Flags of the United States, Britain and France hang from poles and lines across a sunlit avenue seen from above, filling the right side and bottom of the picture. On the left rise pale stone buildings, among them a church front with tall pointed windows. Far below at right, crowds and traffic fill the street in tiny dabs of paint under a pale sky. Childe Hassam dated the canvas "May 17 1917." The National Gallery of Art says it commemorates the nation's entry into the First World War that spring: Fifth Avenue in New York had been declared "the Avenue of the Allies" in honor of the alliance of the United States, Great Britain and France.

In this series of flag pictures Hassam used brilliant sunlight and color like the French Impressionists; the museum adds that the festive air glosses over the horrors awaiting American soldiers in Europe. Hassam showed it at the National Academy of Design in 1918, and a 1929 retrospective in Buffalo listed it as "St. Thomas' Avenue of the Allies." Ethelyn McKinney gave it to the National Gallery of Art in 1943 in memory of her brother, and the museum later lent it to the White House for many years. It is in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.