That decade from 1860 to 1870 was one of constant changes and shiftings.

The New England soldier who marched through the town on his way to the front in 1861 rubbed his eyes a little when he passed through it again homeward bound after the surrender of Lee's army at Appomattox Court House had brought the War of Secession to a close.
The last vestige of Knickerbocker life had disappeared forever.
It had been, and still was, an era of extravagant speculation.

Mushroom fortunes were springing up, and their possessors, as socially ambitious as they were socially inept, invaded Fifth Avenue strong in the belief in the all-conquering power of the Almighty Dollar.

In most cases they did not last long.

But they served a purpose.