Saks and Gimbels on Sixth

This post also appears on Fashion Herald.

A few years before the ground broke for Penn Station, construction was underway in Herald Square for a retailer new to the city: Saks. The company, founded by Baltimore merchant Andrew Saks, chose Herald Square as the location for its first New York store in part, because of its proximity to the Sixth Avenue elevated train and rumored Penn Station. Along with Macy's and a little later, Gimbels, these major stores would soon redefine Herald Square as a retail hub of the city.

View from Greeley Square, looking north at Herald Square, around 34th Street and Broadway, 1901. Image: MCNY

The Saks building, designed by architecture firm Buchman & Fox, the same firm that would later design the World's Tower building on West 40th Street. Though Saks and Macy's were more or less neck and neck with their store construction and opening announcements, Saks still managed to open its doors just five weeks before Macy's in 1902. Unlike Macy's, a store composed of several departments, Saks in the early 1900s sold only clothing, making it not quite a true department store. Around the same time, one avenue over, Benjamin Altman was purchasing lots on Fifth and 34th to build his new store B. Altman & Co.

The completed Saks building at West 33rd Street with its competitor Macy's one block north at West 34th Street, 1902. Image: MCNY

Those two coexisted, offering consumers slightly different inventories -- Saks was an upscale clothing-based retailer, and Macy's catered to the general consumer with a large variety of merchandise-- until 1909, when another large retailer, Gimbels, joined the fray. Founded by Adam Gimbel in Vincennes, Indiana, Gimbels built its first large store in Philadelphia, PA, before constructing a New York branch just one block south of the Saks store, on Sixth Avenue between 32nd and 33rd Streets. Three large department stores in a row + public transportation = retail district.

Gimbels store at Sixth Avenue, between 32nd and 33rd Streets, 1912, thirteen years before the Gimbels Traverse was built. Image: MCNY

Model wearing a Gimbels dress, 1914. Image: LOC

Similar to Macy's, Gimbels was a large department store and family business.  Adam Gimbel had several sons, many of whom worked for the Gimbels Company: Isaac Gimbel became President in 1894, and was the driving force behind the store's expansion to the New York market; that same year, Ellis Gimbel took over Public Relations and advertising for the company. In 1921, he started the first Thanksgiving Parade in Philadelphia, PA, three years before Macy's began its iconic parade in New York City.

The company purchased Saks in 1923, and one year later, created the Saks Fifth Avenue brand, and opened its first store. The 34th Street location was kept open, and the Saks 34th brand was created. High end retail was moving farther north along Fifth Avenue, and the building's out-of-date construction (it didn't have escalators) were key factors in the decision to close the store in 1965.

Looking north from Greeley Square with the Gimbels and Saks buildings on the left, [1965]. Postcard: Anne

In 1967, discount retailer Korvette's moved into the Saks building. They "modernized" the facade, as seen below. Founded in 1947 by Eugene Kerfauf in a small store on Fifth Avenue and West 47th Street, Korvette's expanded quickly, with 2,684 stores in operation by the mid-1960s. This decade also saw a general rise in the national presence of discount retailers.

Same view as above, [1969]. Postcard: Anne

Gimbels stayed open until 1986. When it finally closed, it was cited as the store with the largest shoplifting rate of any in the country, largely because of the Gimbels Corridor. Originally built as a convenience to shoppers, the underground passageway connected the store to Penn Station a couple blocks away, and provided shoplifters with an easy escape. By the 1970s, the corridor had a horrible reputation and was the scene of more than a few gruesome crimes. This very opinionated description from a NY Post  article (are there any other kinds of NY Post articles?) pretty much sums it up: "In the midst of teeming Midtown, bare-bulb fixtures like those in mines marked a path through a Calcutta-like sprawl of diseased, predatory humanity."

After Gimbels closed, the building was renovated, and in 1989, reopened as A&S Plaza, and is now the home of JC Penney and the Manhattan Mall. Next door, the Saks building, now the Herald Center Mall, is slated for yet another makeover.

B. Altman's Palace of Trade Moves Uptown

This post also appears on Fashion Herald.

Retailer Benjamin Altman of Altman & Co. opened his first large store in 1886 at Sixth Avenue and 19th Street. Though he previously occupied smaller stores in various parts of the city, this location was quickly dubbed "Palace of Trade" for its vast inventory and size. Business was great, and soon Altman was looking to expand yet again. Noticing the increasing numbers of mansions appearing along Fifth Avenue, he chose the corner of  West 34th Street and Fifth Avenue for the new flagship location of his store. At the time, the area was quiet, residential, and didn't look at all like it would support a large retail outlet.

34th Street looking east from Fifth Avenue, 1870. Image: NYHS

Altman purchased his first lot under an employee's name (Benjamin Jenkins) rather than his own, on the SE corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street in 1892. Shortly after, he set up the Wallingford Realty Company to handle all future transactions. Between 1892 and 1904, the company brokered a total of 28 purchases and long-term leases on behalf of Altman, gradually taking control of almost the entire block between 34th and 35th Streets and Madison and Fifth Avenues. By the time construction of the new building began in 1905, there was still one "holdout" building on the corner of 34th Street and Fifth Avenue, occupied by the Knoedler Gallery. Altman would have to wait another five years to acquire that property and expand the store all the way to Madison Avenue. In the meantime, on October 6, 1906 the new store opened for business.

Corner of 35th Street (left) and Fifth Avenue looking SE, 1906. The shorter building to the far right is the "holdout" property at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue. Image: LOC

The gallery held onto their corner until their lease ended in 1910 and they were forced to give up the property. Altman wasted no time on the store expansion he'd envisioned many years prior. He died just before the full-block expansion was completed in 1913, but just after he founded the philanthropic organization, the Altman Foundation.
 

Corner of Fifth Avenue (left) and 34th Street (right), just after the building's addition along Madison Avenue, about 1915. Image: MCNY

The interior of the Altman store was designed in a Palazzo style reminiscent of the Parisian Bon Marché, one of the world's first department stores. Skylights filtered light into the center of the main arcade, and steps led customers to multiple levels of departments that sold just about everything imaginable. A consummate traveler, Altman was known to go on yearly buying trips around the world in search of new and diverse merchandise.

Interior of the B. Altman arcade, 1908 Image: NYPL

Most, if not all, of the extensive bronze and iron work in the building was done by Brooklyn-based company Hecla Bronze and Iron Works. NYPL has several images in their digital archive of the Hecla Bronze and Iron Works building -- which thankfully is landmarked -- including their showroom with vaulted ceilings.

B. Altman & Co. was primarily known for catering to a well-off female customer. One who could spend hours looking at furs:

Selling floor for furs, 1914. Image: NYPL

And one who pursued the latest fashion trends. I was possibly born in the wrong century. I would wear all of these blouses today, right now.

Page from the B. Altman & Co. 1913 Summer Apparel catalog. Image: Duke University

The prude in me wishes bathing suits would move a little back in time and cover more skin like the ones shown here. The one second from the left is especially fetching. Bonus: all the lady ones are work-appropriate by today's standards! And black -- so much black! (I love it).

Page from the B. Altman & Co. 1913 Summer Apparel catalog. Image: Duke University

Aside from being at the forefront of fashion, Altman's was known for popularizing retail business practices that would eventually become commonplace. The best example is the story of the extremely wealthy and miserly Hetty Green (pictured here and here) purchasing a bolt of fabric from the Altman's at Sixth Avenue between 18th and 19th streets sometime in the mid-1800s, and then deciding she didn't like it. Returning merchandise was not accepted practice, but Mrs. Green went back to the store and asked for an exchange or her money back. Altman himself granted the return and she was so grateful that she vowed to act as guarantor to any future business loans. He never took her up on her offer, but they did stay in touch, and she introduced Altman to several of her financier acquaintances, who in turn got him interested in art collecting. Over the years, Altman amassed a 
massive art collection, now housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. You can read the collection handbook here and see some of the pieces here.

After several more successful decades, the Altman company was forced to sell the store to the L.J. Hooker Retail Group in 1985 and close the building in 1989. Today, the building is primarily occupied by City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, and the NYPL Science, Industry, and Business Library (SIBL), but from the outside it still looks like a palace of trade.

Other Sources:
-Altman Company Department Store Building, 335-371 Fifth Avenue. Landmarks Preservation Commission, March 12, 1985; designation list 176, LP-1274
-Bruce, John S. Jr. 100 The First Century: A History of B. Altman & Co.
-Hendrickson, Robert. The Grand Emporiums: The Illustrated History of America's Great Department Stores.
-Zola, Emile. The Ladies' Paradise.
-Department Store museum website

Plunging Horses and Vanishing Elephants at New York's Hippodrome Theater

In 1905, on the edge of Manhattan's theater district, a new, incredibly large theater was built -- the Hippodrome. Situated alongside the Sixth Avenue elevated train line on Sixth Avenue between 43rd and 44th Streets, the Hippodrome was built  and managed by the creators of Coney Island's Luna Park, Frederic Thompson and Elmer Dundy.

The Hippodrome on Sixth Avenue in 1905. The Sixth Ave. elevated tracks are on the left. Image: LOC

The theater had a seating capacity of 5,300 and a giant stage that could accommodate 1,000 performers. It was also equipped with an 8,000 gallon clear glass water tank that could be raised and lowered onto the stage. The theater opened to a packed audience on April 12, 1905, and, in its early years, was known for featuring an equestrian ballet with "100 lady bareback riders" and 80 horses plunging into the tank.  Also, in 1913, the Victor Military Band performed, and the LOC has the recording.

The Hippodrome stage in the early 1900s shortly after its opening in 1905. Image: LOC

One of the more extravagant acts to hit the stage was magician Harry Houdini's Vanishing Elephant trick performed on January 7, 1918. With the help of the tank, Houdini made an elephant, "Jennie" and her trainer disappear in front of a captivated audience.

Houdini and Jenny on the Hippodrome stage, 1918. Image: LOC

In addition to stellar and strange bookings, the theater also had consistent money and management problems. Its astronomical operating costs ensured that the managers and bookers had to keep up with the public's fickle entertainment tastes: in 1923 performances included vaudeville acts, and in 1925 the theater began screening movies. Still, it couldn't be saved, and the Hippodrome closed its doors for good on August 16, 1939. The building was demolished and the lot used for parking. In the early 1950s, a parking garage was built on the parking lot.

The Hippodrome parking garage, November 27, 1954. Image: MCNY

The building there now bears the same name, though its purpose has changed, as the neighborhood has, to reflect its current status as a commercial center of the city.

Bennett's Owls

This post also appears on Fashion Herald.

James Gordon Bennett Jr.'s adoration of owls may have bordered on pathological, but in the best possible way. While serving as a Third Lieutenant for the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service (the pre-Coast Guard Coast Guard) during the Civil War, the son of New York Herald founder James Gordon Bennett Sr. claimed that a serendipitous owl guided him through rough seas to safety.

As a tribute to his spirit animal, he lined the Herald building with several bronze owls in 1894, and years later even had an owl shaped tomb designed to hold his remains. The Herald owls, along with the statue of Minerva and the bell ringers, were created by French sculptor Antonin Jean Carles. The two corner owls with their wings spread had eyes that lit up to the delight of evening passersby.

The Herald building in the early 1900s, looking north from 34th Street. Statuary from the Bennett monument in Herald Square is on the facade of the building along with Bennett's owls.

Today those two owls perch on either side of the Herald monument, and their eyes continue to light the way.

Back of the Herald Square monument, facing south. Photo: 34SP

Two more of Bennet's owls guard the entrance to Herald Square.

Entrance owl. Photo 34SP

The Herald building may have been Bennett's most well known tribute to the bird, but it wasn't his first. At some point in the mid 1800s Bennett bought a stone villa in Newport Rhode Island, originally built in 1833 by Rhode Island stonemason Alexander McGregor. The new homeowner enlisted the help of Newport architect Dudley Newton to add several embellishments to the property, including gateposts topped with owl statuary. It's hard to see in this picture, but these look to be a leaner species than the Herald owls, but no less fierce.

Bennett's stone villa and owl sentries in 1957, shortly before the building was demolished to make way for a shopping center. Photo: Preservation Society of Newport County

So solid was his devotion to the bird, he also had Stanford White design a 200-foot high tomb shaped like an owl that would serve as Bennett's mausoleum. Work was halted due to the untimely but not entirely surprising death of Stanford White in 1906. The design never came to be, but the Times reported that in 1918, shortly after Bennett's death, drawings of a model owl tomb were found on the desk of sculptor Andrew O'Conner, who had been commissioned by White to work on the initial designs.

That same year Frank Munsey, then owner of the New York Sun bought out the Herald, combined the two papers, and moved the offices to 42nd Street. The owls were removed from the facade of the Herald building. A few have since resurfaced: aside from the Herald Square owls mentioned above, the Brooklyn Museum has a couple on display, and there are a few above the entrance to NYU's Shimkin Hall.

Reviving Tony Smith's "Presences"

This post also appears on the Bryant park blog.

In the early 1960s American artist Tony Smith constructed a number of sculptures from tetrahedral and octahedral shapes -- he called them "presences." In 1966 he was included in a critically acclaimed exhibit of minimalist and "reductive art" at the Jewish Museum called Primary Structures. Just one year later, several of Smith's sculptures were exhibited in Bryant Park as part of the first temporary display of contemporary art in a city park. Thankfully the tradition continues.

The Parks Commissioner at the time was Thomas Hoving. In March of 1967, just after the Smith exhibit was installed in the park, Hoving left that post to become the Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He oversaw a huge renovation and expansion project of the museum, and then wrote about it. But, during his 14 months as Parks Commissioner, he brazenly went about the city, collecting donations to make changes to the city's parks and igniting an interest in public art.

Tony Smith (wearing hat) and workers during the installation. Image: New York City Parks Photo Archive

Installation of Tony Smith's "The Snake is Out" Image: New York City Parks Photo Archive

Tony Smith with "Willy," "Amaryllis," "The Snake is Out," and "Spitball" (L to R). Image: Tony Smith Estate

Nineteen years later, in 1998, another of Smith's pieces, "Smug" (1969-1970) was exhibited in Bryant Park, this time on the fountain terrace. (I think this image may have been scanned backwards -- from this angle on the terrace you should see 40th Street, not 42nd with the Grace building. It's a beautiful shot of the sculpture though).

"Smug" on the Fountain Terrace. Image: Tony Smith Estate

Smith's work is incredibly recognizable and all over the place, but apparently not fully inventoried. There is, however, an ongoing effort by the International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art -- North America (INCCA) to compile a complete inventory of Smith's sculptures. The Tony Smith Sculpture Project South Orange has a good partial list along with a lot of supplementary information about the artist, his life, and work.

I saw one recently at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC called "Moondog" (1964). It was inspired in part by composer and street performer Louis Harding. Harding was also known as Moondog and the "Viking of Sixth," for his chosen location (usually) at Sixth Avenue and 53rd Street.

Smith's "Moondog" at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC

Here is the muse "Moondog" in his Viking garb. He was pretty amazing, and no doubt, one of the city's more interesting "presences."

In conjunction with the Tony Smith Centennial Celebration this year, Smith's works "One-Two-Three" (1976) will be on view in Bryant Park from March 13 - April 10, on the upper terrace. Come check it out!

Read about previous public art exhibits in the park:
Kenneth Snelson (1967)
Mel Chin (1984)
George Rickey (1986)
Alexander Calder (1993)
Kate Gilmore (2010)
Sheryl Oring (2003, 2011)

House of Mansions to Bankers' Trust

This post also appears on the Bryant park blog.
 
In 1855, developer George Higgins bought a plot of land at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, across the street from the Croton Distributing Reservoir. He hired American architect Alexander J. Davis to design a new building, and the result was this 11 unit luxury residential complex with crenelated parapets (like a castle!). Completed in 1856 and advertised as the House of Mansions, the housing complex promised residents views of "the water of the Croton, like an artificial pool, or lake . . . from the upper floors."  

Fifth Avenue looking south from 42nd Street. Image [1880]: NYPL or LOC

Just a few years earlier, the nearby Crystal Palace and Latting Observatory attracted visitors from all over, and helped establish midtown Manhattan as a tourist destination. Though the area was far from urban at the time, Higgins no doubt noticed the gradual migration of wealthy Manhattanites north along Fifth Avenue, and hoped to cash in on it. 

As history blogger Daytonian in Manhattan writes, Higgins' plan did not work -- Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street was still considered too rural for most New Yorkers. (The  Samuel P. "Sasparilla" Townsend residence had only recently been built at 34th and Fifth, and that's eight blocks south.) The property was bought and sold a few more times, and eventually the Rutgers Female Institute (later, Rutgers Female College) relocated here. A formal dedication ceremony was held on October 24, 1860. The school soon outgrew this location as well, and the property passed through a few more owners.

Fifth Avenue looking north from 41st Street, [1883].

By 1884 the Pottier & Stymus Manufacturing Company had purchased the land, demolished the structures, and built a new building on the site. The New York Times called it "extensive and elegant," and described the building as having a brownstone frontage on Fifth Avenue as well as a side entrance on 42nd Street. (I think it's the building in the photo below with the wall sign that reads "American Safe Deposit Bank.")

Fifth Avenue, looking north toward 42nd Street [1900-1910]. Image: LOC

By this time the landscape of Fifth Avenue had changed from rural to commercial, with a brief residential heydey in between. The area surrounding 34th Street by now had transformed from residential to retail, and many of the brownstones near 42nd Street were rapidly being torn down and replaced with commercial buildings and warehouses. 

The next ten years brought more changes and taller buildings to Fifth Avenue. In 1915 the Oceanic Investment Company announced the construction of a new building to be named after the building's primary tenant, the Astor Trust Company. The Astor Trust Company was set to move from their existing offices on Fifth Avenue and 36th Street and into this building, occupying a 21-year lease upon the building's completion in 1917.

Astor Trust Company building, NE corner of Fifth Ave. and 42nd Street, 1917. Image: LOC

The building's architect was Montague Flagg, also known for designing the Thomas Cook building at 565 Fifth Avenue, which is no longer. The Astor Trust Company building was eventually renamed the Bankers' Trust building and still stands, though it's no longer the tallest on the block, and there isn't a crenelated parapet to be found. 

Other Sources:
The Fifth Avenue Association. Fifty Years on Fifth, 1907-1957.
Lockwood, Charles. Manhattan Moves Uptown: An Illustrated History.

A Tower Among Skyscrapers

This post also appears on the Bryant Park blog.

In the late 1960s the city began mounting art exhibitions in outdoor public spaces throughout Manhattan. Bryant Park's central location made it the perfect space for exhibiting large sculptures, and in the following years, several were displayed on the expansive lawn. One of the first was Kenneth Snelson's Needle Tower, as seen in the photo below with Sixth Avenue in the background. (This view is almost unrecognizable now, because the buildings that appear to be along Sixth now have larger buildings in front of them; the Bush Tower looks fantastic.)

Needle Tower in Bryant Park, 1967. Photo: Parks Department

Snelson's 60' x 20' tower was accompanied by three smaller pieces, and received positive feedback from the public as well as critics. Needle Tower is a "tensegrity" work -- the word is a combination of the terms tension and structural integrity. Compressed parts (in this case, bars or tubes) are attached not to one another, but to a network of cables. The tension of the cables dictates the structural shape and stability of the whole object. The term supposedly was coined by Buckminster Fuller, but Snelson argues that he came up with the underlying principle.  

Watch a computer animation of Needle Tower assembling itself along with several other examples of tensegrity on Snelson's youtube channel.

Snelson with several smaller models including Needle Tower (center). 

Today, the tower stands outside the Hirshhorn Gallery in Washington DC.

Photo: AK

New York City's commitment to public art continues today with the Art in the Parks Program.

Read more about public art exhibited in Bryant Park, including works by Mel Chin, George Rickey,  Alexander Calder, Kate Gilmore, and Sheryl Oring.