New York's Ladies Mile, and what became of it.

First of all, what was Ladies Mile and where was it? Ladies Mile was a section of New York, from 8th Street to 23rd Street, along Broadway and Sixth Avenue. It was the shopping center of New York City after the Civil War until the turn of the century. It was the beginning of the department store. And because the predominant number of people who shopped there were women, it was nicknamed "Ladies Mile."

For women, shopping was a diversion from their everyday life. It was viewed by some as a form of female emancipation allowing many women a glimpse of the world beyond the confines of home and family. Also, the majority of the employees in this area were women. Women from all walks of life mingled and interacted: shopping was the great equivocator.

Most large stores in Europe catered to the carriage trade, but in this country, as long as you wanted to shop and possibly had money to spend, you were welcome.

As the pastime of shopping grew, the shopkeepers added amenities such as restaurants, restrooms, courteous salespeople, post offices, coat checks and nurseries. The stores themselves also grew, and to accommodate the growth, their owners housed them in magnificent buildings which were virtual palaces of commerce. And when it was over, and the stores had either moved farther uptown as the city expanded or simply gone out of business, the palaces remained. A group of them were called "The Ghosts of Sixth Avenue." For a long time they stood, for the most part, dark and run down, their glory forgotten. But now, almost a hundred years later, as that area of New York enters a renaissance, these magnificent buildings are once more in use.

Please keep in mind, though, shopping wasn't an entirely pleasant experience. All of the traffic was horse-drawn and one had be very careful where one stepped, especially when crossing the street. Except on the coldest days, the smell was dreadful. On Sixth Avenue, the elevated train clacked and clanged along overhead, smoke, cinders, and oil blowing all over the place from the locomotives. The stores themselves were not always comfortable: there was no air-conditioning.

Because of the El, the store facades on Sixth Avenue are decorated with exceptional detail. One never got the see the buildings in their entirety, only bits and pieces.

Albert Turney Stewart

The first of the large stores along Ladies Mile was Stewart's. Albert Turney Stewart's fortune was made in real estate. His original store was the "Marble Dry Goods Palace" on the northeast corner of Chambers Street and Broadway. It was opened in 1846. The building still stands today. It is known as the Sun Building, famous for the Sun Clock on which is printed "The Sun Shines for All."

In 1862, Stewart leased part of The Randall farm in Greenwich Village (Broadway between 9th and 10th streets on the East Side) and built a fabulous store known as the "Cast Iron Palace," all cast iron and glass, with a large glass dome over a central court. The store was an instant success. At his death, in 1876, Stewart was the second richest man in the country. During his life, Stewart was known as stingy, cold, and dour. However, he left each of his employees $1,000 when he died. He also founded Garden City, Long Island.

Enter Wanamaker's

The store was renamed Hilton, Hughes & Company and was managed by a former business partner. Then, it was taken over by someone else, and then someone else, and so on, and it started to go under. However, John Wanamaker arrived on the scene in 1902. He opened a branch of his Philadelphia store on Broadway on the block next to the old Stewart store. His new store took five years to build at 770 Broadway. Wanamaker's purchased what was left of Stewart's, including the building. The new building was connected to the old with three subterranean passages and an overhead bridge, plus an entrance to the subway at Astor place. Wanamaker's prospered for many years. However, in the 1950's, retail trade had definitely moved Uptown, and Wanamaker's was considered way too far Downtown for shopping. Business faded away.

In 1954, Wanamaker's moved out of New York, into the suburbs, and back to Philadelphia. The old Stewart building was destroyed in an enormous fire in 1956.770 Broadway is now occupied by Chase Bank and the Republic Bank for Savings.

Rowland Hussey Macy 

Rowland Hussey Macy's first career was as a whaler. He gave that up in a short time, and after a few false starts, opened a small dry-goods store on 14th Street, off Sixth Avenue. He was so successful that soon he acquired several of the buildings around the original store, and joined them together. By the time Macy died in 1877, the store had an annual sales volume of over $1 million.

The property at 56 West 14th Street is the remaining building of the original Macy's conglomerate. It now houses an electronics store.

Mr. Macy had a red star tattooed on his arm when he was a whaler. Today, Macy's often uses the red star as part of their logo.

Now "The Ghosts of Sixth Avenue," almost all of which, as the demand for retail space returns to the area, have been brought back to life, all spruced up, just about as good as new.

B. Altman's

On the northwest corner of 18th Street and Sixth Avenue is the building, erected in 1876, in which B. Altman & Company conducted business until 1906. B. Altman's was one of the most fashionable stores on Ladies Mile. When Benjamin Airman moved the store to the new building on Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, he was met with so much criticism that he refused to put the store's name on the outside of the new building for several years.

Today's Man now conducts business in the old Altman building. Right across the Avenue is the Siegel-Cooper & Company building, Altman's chief competitor, which opened in 1896. Siegel's was fabulous, it even had a fountain. Everybody went to Siegel's. But Mr. Siegel also failed to recognize retail's Uptown movement and eventually his store was deemed too far Downtown for shopping. Siegel-Cooper went out of business around 1914.

Bed, Bath & Beyond, Filene's Basement, and TJ Maxx are now in the Siegel-Cooper Building.

Simpson, Crawford & Simpson, which opened in 1900, were at 635-641 Sixth Avenue. They catered exclusively to the well-to-do. It was the first store on the Avenue with Otis Elevators. Simpson's also refused to move Uptown and lasted one year longer than Siegel's.

Apex Technical Schools, Bally's Health Club, Radio Shack and Motherhood are now at 635-641 Sixth Avenue.

Across the Avenue was Cammeyer's, built in 1893. Alfred J. Cammeyer and his partner, Louis M. Hart, began one of the first elegant and distinguished shoe stores in the country. Before then, shoes were displayed on strings hanging from storefront poles.

Cammeyer's did heed the signs of Uptown movement and left Sixth Avenue during the first World War and moved to Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. Unfortunately, Cammeyer's wasn't able to survive the Depression, even on Fifth Avenue.

Cammeyer's has become the Audits and Survey Building.

The Fighting Irishman of Sixth Ave.

The property at 655 Sixth Avenue, built in 1876, was Hugh O'Neill's. He was the "Fighting Irishman of Sixth Avenue," and his name is still under the arch at the top of the store. O'Neill's was what would be considered now as a discount store. It was extremely successful. Mr. O'Neill was adored by us employees. He was an overly generous employer who took personal interest in each and every one of his workers. When he died, there was simply no one to replace him, and the company collapsed.

The building, now partly occupied by Goldman's Treasures, has lost the bulbous domes which originally topped its four corners.

Adam's Dry-Goods Store

Barnes & Noble is now in 675 Sixth Avenue, built in 1900 for Adams Dry-Goods Store, which carried very conservative and high-priced merchandise, the direct opposite of its down-the-block neighbor, O'Neill's. MR. Adams had no one in his family to continue the business after he was gone. His only daughter, Eileen, married the son of John-Phillip Sousa. and wasn't interested. Adams sold his company to Hugh O'Neill. The two stores were connected by a tunnel under 21st Street. But the philosophies of the two businesses were so very different that the partnership didn't work and came to an end.

Barnes & Noble has earned a great deal of praise for the restoration of the Adams store. The original light well was retained, and one can imagine what the original store was like.

Ehrich Brothers

The last of the old stores is Ehrich Brothers, also a discount store, which was started in 1889. It is built around another cast iron building, which is being restored and looks fabulous. Staples now occupies the Ehrich building, which is still in the process of being restored.

Ehrich's went out of business for the same reason as the others. But one of its trainees, Nathan Ohrbach, went on to start a store of his own.

The Edwin Booth Theater

On the other side of Sixth Avenue and 23rd Street was the Edwin Booth Theater.

After his brother shot Lincoln and all of the turmoil which followed, Edwin Booth retired from the stage and drank. He drank for quite a while. Unhappily, while Booth was in a drunken stupor in Boston, his beautiful and very frail wife died here in New York.

Booth returned to New York to care for their only child, a daughter. He never touched a drop of alcohol again in his life. He resumed his career as an actor and was welcomed back with open arms by his audiences. He built his own theater on the east side of Sixth Avenue and 23rd Street, which he managed himself, and appeared in many of the productions there. He made a great deal of money.

Eventually, Booth sold the theater. It was torn down and James W. McCreery built and opened his second store there in 1895. McCreery's moved Uptown in 1907. The building remained until 1975. The location is now a parking lot. However, it will soon become the site for a mixed-use development with three floors of retail and 600 apartments.

The other part of this site was the location of three stores: Best & Co., Bonwit Teller, and Leboutillier Bros.

Best's moved from farther Downtown to 23rd Street in 1881. It moved to Fifth Avenue in 1910, taking with it one of the Leboutillier Brothers, Phillip, as its president.

Paul J. Bonwit and Edmund D. Teller moved their store from 18th Street to 23rd Street in 1898. Mr. Teller sold out to Mr. Bonwit, and the store moved to Fifth Avenue in 1911.

Leboutillier Brothers disappeared.

Edith Wharton was born on 23rd Street in 1862 at Number 14. The rest of Ladies Mile continues on Broadway. On the southwest corner of Broadway and 20th Street in 1869 stood Lord & Taylor, the oldest survivor of the original department stores, starting in a small building on Catherine Street in 1826. Lord & Taylor was at this location until 1914, when it moved to its present location.

Fishs Eddy is now on the southwest corner of Broadway and 20th Street.

In 1870, Arnold Constable moved up from Canal and Mercer streets to 19th Street, occupying a store which eventually covered the whole block in 1877. It was, until it went out of business in 1975, the oldest store in New York. It had a long and interesting history. It also moved uptown in 1914.

At present, the site is occupied by ABC Carpet, Timeless Treasures, Room Plus, B'way Futon, and Andy's Deli

The last member of Ladies Mile was W. and J. Sloane. The brothers, William and John Sloane, were Scottish and their store sold for the most part carpets and rugs.

William Sloane was the jury foreman at the trial of Boss Tweed, possibly New York's most corrupt mayor.

When John Sloane, William's son, inherited the company in 1879, he moved it to 881 Broadway. It moved up to Fifth Avenue and 47th Street in 1912. Sloane's was the first store to sell Oriental rugs. It supplied all the carpeting for the original Waldorf-Astoria, and the carpeting for the coronation of Czar Nicholas and Czarina Alexandra.

The property at 881 Broadway is now the main store for ABC Carpet.

And that's Ladies Mile and what became of it. It may have changed, but it's still there, coming back loud and strong once again!