Mrs. Astor's House, 1893.

In 1862 the Astor's, William and Caroline, commissioned a four-bay brownstone at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue. Their neighbors were William's older brother, John Jacob Astor III. Despite the blood relation, the families did not get along. The family feuding is best depicted in the story of the two mansions and later two hotels that occupied this corner.

In the early 1890s, William Waldorf Astor, William and Caroline's nephew, sold his father's home and commissioned the 13-story, Waldorf Hotel (seen here in the background). The hotel loomed over her house and fanned the flames of the familial quarrel. Caroline's son J.J. Astor IV eventually convinced his mother to move uptown, razed her corner mansion, and built a second hotel, to be called the Astor Hotel. The two hotels were connected by Peacock Alley and together became the largest hotel in the world.

The Astor family sold the largely out-dated hotel to the developers of the Empire State Building. The hotel closed on May 3, 1929, and it was demolished soon after.