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 Ferkauf 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.

Crosswalk in the Sky

This post also appears on Fashion Herald.

West 32nd Street is hectic to say the least. Since it isn't on my daily commute, I usually only go to buy some inexpensive stuff that I "need" at Jacks, eat something amazing in Koreatown, and also to stare at the Gimbels Traverse, sometimes also referred to as the Gimbels Skybridge, a relic of retail history and architecture that focused on aesthetics and function.

Photo: 34SP, A. Kumer

This Art Deco bridge, with its oxidized copper cladding make me happy as I try to navigate the insane pedestrian traffic on 32nd Street. In 1925 the retailer Gimbels bought the Cuyler building at 116 West 32nd Street to use primarily for their administrative offices. Built by the Cuyler Realty Co. in 1911, it sat across the street from the Gimbels flagship store (now Manhattan Mall) at 1275 Broadway. I've posted this picture before, but here is the Cuyler building a year after completion, and thirteen years before the Traverse.

Photo: MCNY

Right after the purchase, Gimbels hired architects Richard Harold (R.H.) Shreve and William Lamb (later to become 2/3 of the Firm Shreve, Lamb & Harmon) to design the three-story passageway with copper cladding to connect the two buildings. (For 34th Street district enthusiasts, this firm also designed the Empire State Building, built in 1930-1931, and 1250 Broadway, built in 1967-1968; in our sister BID, Bryant Park, they designed 500 Fifth Avenue, built in 1931.)

The photo below shows West 32nd Street in 1977, including the traverse, the vertical Willoughby's sign (now Jack's), a vertical Gimbels sign, and at the southwest corner The Donald, now The Continental.

Photo: 1977, Whiskeygonebad flickr

Here it is now from half a block further east.

Photo: 34SP, A. Kumer

Surprisingly, the bridge isn't landmarked. To nominate it (or any other building) for landmark status, fill out this form and send it in to the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Other sources:
NYT. "Cuyler Building Sold for $2,000,000 . . . " December 16, 1921
Bowery Boys

Cornices to Curtain Walls on 32nd Street

When I first started working for the 34th Street Partnership, I was going though photos and found this one showing the corner of West 32nd Street and Sixth Avenue, or, 885 Sixth Ave., taken in March 1992.

Photo: 34SP Archive, March 1992, Norman Mintz

I recognized it as being an early 1900s building, but with a TON of signage hanging off of it and something weird happening with the cornice along the top, almost as if it had been removed? Yep, 'cause here's what it looked like shortly after being built in 1910 -- less signage and intact cornice.

Photo: MCNY

Fast forward to the 1990s. The ground floor was occupied by Leo's Famous, a hot dog emporium and coffee shop that was at this location since 1941, and closed in 1997.

Photo: 34SP Archive, March 1992, Norman Mintz

After finding these photos, I thought I'd walk down to look at the building in person. Too late. I started working for the BID in 2008, found the photo in 2009, and by then, the building was torn down to make room for The Continental, a large residential complex, with coincidentally, the same name as a Christopher Walken SNL character. He's done so many good ones.



Curbed documented the construction of  The Continental (also known as Tower 111) quite thoroughly, including a sneak peak at its insides last January. It's central location to transportation hubs, restaurants, and shopping, put residents in the . . . Thick. Of. It. with almost everything the City has to offer in a short walk or subway ride away.