The Million Dollar Peanut Stand

Of course, no peanut stand was ever worth a million dollars. But the land that one New York City peanut stand stood on in the 1920s - now, that was another matter.

By the early 1900s, upper Fifth Avenue was beginning to be lined with the mansions of fabulously wealthy families, and by splendid public places such as Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (founded in 1870).

In contrast to these magnificent places, there was a strange sight to be seen on the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street*, from the mid-1890s until 1922. Across from the massive white splendor of the Metropolitan, and the mansions of high society Astors and Vanderbilts, was a little house surrounded by a picket fence with a side gate, trees and, in back, a huge vegetable garden. It was a large piece of land "whose value," wrote the Times in 1922, "is much more than a million and a half dollars." It added that the "tiny mansion" was not in the Real Estate Directory.

The little house was where Frank Beggi - otherwise known as the Peanut Man of Fifth Avenue - had a peanut and candy shop. An Italian immigrant, he had lived at "the suburbs" of Third and 82nd as a young man in the 1890s, and often walked across "the fields" from his home to Central Park. He noticed a vacant lot right across from the Museum. Seeing all the visitors going in and out, he thought that it might be just the place for a peanut stand. So Beggi asked the landowner for permission to go ahead, and the owner agreed. Beggi started his peanut stand across from the Museum in November 1894. As his business grew, Frank Beggi built a little structure on the land to serve as a shop. It had a soda fountain inside, and he also sold candy, cigars and sandwiches.

Beggi said that the Museum staff were "fine people," friends of his really, who used to run across Fifth Avenue to buy ginger ale, sarsparilla, candy and peanuts from him.

He knew all of his wealthy neighbors, too. They had begun to build mansions on that stretch of Fifth Avenue by the late 1890s. He was also a "Furnace Man" by trade and kept the furnaces of the huge mansions running smoothly - 22 of his clients were in the Social Register. They included the Astors, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick and Frank W. Woolworth. They often gave flower boxes for his lilacs and shrubs. In addition, Frank Beggi raised Pomeranian puppies there.

The "tiny mansion" was not where Beggi and his family (including twelve children in all) lived. They resided at 1464 Third Avenue (at 83rd and Third). Beggi considered the little house on Fifth Avenue to be his "summer residence."

But by 1922, he was forced out of business. The landowner had decided to sell. The Times noted that "a palatial apartment house" would soon "crowd him out." And the man known as Frank the Peanut Man would not sell snacks across from the Met any more. He lived for 16 more years, still living in the general area of Third and 82nd.

You can see the "palatial apartment building" in the modern picture on the left - it is the highrise just to the right of the narrow house with the green roof. It is hard to believe it, but right on that spot, less than a century ago, there was a little house with a picket fence, trees and shrubs, where the Metropolitan Museum staff used to send  for their sarsparilla sodas.

Sources:

"Fifth Avenue Landmark and 'Pioneer' to Go," New York Times, Jul. 30, 1922, p. 33.
"Fifth Ave. Vendor of Peanuts Dies," New York Times, Mar. 22, 1938, p. 23.

The picture of present-day 82nd and Fifth is from The City Review. The photos of the peanut stand - not Frank Beggi's - of the Metropolitan Museum of Art around 1902-3, and the Henry Clay Frick mansion on Fifth Avenue and 71th Street (just to give you an idea of Beggi's neighbors' houses) - are from the NYPL Digital Gallery. I looked for a picture of Beggi's little store and million-dollar piece of farmland, but found nothing.

*I had originally thought that the Beggi house was right next to the frame house on 83rd and Fifth - obviously, it is not. I've edited that post to reflect this.