Amos F.Eno, a New Englander who had prospered exceedingly in New York, bought the property and planned to erect a hotel that was to surpass anything that the city had already known.

Sceptics ridiculed the idea, predicting that a situation so far uptown meant certain disaster.

But the Hippodrome building was torn down, the new structure begun, and in September, 1859, the Fifth Avenue Hotel opened its doors under the direction of Colonel Paran Stevens.

It was of white marble, six stories in height.

Among the innovations and conveniences that made it the wonder of its day was the first passenger elevator ever installed.