New York Fifth Avenue Coach Company 1885-1960

The Legendary Fifth Avenue Coach Company were famous for their double-deck buses and for being a leader for public transportation in New York City. They were the first bus company to run gasoline-powered buses and air-conditioning, and were the last company in the U.S. to use double-deckers, which were also the last double-deck buses built in America. Fifth Avenue has always been one of New York’s more fashionable boulevards, and its bus line was regarded by many as a peg or two above the city’s other transit operators. The distinguished “Queen Mary” double-deck buses were to New York as the cable car was to San Francisco. See all the various bus designs from the early horse-drawn omnibuses and buses brought over from England, early Brill’s built on French chassis, the buses that Fifth Ave Coach built in their own garage on 102nd Street using American-made chassis, and the later advancements to Yellow Coaches and GMCs, until the prestigious company finally got overtaken by the city’s own public transportation system.