The site that would become the Fifth Avenue Hotel was once the location of Madison Cottage, a frame structure with an eighteenth-century core that had served as a stagecoach stop for passengers headed north from the city.
From 1853 to 1856 it was replaced by Franconi's Hippodrome, a tent-like structure of canvas and wood which could accommodate up to 10,000 spectators who watched chariot races and other "Amusesments of the Ancient Greeks and Romans".
This structure was torn down to make way for the hotel.

The Fifth Avenue Hotel was built in 1856–59 by Amos Richards Eno at the cost of $2 million; the building was designed by Griffith Thomas with William Washburn.
At the time of its construction it stood so far uptown from the centers of city life it was dubbed "Eno's Folly"; New York bankers refused to capitalize the project, and Eno turned to Boston for funding.

The hotel, which quickly developed a reputation as New York's most elegant, became "the social, cultural political hub of elite New York," and brought in a quarter of a million dollars a year in profits.
It spurred development of additional hotels to the north and west, in the neighborhood known in the early 21st century as NoMad ("North of Madison Square Park").
The site that would become the Fifth Avenue Hotel was once the location of Madison Cottage, a frame structure with an eighteenth-century core that had served as a stagecoach stop for passengers headed north from the city. From 1853 to 1856 it was replaced by Franconi's Hippodrome, a tent-like structure of canvas and wood which could accommodate up to 10,000 spectators who watched chariot races and other "Amusesments of the Ancient Greeks and Romans". This structure was torn down to make way for the hotel.
The Fifth Avenue Hotel was built in 1856–59 by Amos Richards Eno at the cost of $2 million; the building was designed by Griffith Thomas with William Washburn. At the time of its construction it stood so far uptown from the centers of city life it was dubbed "Eno's Folly"; New York bankers refused to capitalize the project, and Eno turned to Boston for funding.
The hotel, which quickly developed a reputation as New York's most elegant, became "the social, cultural political hub of elite New York," and brought in a quarter of a million dollars a year in profits. It spurred development of additional hotels to the north and west, in the neighborhood known in the early 21st century as NoMad ("North of Madison Square Park").
Fifth Avenue Hotel