The will was contested, and eventually the block between Fifty-seventh and Fifty-eighth Streets passed into the hands of Mrs.
Mary Mason Jones.

In 1871 she erected on the land houses of white marble in a style that was a radical departure from the accepted brown-stone type.

At once they became known as the "Marble Row." Mrs.Mary Mason Jones, in her day a social leader, lived in the house at the Fifty-seventh Street corner.

Later the dwelling was occupied by Mrs.
Paran Stevens.
To "Fifth Avenue" is owed the following description of the neighbourhood of the present Plaza in the middle of the last century.

It is from the reminiscences of John D.Crimmins, who has been already quoted in the course of this book.