping street in the world. Famous brands like Cartier, Tiffany & Co., Versace, Armani or Gucci have their stores on this street.

Fifth Avenue first appeared on New York City maps in 1811 (Fifth Avenue). The initial highway to Yorkville quickly developed into a large boulevard and the social backbone of New York (Fifth Avenue). In 1907, leading merchants and residents were alarmed at the ever-expanding factories and therefore formed the Fifth Avenue Association, to counteract this “false” development (Fifth Avenue).

Fifth Avenue is ten kilometers long. In addition to the elegant boutiques that are mainly located between 49th and 59th Street, this famous street has many other facets. On the border to Central Park are the houses of New York’s super-rich population (Fifth Avenue). Between 82nd and 104th Street there are nine museums which gave this section the nickname “Museum Mile” (Fifth Avenue).

On Fifth Avenue famous St. Patrick’s Cathedral is located. It is the largest Roman Catholic Church in the USA (Fifth Avenue). Numerous famous parades take place on Fifth Avenue.

Fifth Avenue is mentioned in the short story in the same connection as Wall Street (for further information please read the passage about “Wall Street”). And another time in when Paulina told Halston that she was leaving. Here the reader learns that Paulina’s house is located at Fifth Avenue:

The day she told me that their passages were taken – it was on a November afternoon, in her drawing room in town – I turned away from her and, going to the window, stood looking out at the torrent of traffic interminably pouring down Fifth Avenue (Wharton 311).

Concerning the history of Fifth Avenue, one can image that Fifth Avenue in the short story was the expensive street as she is nowadays, because the Fifth Avenue Association was established in 1907 and the short story “The Long Run” was first published in February 1912.

Sources:

• “Fifth Avenue.” Big Bus Tours Ltd. 2018. Web. 05. Nov. 2019. < https://www.bigbustours.com/de/new-york/new-york-sehenswurdigkeiten-fifth-avenue/>

• Wharton2, Edith. “The Long Run.” The Collected Short Stories of Edith Wharton. Volume II. Ed. Richard Warrington Baldwin Lewis. New York: A Charles Scribner´s Sons Book Macmillan Publishing Company, 1989. 301-324. Print.