5th Ave, Murray Hill

5th Avenue starts off in Murray Hill much like you would imagine any part of 5th to be: opulent. There's a gorgeous building right on the corner on 32nd that used to be a luxury department store but is now part of CUNY's Graduate School. It must be nice to go to school in such a gorgeous old building. And, the inside is just as beautiful as the outside. The building across the street used to be the home to a big time mansion, but sadly, it's just another building. There's also a bar on the street called Catwalk. I'm guessing it was made to be a model hang but I don't know any models that hang out there. All of the buildings continuing up are lovely, old and many of them are very over the top. There's a lovely, colonial style building at 36th that is a tearoom, the old Tiffany's building at 37th, and a really pretty church at 38th where Mark Twain's funeral was held.
Lord and Taylor department store is right at 38th, and though they still participate in the fantastic department store Christmas display that lines 5th Avenue, Lord doesn't have the cache that it used to have. The building went up in 1914 and was quite the shocking display when it opened: they built the store to look like a massive store rather than a massive home which was the style then.
There's a gorgeous building right at 40th that has the less than glamorous HSBC Bank in it and a lovely library across the street from that. The corner of 39th and 5th used to be home to be PT Barnum and the Astors before becoming a business building. So, apparently, it has always been a swindler's corner.
The real architectural magic of the street happens up at 41st, however, with the biggest branch of the New York Public Library. It is a massive library and is every bit as beautiful on the inside as it seems from the outside. I've been to a couple of parties here and it's just so magical. Something about old libraries . . I just love them. And, this one really takes the cake of the library to visit. I can't recommend it enough.