Park Avenue in 19th Century

Park Avenue, looking north from near East 34th Street, in Murray Hill, with part of the Unitarian Church of the Messiah on the left. It was dedicated in 1867 and designed in Victorian Romanesque style by Carl Pfeiffer. The temple was demolished in 1930. Illustration by A.C. Warren, published in the New York Illustrated, 1869, by D. Appleton & Co.

At the time, this was the beginning of Park Avenue and the Forth Avenue ended at 34th Street. In 1924, the Park Avenue's southern terminus moved from 34th Street to 32nd Street.

Here, some text from the magazine which accompanies the illustration above: «Upon reaching Thirty-fourth Street, a brisk walk of two or three minutes to the east — if we can muster up sufficient resolution to make such a digression from our Fifth Avenue stroll— will firing us into or rather upon Park Avenue. This avenue arches the tunnel of the Harlem River Railroad — a wonderful excavation through the solid granitic stratum beneath — and extends from Thirty-fourth Street a distance of one-quarter of a mile.

It is one of the healthiest, breeziest portions of the city proper, and a most elegant and select locality. Little or no inconvenience is experienced from the noise or smoke of the trains of the Harlem River and New Haven Railroads which are almost constantly trundling beneath the broad, well-kept street. The noise is almost entirely deadened by the deep crust of rock and earth, and, as the cars are drawn by horses to nearly three blocks above the upper mouth of the, tunnel, no annoyance is created by either the vapor or the hissing of the iron steeds.

In the centre of the avenue, at regular intervals, are neatly railed oval enclosures of green sod, with a grated hole in the centre of each. The apertures are for the purpose of transmitting daylight to the tunnel beneath, and their efficacy will have been perceived by any one who has made the subterranean passage. Their general arrangement, and the tastefulness with which they have been disguised, as it were, together with the elegant surroundings, gives the short, broad avenue something of the air of a London terrace. The Unitarian Church of the Messiah, occupying a commanding site at the northwest corner of Thirty-fourth Street and Park Avenue, was only completed a year ago — the dedication taking place in April, 1868 — and exhibits in its completion many traits of simple beauty. The architecture may be best expressed as the Rhenish-Gothic style. It is built of brick, with gray sandstone trimmings, and covers a space, including the chapel, of 80 by 145 feet. The entrance, on Thirty-fourth Street, is of light-colored stone, elaborately carved, and a little gem as a piece of architecture. The walls of the interior, which are of plain plaster at present, will be decorated and painted at some future day ; and the ceiling is of the simple pendant order...»