The top photo shows, from left to right, the Pierre Hotel, the Sherry-Netherlands Hotel, the Savoy-Plaza Hotel, the Squibb Building, and the Plaza Hotel. In between the Pierre and the Sherry-Netherlands Hotel are the Metropolitan Club and two long-gone buildings. In the background is the tower of the Ritz-Carlton.

In the lower photo, the Pierre and the Plaza can be seen at the top left corner of the Park. ‘Billionaire Row,” the new New York, is less urban and urbane, even though the distant birds-eye view minimizes the effect in the smaller view. One of the first of the Billionaire Row buildings, 432 Park Avenue, is already visible from all over the city. Not just from Central Park or Park Avenue in the 90s, but from Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.

Click on either photo for a larger view.