Wallet Card on Fourth Avenue

NYC's grid street pattern makes it very easy to find your way around. The north-south avenues are 1st, 2nd, 3rd, Lexington, Park, Madison, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th. Notice a missing number there? There used to be a 4th Avenue, but railroad tunnels were built under much of it in the 1890s and 1900s. The city planted a landscaped garden path above the tunnel, and the street was renamed Park Avenue above 32nd Street. Later in the century Park Avenue became a highly desirable address, and residents of the lower part of 4th Avenue petitioned to have their address changed to Park Avenue. In 1959, the stretch of 4th Avenue from 14th Street to 32nd Street was renamed Park Avenue South.

However, a bit of Fourth Avenue remains on the corner of 23rd Street, on the side of an office building.

For more on Fourth Avenue including a tour of the six blocks that remain with the Fourth Avenue name, check out the always-terrific Forgotten New York.