Great Department Stores of New York City

People come to great cities for the shopping among other things. But great stores have great stories. Department stores were born in France, but came of age in New York City. The first true department store, Le Bon Marche opened in Paris in 1852, but the innovation was quickly copied by the crafty Americans, who were the Japanese of their day, as quick to steal an excellent idea as to invent.

New York, with its ports and market-stealing Erie Canal was the perfect setting for a revolution in commerce. New York City was a great textile manufacturer during the 19^th Century. In fact, it had a very ambiguous relationship with the old South and it's Democratic party split into pro- and anti- South wings during the Civil War.

Cotton was king, and the wealth that was slavery poured into New York City's pockets, yet some of its leading merchants were abolitionists. This would play a major part in what would happen later to send New York City up in flames, starting with the most elegant stores of its day, located in what is now called the Cast Iron District.

When you visit New York, start at the South Street Seaport. It was there that ships arrived from all over the world bearing the wealth of nations for New York City's approval and sale. As you pass the old counting houses where the 18^th and 19^th century merchants kept their books and counted their shillings, walk North and past City Hall.

At one time, New York City was so unpretentious (hard to imagine now) and so frugal (even harder to imagine) that the North side of City Hall was faced in cheaper materials because it was thought that no one need ever look at that side as the City was safely nestled entirely to the South.

When you pass City Hall and move into Tribeca, you will see buildings shaped by King Cotton, the same King who caused New York City to burn. This is the heart of the old textile district and the foundation for the department store boom yet to come.

The American Civil War intersected with one of the greatest genocides of the 19^th Century. During the potato famine years of "Black '47" through the early 1850's starvation caused by myopic and sometimes vicious policies of the reigning British government in Ireland forced Irish by the thousands onto coffin ships headed straight for New York City.

Poverty would intersect with social activism as the half-dead Irish found themselves being fitted for Union suits and quick duty at the Front, even as many anti-slavery merchants were paying their $300 bounty to purchase less valuable cannon fodder for the war their efforts helped produce.

Traditionally, the dry-tinder city of New York was protected by volunteer firemen who enjoyed both great social prestige and exemption from draft, but when the draft lottery started selecting members of the largely Irish firemen, the volatile situation exploded and rioters were off to terrorize the African population and put many of New York's great stores to flame, including Tiffany & Company.. Ironically, it would be The Committee of Merchants that would be most instrumental in relieving the suffering of the African population that they indirectly caused.

If you continue North along Sixth Avenue, now known as Avenue of the Americas, you will encounter the Ladies Mile District, so-called because ladies unencumbered by men could promenade freely among the stores in a day when unescorted ladies were more often the ladies of the evening variety.

An Irishman, A.T. Stewart, was one of the pioneers of this district and he also invented an enduring institution, "The White Sale." Mr. Stewart's great establishment still stands today, and if you crane your neck upward as you pass the old stores, you will see his name still emblazoned on his flagship institution at the corner of Sixth and 9^th Street.

Mr. Stewart was one of the men fortunate enough to escape Ireland in time. He was a brilliant innovator who brought the department store to America. His first store at 280 Broadway, in what is now known as the Sun Building and which still has the clock and the motto, "The Sun Never Sleeps" that that illustrious paper installed, was the first of its kind in the New World.

But it was his "Marble Palace" a great pile of a building that made his name. This building covered a full city block and was covered in the finest Tuckahoe Marble, an opulent and truly unique material. So solidly built that it is still beautiful, it is a city landmark. Although other merchants quickly adopted similar Italianate architecture and materials it remains often imitated, never duplicated.

In addition to being a brilliant merchant and founder of Garden City in Long Island, A.T. Stewart was a philanthropist. He combined both hard business sense and charity in his innovative "White Sale." Back in the day, the textile workers were a ragged crew that included plenty of starving mill girls. After the Christmas season, demand shut down for months at a time leaving the already penniless, destitute. To help maintain his suppliers and their workers, Stewart decided to place massive orders for textiles such as sheets during the dead of Winter. Sold cheaply during the "White Sale" the innovation provided both desperately needed wages for the workers and an additional selling season for him.

But alas, all things must come to an end. The original department stores expanded North, keeping pace with the rest of the city. The unfinished face of City Hall had long since been amended as it was finally realized that New York City was not going to stop there.

The next great shopping district of New York was the Thirties at Herald Square. It was here on adjacent corners that the two great titans of commerce, Macy's and Gimbels, warred for supremacy :"Does Macy's tell Gimbels?" was born here. And so were the parades and silver screen's "Miracle on 34^th Street.

But for me, the best Macy's story is revealed in a small brass plate near the front entrance of the store. It speaks to quiet sacrifice, gallantry and great love. Macy's co-founder Isidor Straus and his wife Ida sailed the Titanic during its maiden voyage.

During their 41 year marriage the pair was inseparable. After the ship hit an iceberg and the order, "Woman and Children, into the lifeboats" rang, Ida was offered a seat which she refused to take unless her husband could accompany her. Upon being offered a seat as well, Isidor, a man of great integrity, refused, and the lovers met eternity together. Their tombstone in the Bronx reads: "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it."

As you move east to 34^th Street and Fifth Avenue, you will pass the beautiful B. Altman's building which now houses a New York Public library branch and a campus of City University. Alas, tax law changes in the Reagan administration spelled the demise of this once great titan as it forced the B. Altman's foundation to exit the department store business. This charity, founded by the 19^th Century merchants still benefits New Yorkers.

Moving further uptown along Fifth we come to the beginning of a new retail district that houses some of the most glamorous stores in New York, including Lord and Taylor's, and of course, Saks Fifth Avenue.

Lord and Taylor's emblem was for many years, the American Beauty Rose. This symbol still emblazones their packaging, but few know that it was once the store's tradition to gift customers with actual roses. Lord and Taylor's for many years remained the funkiest of New York Department stores. Well into the 1980's elderly operators still hoisted patrons in hand-operated elevators, and the flagship store greeted its impatient first arrivals with seats, a demitasse of good coffee and a salute to the Star Spangled Banner at the commencement of each day's business. Alas, time marches on and its acquisition by more practical souls spelled the end of the quaint.

As you continue uptown along New York's premiere symbol of wealth, you will pass St. Patrick's cathedral and encounter our last cathedral of commerce-Saks Fifth Avenue. Although one of the most elegant and old-monied of our stores, Saks knows the value of a little razzle dazzle. They applied for, and received, a unique zip code for their Shoe Department so they could tout its size and selection.

So there you have it, the insanity of two centuries of New York Commerce. Be sure to visit us soon and bring lots of cash.

Sources:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Bon+Marche,+Paris&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS368&tbs=tl:1&tbo=u&ei=ZTOzS4fqKMP58Aai6NXJAQ&sa=X&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=12&ved=0CD4Q5wIwCw&cts=1270035332183

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/317749.html

http://www.lowermanhattan.info/about/history/did_you_know/did_you_know_that_62478.aspx