B. ALTMAN & COMPANY DEPARTMENT STORE BUILDING,
355-371 Fifth Avenue, Borough of Manhattan. Built 1905–1913;
architects Trowbridge & Livingston.

Landmark Site: Borough of Manhattan,
Tax Map Block 864, Lot 1.


Footnotes

1. Harry E. Resseguie, "A.T. Stewart's Marble Palace-The Cradle of the Department Store," in New-York Historical Society Quarterly, 43 (1964), 133-135. Stewart's imitators and successors included Potter Palmer of Chicago, Palmer's student Marshall Field, and Field's protege Harry Gordon Selfridge, who brought the principles of the department store to London.

2. For a general study of the development of the department store and commercial development of lower Manhattan, see the Studio Report for Christine Boyer at Columbia University, Ladies Mile: The History of the Retail Shopping District of Manhattan in the 19th Century (New York: unpublished typescript, Spring 1981).

3. See Charles Lockwood, Manhattan Moves Uptown (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976).

4. New York Times, October 8, 1913.

5. New York Times, December 11, 1904, p.8.

6. Quoted in the New York Times, ibid.

7. Gerard R. Wolfe, New York: A Guide to the Metropolis (New York: New York University Press, 1975), p.207.

8. Ibid.

9. Fifty Years on Fifth, Fifth Avenue Association, ed. (New York: International Press, 1957), p.52.

10. Robert Henrickson, The Grand Emporium: The Illustrated History of America's Great Department Stores (New York: Stein & Day, 1979), p.161.

11. New York Times, October 9, 1913, p.12:3.

12. New York Times, October 15, 1913, p.5:1.

13. New York Times, October 16, 1913, p.5:1.

14. New York Times, April 21, 1906, p.14.

15. Wolfe, p.196.

16. John A. Kouwenhoven, Columbia Historical Portrait of New York (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1953), p.427.

17. A Monograph of the Works of McKim, Mead & White, 1879-1915 (New York: Arno, 1977), p.38.

18. The New York Times wrote that the new location "is an ideal one from the viewpoint of the shopping public. The El is one block away in either direction, and it is accessible by crosstown cars and, eventually, a crosstown subway on thirty-fourth Street. And it is in close proximity to Grand Central Station and the Pennsylvania Terminal." December 11, 1904, p. 8.

19. This can be discerned from property records which state the dates each lot was sold to Altman. New York County, Office of the Register, Liber Deeds, Liber 105, p.435; 110, p.249; 109, p.266; 106, p.353; 107, p.27-30; 102, p.57; 100, p. 290, p. 263; 96, p.417; 97, p.287; 78, p.461; 77, p.1; 70, p.186; 43, p. 392.

20. Fifty Years on Fifth, pp.2-3.

21. Real Estate Record and Guide, Dec. 17, 1904, p.1346.

22. Ibid.

23. Lockwood, p.301.

24. Frederick Platt, The Gilded Age: Its Architecture and Decoration (Cranbury, N.J.: A.S. Barnes), pp.90-91.

25. Arthur Bartless Maurice, Fifth Avenue (New York: Dodd, Mead, 918), p.245.

26. Real Estate Record and Guide, Dec. 17, 1904, p.1346.

27. See attached photographs.

28. "There was always a chance that Altman might not secure as much property as he needed, and that his purpose would have to be abandoned." Real Estate Record and Guide, December 17, 1904, p 1346.

29. Ibid.

30. Real Estate Record and Guide, January 28, 1905, p.183.

31. This summary of Trowbridge & Livingston is based on Landmarks Preservation Commission, Upper East Side Historic District Designation Report (LP-1051) (New York: City of New York, 1981), pp.1359-1360.

32. New York Times, October 16, 1906, p.6.

33. New York Times, October 9, 1913, p.12.

34. The Foundation was established by Chapter 149 of New York Laws of 1913.

35. As a result of the IRS "excess business holding rule" (26 U.S.C. S4943), the Altman Foundation decided in 1984 to divest itself of its holdings of B. Altman stock. A contract to sell has been entered into with a group of investors, who intend, upon final acquisition, to continue a retail operation in a portion of the department store building, and to develop new uses for other portions. New York Times, May 13, 1984, p.38; November 28. 1984.


FINDINGS AND DESIGNATIONS

On the basis of a careful consideration of the history, the architecture, and other features of this building, the Landmarks Preservation Commission finds that the B. Altman Company Department Store Building has a special character, special historical and aesthetic interest and value as part of the development, heritage and cultural characteristics of New York City.

The Commission further finds that, among its important qualities, the B. Altman & Company Department Store Building was the first and one of the handsomest of the flagship department stores on Fifth Avenue; that its construction in 1905-13 acted as a catalyst in the transformation of Fifth Avenue north of 34th Street into a grand boulevard lined with large, high-class department stores; that the architects, Trowbridge & Livingston, created an elegant Italian-Renaissance palazzo type design, reserved and stately in character, which was designed to blend with the then residential appearance of the area; that despite the removal of some decorative elements, the building retains its identity and significance; and that B. Altman survives today as a keystone to the identity of Fifth Avenue as home to the city's best-known department stores.

Accordingly, pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 21 (formerly Chapter 63) of the Charter of the City of New York and Chapter 8-A of the Administrative Code of the City of New York, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designates as a Landmark the B. Altman & Company Department Store Building, 355-371 Fifth Avenue, Borough of Manhattan, and designates Tax Map Block 864, Lot I, Borough of Manhattan, as its Landmark Site.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Columbia University. Studio Report for Christine Boyer. Ladies Mile: The History of the Retail Shopping District of Manhattan in the 19th Century. New York: unpublished typescript, 1981.

Fifth Avenue Association, ed. Fifty Years on Fifth. New York: International I Press, 1975.

Henrickson, Robert. The Grand Emporium: The Illustrated History of America's Great Department Stores. New York: Stein & Day, 1979.

Kouwenhoven, John A. Columbia Historical Portrait of New York. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1953.

Lockwood, Charles. Manhattan Moves Uptown. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976.

Maurice, Arthur Bartless. Fifth Avenue. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1918.

New York County, Office of the Register. Liber Deeds.

New York Times.

Platt, Frederick. The Gilded Age: Its Architecture and Decoration. Cranbury, New Jersey: A.S Barnes, 1978.

Real Estate Record and Guide.

Resseguie, Harry E. "AT. Stewart's Marble Palace-The Cradle of the Department Store." New-York Historical Society Quarterly, 43 (1964).

Wolfe, Gerard R. New York: A Guide to the Metropolis. New York: New York University Press, 1975.

Courtesy Landmarks Preservation Commission.

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