The Gilded Age: The Plaza to the Met

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In 1873, Mark Twain (along with Charles Dudley Warren) wrote a book titled “The Gilded Age - A Tale of Today” which satirized the greed and corruption evident in the North and West after the Civil War. The book was panned by critics, but the monicker “The Gilded Age” went on to represent that era. The Captains on Industry (or Robber Barons) with familiar names such as Vanderbilt, Astor, Rockefeller, Carnegie and Morgan ruled the day by taking advantage of the abundant labor force emigrating from Europe. They flaunted their great wealth by lining the streets near 5th Avenue and Central Park with their opulent mansions. Many of those mansions (mostly along 5th Avenue) only survived until the 1930’s, replaced by apartment buildings, but some of them survive to this day in all their ostentatious grandeur. Join Brad as he points out these existing beautiful mansions and townhomes as you walk the affluent Upper East Side from the Plaza Hotel on 59th Street to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 82nd Street. Some of the places you will visit and learn about: - The iconic Plaza Hotel - The corner where an upscale department store replaced the largest private home ever built in NYC - Exclusive Clubs of the rich and famous - More exclusive clubs of the rich and famous who weren’t allowed in those other exclusive clubs - A Central Park favorite - A famous Fifth Avenue Synagogue that replaced the Astor Mansion - A street with a notorious history - A mansion that once displayed a Michelangelo

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