210-502: The Bergdorf Goodman Building is a department store building at 754 Fifth Avenue between 57th and 58th streets in Midtown Manhattan , New York City. The building, designed by Albert Buchman and Ely Jacques Kahn , was erected between 1927 and 1928 as seven separate storefronts. It contains the women's store of the luxury retailer Bergdorf Goodman and, since 1940, has also included a Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry store. Over
420-586: A frontage of 200 feet (61 m) on Fifth Avenue to the east, 135 feet (41 m) on 58th Street to the north, and 130 feet (40 m) on 57th Street to the south. On the same block are the Solow Building and Paris Theater to the west. Across 58th Street are the Plaza Hotel to the northwest, Grand Army Plaza to the north, and the General Motors Building to the northeast. Across 57th Street are
630-808: A 2016 renovation, the first story's main floor is divided into multiple spaces with marble floors, gray decorations, and chandeliers, and there is a jewelry room with early-20th-century gem patterns. The designer boutiques on the second floor are decorated with an ebony trim, while the third story contains wooden floors, thin partition walls, and various boutiques next to the main selling area. The fourth-floor spaces have custom murals along with contemporary and antique furniture. The fifth floor has sliding wall panels and an undulating ceiling with brises soleil (sunshades), as well as art by Leo Villareal , Jon Kessler , Rob Pruitt , Ruth Root , and Beth Campbell . The sixth floor has white stone walls and floors, in addition to three boutiques, each with different designs. By 2019,
840-530: A 3,100-square-foot (290 m) salon in September 1985, and Bergdorf Goodman's home department on the seventh floor opened toward the end of the year. The home department was the last part of the expansion to be completed. Another salon, for the fashion house Calvin Klein , opened on the third floor in 1986. The Miss Bergdorf department on the sixth floor was renovated again in 1987, and a dozen boutique shops were added to
1050-512: A Baltimore newspaper editor, Frank Key Howard , after he criticized Lincoln in an editorial for ignoring Taney's ruling. In Missouri, an elected convention on secession voted to remain in the Union. When pro-Confederate Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson called out the state militia, it was attacked by federal forces under General Nathaniel Lyon , who chased the governor and rest of the State Guard to
1260-421: A First Aid Room, and a Silence Room, with soft lights, deep chairs, and double-glazing, all intended to keep customers in the store as long as possible. Staff members were taught to be on hand to assist customers, but not too aggressively, and to sell the merchandise. Selfridge attracted shoppers with educational and scientific exhibits; in 1909, Louis Blériot 's monoplane was exhibited at Selfridges (Blériot
1470-542: A bi-annual basis. The store soon outgrew the Marble House and erected a cast-iron building on Broadway and Nineteenth Street in 1869; this "Palace of Trade" expanded over the years until it was necessary to move into a larger space in 1914. Financial problems led to bankruptcy in 1975. In New York City in 1846, Alexander Turney Stewart established the " Marble Palace " on Broadway , between Chambers and Reade streets. He offered European retail merchandise at fixed prices on
1680-515: A blockade of the Confederacy to suffocate the South into surrender. Lincoln adopted parts of the plan but opted for a more active war strategy. In April 1861, Lincoln announced a blockade of all Southern ports; commercial ships could not get insurance, ending regular traffic. The South blundered by embargoing cotton exports before the blockade was fully effective; by the time they reversed this decision, it
1890-490: A course of ultimate extinction. Decades of controversy over slavery were brought to a head when Abraham Lincoln , who opposed slavery's expansion, won the 1860 presidential election . Seven Southern slave states responded to Lincoln's victory by seceding from the United States and forming the Confederacy. The Confederacy seized U.S. forts and other federal assets within their borders. The war began on April 12, 1861, when
2100-563: A department store in 1910. In 1924, Matsuzakaya store in Ginza allowed street shoes to be worn indoors, something innovative at the time. These former kimono shop department stores dominated the market in its earlier history. They sold, or instead displayed, luxurious products, which contributed to their sophisticated atmospheres. Another origin of the Japanese department store is from railway companies. There have been many private railway operators in
2310-681: A draft law in April 1862 for men aged 18–35, with exemptions for overseers, government officials, and clergymen. The U.S. Congress followed in July, authorizing a militia draft within states that could not meet their quota with volunteers. European immigrants joined the Union Army in large numbers, including 177,000 born in Germany and 144,000 in Ireland. About 50,000 Canadians served, around 2,500 of whom were black. When
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#17328444962232520-478: A firm hand by Lincoln tamed Seward, who was a staunch Lincoln ally. Lincoln decided holding the fort, which would require reinforcing it, was the only workable option. On April 6, Lincoln informed the Governor of South Carolina that a ship with food but no ammunition would attempt to supply the fort. Historian McPherson describes this win-win approach as "the first sign of the mastery that would mark Lincoln's presidency";
2730-484: A fur salon and a young women's department. Meanwhile, Mary Lewis closed its store at number 746 in June 1950, and Bergdorf Goodman began planning an expansion in the former Mary Lewis storefront. Bergdorf Goodman opened a beauty salon in the building the same November, and it opened five miniature shops within the old Mary Lewis space the next February. Simultaneously, Bergdorf Goodman expanded its existing sales departments into
2940-421: A larger retail chain , while others are an independent retailer. Since the 1980s, they have come under heavy pressure from discounters, and have come under even heavier pressure from e-commerce sites since the 2000s. Department stores can be classified in several ways: Some sources may refer to the following types of stores as department stores, even though they are not generally considered as such: One of
3150-471: A man until she died in 1915 at the age of 71. The small U.S. Navy of 1861 rapidly expanded to 6,000 officers and 45,000 sailors by 1865, with 671 vessels totaling 510,396 tons. Its mission was to blockade Confederate ports, control the river system, defend against Confederate raiders on the high seas, and be ready for a possible war with the British Royal Navy . The main riverine war was fought in
3360-547: A new children's department and additional dressing rooms. The company also planned to add three elevators to improve visitor flow. An antiques department opened within the building in October 1960, and a beauty salon called the Coiffures American Salon was completed there two months later. The following August, Bergdorf Goodman opened its bridal salon and Wedgwood room on the building's fourth floor. A Christmas boutique in
3570-447: A patriotic fire under the North. On April 15, Lincoln called on the states to field 75,000 volunteer troops for 90 days; impassioned Union states met the quotas quickly. On May 3, 1861, Lincoln called for an additional 42,000 volunteers for three years. Shortly after this, Virginia , Tennessee , Arkansas , and North Carolina seceded and joined the Confederacy. To reward Virginia,
3780-421: A republic, but a third challenge faced the nation: maintaining a republic based on the people's vote, in the face of an attempt to destroy it. Lincoln's election provoked South Carolina 's legislature to call a state convention to consider secession. South Carolina had done more than any other state to advance the notion that a state had the right to nullify federal laws and even secede. On December 20, 1860,
3990-448: A round archway. Over the years, the lowest two stories have been modified several times. The modern store has 35 ground-floor storefront display windows , which were installed during a 1984 renovation, replacing smaller windows. The storefront windows were typically changed once a week by the late 20th century, and they are often decorated with unconventional displays during major holidays. Bergdorf Goodman's original storefront occupied only
4200-422: A round-arched entrance with a carved lunette . On the second through eighth stories, each story has a central bay of three windows, flanked on either side by a bay with one window. Similarly to the 58th Street elevation, there are band courses on the third and eighth stories, and each bay has its own window sill on the other stories. The ninth-story dormer has two windows and an arched pediment. The southern pavilion
4410-563: A sale. The Bergdorf Goodman department store traces its origins to 1899 when Herman Bergdorf, who owned a tailor shop in Manhattan, started mentoring a young merchant named Edwin Goodman. Within two years, Goodman had purchased an interest in the business, which was renamed Bergdorf Goodman. The company moved several times as the city developed further. By 1925, Bergdorf Goodman had leased space at Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street, but even that storefront
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#17328444962234620-445: A shift to working from home, which stimulated e-commerce further and reduced demand for business apparel. Click-and-collect services at department stores had been increasing during the 2010s, with many creating larger, distinctly signed, designated areas. Some of the more elaborate ones included features such as reception and seating areas with coffee served, computers with large screens for online shopping, and dressing rooms. With
4830-501: A tiled courtyard. The existing departments in the Bergdorf Goodman store were also expanded into the upper floors of number 746. The fifth and sixth stories were connected by a spiral stair in the 1960s. The first through sixth stories contained various departments by the 1980s; at the time, there was also a hairdressing salon and restaurant on the sixth floor, as well as a beauty salon on the seventh floor. There were escalators between
5040-670: A variety of dry goods, and advertised a policy of providing "free entrance" to all potential customers. Though it was clad in white marble to look like a Renaissance palazzo , the building's cast iron construction permitted large plate glass windows that permitted major seasonal displays, especially in the Christmas shopping season. In 1862, Stewart built a new store on a full city block uptown between 9th and 10th streets, with eight floors. His innovations included buying from manufacturers for cash and in large quantities, keeping his markup small and prices low, truthful presentation of merchandise,
5250-469: A year. The Linda's shop was also expanded in 2023. The Palette cafe was closed the next year and replaced by an Italian cafe known as Café Ginori, which opened in July 2024. The Bergdorf Goodman Building was designed by the partnership of Buchman and Kahn. It was constructed as seven separate stores with similar facades. The design of the building was intended to evoke the architecture of the old Vanderbilt mansion. Though Bergdorf Goodman initially leased only
5460-585: Is a cornice with dentils just above the eighth floor. The ninth story is within the mansard roof and has dormer windows. The outermost dormers have one window each, which is topped by a triangular pediment , while the inner dormers have two windows each, which are topped by a curved pediment. Some of the windows have been modified over the years. The Fifth Avenue elevation is divided into seven pavilions. The northernmost structure (originally 754 Fifth Avenue) and southernmost structure (originally 742 Fifth Avenue) were built as end pavilions and are thus taller than
5670-679: Is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic appearance in the middle of the 19th century, and permanently reshaped shopping habits, and the definition of service and luxury. Similar developments were under way in London (with Whiteleys ), in Paris ( Le Bon Marché ) and in New York City ( Stewart's ). Today, departments often include
5880-432: Is leased out to other retailers, big-box category killer stores (e.g. Best Buy, Decathlon), hypermarkets, discount stores (e.g. Walmart, Carrefour), markets, or souqs. *store has no branches **opened at this location (may have expanded significantly in the years after initial opening) American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names )
6090-472: Is similar in design, except at the ground level, where much of the original stonework is no longer extant. In addition, the entrance to the Van Cleef & Arpels store in the southern pavilion is through a rectangular doorway, and there is an oval window above it. The five center pavilions are all six stories high, excluding the mansard roof. The current design of the center pavilions' lowest two stories dates to
6300-961: Is the chosen resort of the artistic shopper". The Paris department stores have roots in the magasin de nouveautés , or novelty store ; the first, the Tapis Rouge, was created in 1784. They flourished in the early 19th century. Balzac described their functioning in his novel César Birotteau . In the 1840s, with the arrival of the railroads in Paris and the increased number of shoppers they brought, they grew in size, and began to have large plate glass display windows, fixed prices and price tags, and advertising in newspapers. A novelty shop called Au Bon Marché had been founded in Paris in 1838 to sell items like lace, ribbons, sheets, mattresses, buttons, and umbrellas. It grew from 300 m (3,200 sq ft) and 12 employees in 1838 to 50,000 m (540,000 sq ft) and 1,788 employees in 1879. Boucicaut
6510-471: Is the longest trading defunct British retailer. An observer writing in Ackermann's Repository , a British periodical on contemporary taste and fashion, described the enterprise in 1809 as follows: The house is one hundred and fifty feet in length from front to back, and of proportionate width. It is fitted up with great taste, and is divided by glazed partitions into four departments, for the various branches of
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6720-401: Is topped by a green mansard roof . The northernmost and southernmost sections of the building were built as nine-story structures, while the center of the building was originally seven stories high. Initially, the structures functioned as separate stores, which have since been connected to each other via ramps. Bergdorf Goodman's original French-style interiors have been modified extensively over
6930-484: The 1860 presidential election . Southern leaders feared Lincoln would stop slavery's expansion and put it on a course toward extinction. His victory triggered declarations of secession by seven slave states of the Deep South , all of whose riverfront or coastal economies were based on cotton that was cultivated by slave labor. Lincoln was not inaugurated until March 4, 1861, giving the South time to prepare for war during
7140-514: The Battle of Appomattox Court House , setting in motion the end of the war . Lincoln led the nation until he was shot by an assassin on April 14. By the end of the war, much of the South's infrastructure was destroyed. The Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and four million enslaved black people were freed. The war-torn nation then entered the Reconstruction era in an attempt to rebuild
7350-576: The Crown Building and 17 West 56th Street . Other nearby buildings include the Squibb Building (745 Fifth Avenue) and 3 East 57th Street to the east, and the Tiffany & Co. flagship store , Trump Tower , and 590 Madison Avenue to the southeast. Fifth Avenue between 42nd Street and Central Park South (59th Street) was relatively undeveloped through the late 19th century. The surrounding area
7560-666: The Dred Scott decision was proof the Southern states had no reason to secede and that the Union "was intended to be perpetual". He added, however, that "The power by force of arms to compel a State to remain in the Union" was not among the "enumerated powers granted to Congress". A quarter of the US army—the Texas garrison—was surrendered in February to state forces by its general, David E. Twiggs , who joined
7770-598: The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect in January 1863, ex-slaves were energetically recruited to meet state quotas. States and local communities offered higher cash bonuses for white volunteers. Congress tightened the draft law in March 1863. Men selected in the draft could provide substitutes or, until mid-1864, pay commutation money. Many eligibles pooled their money to cover the cost of anyone drafted. Families used
7980-667: The Frédéric Fekkai hair salon in the building closed in 1996, the John Barrett salon and the Susan Ciminelli day spa opened on the ninth floor the next year, within the former Goodman family penthouse. The restaurateur Daniel Boulud also opened a "tea salon" in the building. The facade of the Bergdorf Goodman Building was cleaned extensively in 1998, and Van Cleef & Arpels announced plans to renovate its store there
8190-619: The Great Recession of 2008-9, shifts in spending to experiences rather than material goods, relaxed dress codes in workplaces, and the shift to e-commerce in which Amazon.com and Walmart dominated versus the online offerings of traditional retailers. COVID-19 increased the number of permanent store closings in two ways: first through mandatory temporary closing of stores, especially in March and April 2020, with customers largely staying away from stores for non-essential purchases for many more months after that; and secondly, by causing
8400-547: The Neiman Marcus chain acquired Bergdorf Goodman and paid the family off. During the mid-1970s, an expanded men's department opened on the second floor, and Bergdorf Goodman also moved and expanded its cosmetics department. Several other departments were expanded or relocated, and the Sixth Sense contemporary-fashion department was added to the sixth floor. These renovations cost a total of $ 15 million. Bergdorf Goodman shut down
8610-521: The San Fernando Valley at Laurel Plaza . Starting in 2010 many analysts referred to a retail apocalypse in the United States and some other markets, referring to the closing of brick-and-mortar retail stores, especially those of large chains. In 2017, over 12,000 U.S. stores closed due to over-expansion of malls, rising rents, bankruptcies, leveraged buyouts , low quarterly profits other than during holiday peak periods , delayed effects of
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8820-459: The Savoy-Plaza Hotel and the Plaza Hotel . The marble blocks contain orange, yellow, green, and black veins. Each of the storefront structures also has horizontally-aligned windows, protruding dormers , and a mansard roof; this was part of Kahn's efforts to create a building resembling "an elegant Parisian avenue". The roof is clad with slate , and it contains stone partitions that delineate
9030-575: The Virginia to prevent its capture, while the Union built many copies of the Monitor . The Confederacy's efforts to obtain warships from Great Britain failed, as Britain had no interest in selling warships to a nation at war with a stronger enemy and feared souring relations with the U.S. By early 1861, General Winfield Scott had devised the Anaconda Plan to win the war with minimal bloodshed, calling for
9240-512: The Western theater , the Union made permanent gains—though in the Eastern theater the conflict was inconclusive. The abolition of slavery became a Union war goal on January 1, 1863, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation , which declared all slaves in rebel states to be free, applying to more than 3.5 million of the 4 million enslaved people in the country. To the west, the Union first destroyed
9450-516: The electrical telegraph , steamships, the ironclad warship , and mass-produced weapons were widely used. The war left an estimated 698,000 soldiers dead, along with an undetermined number of civilian casualties, making the Civil War the deadliest military conflict in American history. The technology and brutality of the Civil War foreshadowed the coming World Wars . The origins of the war were rooted in
9660-490: The $ 90,000 interest payment, Mutual Life wanted to compel Barclay-Arrow to pay the entire amounts of both mortgages. The buildings were supposed to be sold at auction in early 1932, but the auction was postponed twice. Brown declared bankruptcy later the same year. Bergdorf Goodman leased back 754 Fifth Avenue from Tecla Pearls in August 1933, with plans to expand its shoe department there. The apparel shop Grande Maison de Blanc leased
9870-406: The 168,649 men procured for the Union through the draft, 117,986 were substitutes, leaving only 50,663 who were conscripted. In the North and South, draft laws were highly unpopular. In the North, some 120,000 men evaded conscription, many fleeing to Canada, and another 280,000 soldiers deserted during the war. At least 100,000 Southerners deserted, about 10 percent of the total. Southern desertion
10080-399: The 57th Street elevation is asymmetrical. In general, the five westernmost bays each contain a single window opening on each story (the westernmost bay contains blind openings instead of windows). In the second through fourth bays from the west, the seventh story has a balcony with a metal railing, while the eighth story is topped by urns and carved panels. Directly above the arched entrance, at
10290-591: The Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Insurance rates soared, and the American flag virtually disappeared from international waters, though reflagging ships with European flags allowed them to continue operating unmolested. After the war, the U.S. government demanded Britain compensate it for the damage caused by blockade runners and raiders outfitted in British ports. Britain paid the U.S. $ 15 million in 1871, but only for commerce raiding. Dinçaslan argues that another outcome of
10500-551: The Bahamas in exchange for high-priced cotton. Many were lightweight and designed for speed, only carrying small amounts of cotton back to England. When the Union Navy seized a blockade runner, the ship and cargo were condemned as a prize of war and sold, with proceeds given to the Navy sailors; the captured crewmen, mostly British, were released. The Southern economy nearly collapsed during
10710-482: The Bergdorf Goodman storefront: "The effect is of beautifully decorated and furnished salons wherein no merchandise is displayed." A 1986 article from The New York Times described the building as "a picture of monumental elegance on the [Grand Army] Plaza". The Wall Street Journal wrote in 1989 that the rotunda "evokes images of Versailles" and that "luxurious props abound, such as antique furniture and towering floral arrangements". The New Yorker wrote in 2012 that
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#173284449622310920-400: The British response to the U.S. was toned down, helping avert war. In 1862, the British government considered mediating between the Union and Confederacy, though such an offer would have risked war with the U.S. British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston reportedly read Uncle Tom's Cabin three times when deciding what his decision would be. The Union victory at the Battle of Antietam caused
11130-602: The British to delay this decision. The Emancipation Proclamation increased the political liability of supporting the Confederacy. Realizing that Washington could not intervene in Mexico as long as the Confederacy controlled Texas, France invaded Mexico in 1861 and installed the Habsburg Austrian archduke Maximilian I as emperor. Washington repeatedly protested France's violation of the Monroe Doctrine . Despite sympathy for
11340-509: The Commonwealth, which at its greatest extent was over half the state, and it went into exile after October 1862. After Virginia's secession, a Unionist government in Wheeling asked 48 counties to vote on an ordinance to create a new state in October 1861. A voter turnout of 34% approved the statehood bill (96% approving). Twenty-four secessionist counties were included in the new state, and
11550-479: The Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina . A wave of enthusiasm for war swept over the North and South, as military recruitment soared. Four more Southern states seceded after the war began and, led by its president, Jefferson Davis , the Confederacy asserted control over a third of the U.S. population in eleven states. Four years of intense combat, mostly in the South, ensued. During 1861–1862 in
11760-400: The Confederacy refused to exchange black prisoners. After that, about 56,000 of the 409,000 POWs died in prisons, accounting for 10 percent of the conflict's fatalities. Historian Elizabeth D. Leonard writes that between 500 and 1,000 women enlisted as soldiers on both sides, disguised as men. Women also served as spies, resistance activists, nurses, and hospital personnel. Women served on
11970-531: The Confederacy's river navy by the summer of 1862, then much of its western armies, and seized New Orleans . The successful 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River , while Confederate General Robert E. Lee 's incursion north failed at the Battle of Gettysburg . Western successes led to General Ulysses S. Grant 's command of all Union armies in 1864. Inflicting an ever-tightening naval blockade of Confederate ports,
12180-509: The Confederacy, France's seizure of Mexico ultimately deterred it from war with the Union. Confederate offers late in the war to end slavery in return for diplomatic recognition were not seriously considered by London or Paris. After 1863, the Polish revolt against Russia further distracted the European powers and ensured they remained neutral. Russia supported the Union, largely because it believed
12390-678: The Confederacy. As Southerners resigned their Senate and House seats, Republicans could pass projects that had been blocked. These included the Morrill Tariff , land grant colleges, a Homestead Act , a transcontinental railroad, the National Bank Act , authorization of United States Notes by the Legal Tender Act of 1862 , and the end of slavery in the District of Columbia . The Revenue Act of 1861 introduced income tax to help finance
12600-731: The Confederate capital was moved to Richmond . Maryland , Delaware , Missouri , West Virginia and Kentucky were slave states whose people had divided loyalties to Northern and Southern businesses and family members. Some men enlisted in the Union Army and others in the Confederate Army. West Virginia separated from Virginia and was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863, though half its counties were secessionist. Maryland's territory surrounded Washington, D.C. , and could cut it off from
12810-527: The District of Columbia by seizing prominent figures, including arresting one-third of the members of the Maryland General Assembly on the day it reconvened. All were held without trial, with Lincoln ignoring a ruling on June 1, 1861, by Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney , not speaking for the Court, that only Congress could suspend habeas corpus ( Ex parte Merryman ). Federal troops imprisoned
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#173284449622313020-518: The Dobbs Building. Bergdorf Goodman subsidiary Delman Shoe Salon took over Mosse Inc.'s old space at number 750 in April 1938, after Mosse moved out. The Tailored Woman Inc. leased the storefront at number 742 that July, and that storefront was redesigned. Parke-Bernet moved out of number 742 that August, and the Tailored Woman's three-story store opened there the next month. Bergdorf Goodman leased
13230-590: The Dobbs store's first floor was also designed in the Italian style, with walnut paneling throughout. Executive offices and buyers' offices were placed on a mezzanine above the first floor. The three floors above were decorated in the Louis XV and Louis XVI styles, except for smaller rooms that had English-style decorations, and sold various clothes and accessories. On the fourth floor was an English walnut room and executive offices in
13440-473: The North, where anti-slavery sentiment had grown, and for the South, where the fear of slavery's abolition had grown. Another factor leading to secession and the formation of the Confederacy was the development of white Southern nationalism in the preceding decades. The primary reason for the North to reject secession was to preserve the Union, a cause based on American nationalism . Background factors in
13650-648: The North. It had anti-Lincoln officials who tolerated anti-army rioting in Baltimore and the burning of bridges, both aimed at hindering the passage of troops to the South. Maryland's legislature voted overwhelmingly to stay in the Union, but rejected hostilities with its southern neighbors, voting to close Maryland's rail lines to prevent their use for war. Lincoln responded by establishing martial law and unilaterally suspending habeas corpus in Maryland, along with sending in militia units. Lincoln took control of Maryland and
13860-688: The Plaza Trust Company agreed to lease a storefront facing 57th Street. Dobbs & Co. filed for bankruptcy in May 1931, and the contents of its store at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue were auctioned off the next month. That December, the Mutual Life Insurance Company filed to foreclose on two mortgages worth a combined $ 6,075,000 (equivalent to $ 121,713,000 in 2023). Though the Barclay-Arrow Corporation had defaulted only on
14070-408: The South's post-war recovery. Cotton diplomacy proved a failure as Europe had a surplus of cotton, while the 1860–62 crop failures in Europe made the North's grain exports critically important. It also helped turn European opinion against the Confederacy. It was said that "King Corn was more powerful than King Cotton," as U.S. grain went from a quarter to almost half of British imports. Meanwhile,
14280-416: The South. The Confederacy turned to foreign sources, connecting with financiers and companies like S. Isaac, Campbell & Company and the London Armoury Company in Britain, becoming the Confederacy's main source of arms. To transport arms safely to the Confederacy, British investors built small, fast, steam-driven blockade runners that traded arms and supplies from Britain, through Bermuda, Cuba, and
14490-449: The Tailored Woman's lease and announced that it would spend $ 2.5 million to add around 50,000 square feet (4,600 m) to the store. Bergdorf Goodman hired Percy Cashmore to design the renovation. The project added a new entrance and a men's department along 57th Street, and it also involved demolishing some interior walls and stairs. Van Cleef & Arpels was relocated to the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, while Chanel remained on
14700-399: The U.S. and Britain over the Trent affair , which began when U.S. Navy personnel boarded the British ship Trent and seized two Confederate diplomats. However, London and Washington smoothed this over after Lincoln released the two men. Prince Albert left his deathbed to issue diplomatic instructions to Lord Lyons during the Trent affair. His request was honored, and, as a result,
14910-471: The Union Army or pro-Union guerrilla groups. Although they came from all classes, most Southern Unionists differed socially, culturally, and economically from their region’s dominant prewar, slave-owning planter class. At the war's start, a parole system operated, under which captives agreed not to fight until exchanged. They were held in camps run by their army, paid, but not allowed to perform any military duties. The system of exchanges collapsed in 1863 when
15120-501: The Union blockade. The Confederacy purchased warships from commercial shipbuilders in Britain, with the most famous being the CSS ; Alabama , which caused considerable damage and led to serious postwar disputes . However, public opinion against slavery in Britain created a political liability for politicians, where the anti-slavery movement was powerful. War loomed in late 1861 between
15330-460: The Union hospital ship Red Rover and nursed Union and Confederate troops at field hospitals. Mary Edwards Walker , the only woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor , served in the Union Army and was given the medal for treating the wounded during the war. One woman, Jennie Hodgers, fought for the Union under the name Albert D. J. Cashier. After she returned to civilian life, she continued to live as
15540-481: The Union marshaled resources and manpower to attack the Confederacy from all directions. This led to the fall of Atlanta in 1864 to Union General William Tecumseh Sherman , followed by his March to the Sea . The last significant battles raged around the ten-month Siege of Petersburg , gateway to the Confederate capital of Richmond . The Confederates abandoned Richmond, and on April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant following
15750-488: The Union would win if it could resupply and hold the fort, and the South would be the aggressor if it opened fire on an unarmed ship supplying starving men. An April 9 Confederate cabinet meeting resulted in Davis ordering General P. G. T. Beauregard to take the fort before supplies reached it. At 4:30 am on April 12, Confederate forces fired the first of 4,000 shells at the fort; it fell the next day. The loss of Fort Sumter lit
15960-482: The Union, this was never likely, so they sought to bring them in as mediators. The Union worked to block this and threatened war if any country recognized the Confederacy. In 1861, Southerners voluntarily embargoed cotton shipments, hoping to start an economic depression in Europe that would force Britain to enter the war, but this failed. Worse, Europe turned to Egypt and India for cotton, which they found superior, hindering
16170-473: The Union-held Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter is located in the harbor of Charleston , South Carolina. Its status had been contentious for months. Outgoing President Buchanan had dithered in reinforcing its garrison, commanded by Major Robert Anderson . Anderson took matters into his own hands and on December 26, 1860, under the cover of darkness, sailed the garrison from the poorly placed Fort Moultrie to
16380-677: The Union. A February peace conference met in Washington, proposing a solution similar the Compromise; it was rejected by Congress. The Republicans proposed the Corwin Amendment , an alternative, not to interfere with slavery where it existed, but the South regarded it as insufficient. The remaining eight slave states rejected pleas to join the Confederacy, following a no-vote in Virginia's First Secessionist Convention on April 4. On March 4, Lincoln
16590-566: The West, where major rivers gave access to the Confederate heartland. The U.S. Navy eventually controlled the Red, Tennessee, Cumberland, Mississippi, and Ohio rivers. In the East, the Navy shelled Confederate forts and supported coastal army operations. The Civil War occurred during the early stages of the industrial revolution, leading to naval innovations, notably the ironclad warship . The Confederacy, recognizing
16800-566: The Western territories destined to become states. Initially Congress had admitted new states into the Union in pairs, one slave and one free . This had kept a sectional balance in the Senate but not in the House of Representatives , as free states outstripped slave states in numbers of eligible voters. Thus, at mid-19th century, the free-versus-slave status of the new territories was a critical issue, both for
17010-433: The basement was also expanded. A renovation on the sixth floor began in June 2014, and new accessory shops for Dior and Tom Ford opened that September. The sixth story was completely rebuilt. The local architectural firm MNA redesigned the first story, and an arched entrance and a jewelry room were built on 57th Street. The sixth-story renovation was completed in September 2015, followed by the jewelry salon that December and
17220-515: The blockade was the rise of oil as a prominent commodity. The declining whale oil industry took a blow as many old whaling ships were used in blockade efforts, such as the Stone Fleet , and Confederate raiders harassed Union whalers. Oil products, especially kerosene, began replacing whale oil in lamps, increasing oil's importance long before it became fuel for combustion engines. Although the Confederacy hoped Britain and France would join them against
17430-474: The building in the mid-1930s and began hosting exhibits there in February 1935. The 754 Fifth Avenue Corporation, a subsidiary of Bergdorf Goodman, agreed to buy the northernmost structure that April for an estimated $ 3 million. This marked the first time that ownership of the storefronts had been divided. Steuben Glass moved out of the building during 1937. The same year, Parfums Chevalier Garde Inc. took over 750 Fifth Avenue, and Parke-Bernet leased four floors in
17640-488: The building opened in late 1964, and Andrew Goodman announced plans to modify the building the same year. Employee facilities on the fifth floor were to be relocated to the roof to make way for stockrooms, and the first floor spaces would also be renovated. The BiGi department, which sold clothing for teenage girls, opened on the building's sixth floor in February 1966. Tailored Woman announced that it would close its store at 742 Fifth Avenue in 1967. Bergdorf Goodman bought out
17850-610: The building's elevator service. The New York Supreme Court ultimately dismissed 754 Fifth Avenue Inc.'s complaint and fined the landlord, though the fine was later overturned. The salon chain Blanchette-Mack Inc. leased space at 1 West 57th Street in May 1950. The Tailored Woman extended its lease that July, taking nearly all of the space at 1 West 57th Street and 742–744 Fifth Avenue. The Tailored Woman planned to install an air-conditioning system and increase its floor area from 38,000 to 60,000 square feet (3,500 to 5,600 m), adding
18060-423: The building's mid-1980s renovation. As part of the renovation, the lowest two stories were clad in rusticated blocks, and an entrance was built at the base of one of the storefronts. The upper stories retain their original A-B-C-B-A design. The "A"-type storefronts are three bays wide and contain stone pilasters , metal spandrel panels above the third story, palmettes above the fourth story, an arched relief above
18270-665: The building. In addition, a home-furnishing boutique called the Musee des Arts Decoratifs opened there. Bergdorf Goodman hired the advertising firm Arnell/Bickford Associates to advertise various aspects of the renovated building, such as the escalators. Angela Cummings opened a jewelry shop on the building's ground floor in February 1984, followed by the Guerlain perfume boutique that May. The expanded cosmetics department next to Guerlain opened later that year, and taller storefront windows were also added. The clothing brand Sergio Valente opened
18480-552: The building. These included Sheldon Solow , who unsuccessfully tried to buy the site while developing the Solow Building next door. The furniture shop Mallett & Son began leasing part of the building's second floor in 1970. Broadway-Hale Stores proposed acquiring Bergdorf Goodman in 1971 and leasing the building back from Andrew Goodman. According to Goodman, if the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had not approved
18690-466: The buildings were completed in 1928, Brown transferred ownership of the storefronts to the Barclay-Arrow Corporation. By early 1929, Bergdorf Goodman had outgrown the northernmost storefront. As such, the company leased the two structures to the south of its original storefront that May; these storefronts had been empty ever since their completion. Theodore Hofstatter was hired to renovate the second through sixth stories of these buildings, adding offices to
18900-449: The ceiling, and there was also French period furniture . On the first floor was a room for perfume and accessories; a rotunda with display cases; and a millinery department. The rotunda was an elliptical space designed in the Empire style , while the other spaces mostly had traditional French decorations. The second through fourth floors had additional clothing departments and dressing rooms. On
19110-482: The center of the facade, is a single bay of two windows. The three easternmost bays contain three windows per story. Similarly to the 58th Street elevation, there are band courses on the third and eighth stories, and each bay has its own window sill on the other stories. There is also a cornice with dentils above the eighth story. Initially, the structures functioned as separate stores and had their own elevators and stairs. The Bergdorf Goodman store initially occupied only
19320-408: The central sixth-story window, and an arched pediment. The "B"-type storefronts are similar in design, but they contain flat stone facades with window sills, rather than metal spandrels and palmettes. The "C"-type storefront in the center is five bays wide, with window sills, a balcony at the sixth story, and stone panels above the sixth-story windows. The first story has been extensively modified over
19530-470: The company began carrying out further renovations. The designer-accessories shops were relocated from the first to the second floor, while accessories stores, a fine-jewelry room, and a handbag store were built on the first floor. In addition, the 58th Street entrance was rebuilt, and the company replaced the building's mechanical systems and architectural design details. By then, the building was earning about $ 1,500 per square foot ($ 16,000/m) per year, and there
19740-457: The company had outgrown the building's selling space. In 1981, Bergdorf Goodman announced a $ 15 million renovation of the Fifth Avenue flagship store. The project involved building a main entrance on Fifth Avenue, relocating the store's offices to a neighboring building, and expanding selling space by up to 50 percent. The seventh floor was expanded, and new escalators linked the first floor to
19950-419: The company had spent $ 85 million restoring the building. An accessories shop on the fifth floor opened in 2007, along with a fine-jewelry department on the main floor. An Eskandar designer store, a Lanvin store, and a designer jewelry room all opened in the building during 2008. This was followed by a Versace shop the next year. Bergdorf Goodman opened a 1,200-square-foot (110 m) children's department on
20160-557: The company of men. These, for the main part, were newly affluent middle-class women, their good fortune – and the department store itself – nurtured and shaped by the Industrial Revolution . This was transforming life in London and the length and breadth of Britain at a dizzying pace on the back of energetic free trade, fecund invention, steam and sail, and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of expendable cheap labour. This pioneering shop
20370-462: The construction of similar departments in other stores' basements. A Best & Co. -branded children's boutique opened at the building in 2001, as well as an Agnona women's shop on the first floor. The next year, the shoe salon was expanded. Bergdorf Goodman also planned to renovate the main floor and expand the decorative-home department into the eighth floor. These modifications were delayed due to financial shortfalls and leadership changes. In 2002,
20580-508: The convention unanimously voted to secede and adopted a secession declaration . It argued for states' rights for slave owners but complained about states' rights in the North in the form of resistance to the federal Fugitive Slave Act, claiming that Northern states were not fulfilling their obligations to assist in the return of fugitive slaves. The "cotton states" of Mississippi , Florida , Alabama , Georgia , Louisiana , and Texas followed suit, seceding in January and February 1861. Among
20790-483: The country, bring the former Confederate states back into the United States, and grant civil rights to freed slaves. The war is one of the most extensively studied and written about episodes in U.S. history . It remains the subject of cultural and historiographical debate . Of continuing interest is the fading myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy . The war was among the first to use industrial warfare . Railroads,
21000-471: The crisis was Secretary of State William H. Seward , who had been Lincoln's rival for the Republican nomination . Embittered by his defeat, Seward agreed to support Lincoln's candidacy only after he was guaranteed the executive office then considered the second most powerful. In the early stages of Lincoln's presidency Seward held little regard for him, due to his perceived inexperience. Seward viewed himself as
21210-635: The de facto head of government, the " prime minister " behind the throne. Seward attempted to engage in unauthorized and indirect negotiations that failed. Lincoln was determined to hold all remaining Union-occupied forts in the Confederacy: Fort Monroe in Virginia, Fort Pickens , Fort Jefferson , and Fort Taylor in Florida, and Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces opened fire on
21420-520: The desire of the Southern states to preserve the institution of slavery . Historians in the 21st century overwhelmingly agree on the centrality of slavery in the conflict. They disagree on which aspects (ideological, economic, political, or social) were most important, and on the North 's reasons for refusing to allow the Southern states to secede. The pseudo-historical Lost Cause ideology denies that slavery
21630-470: The diffusion of such ideas. A number of department stores teamed up together to create the International Association of Department Stores in Paris in 1928 to have a discussion space dedicated to this retail format. The U.S. Baby Boom led to the development of suburban neighborhoods and suburban commercial developments, including shopping malls. Department stores joined these ventures following
21840-526: The downtown shopping district display; the "theme" window displays became famous for their ingenuity and beauty, and visiting the Marshall Field's windows at Christmas became a tradition for Chicagoans and visitors alike, as popular a local practice as visiting the Walnut Room with its equally famous Christmas tree or meeting "under the clock" on State Street. In 1877, John Wanamaker opened what some claim
22050-486: The ensuing guerrilla war engaged about 40,000 federal troops for much of the war. Congress admitted West Virginia to the Union on June 20, 1863. West Virginians provided about 20,000 soldiers to each side in the war. A Unionist secession attempt occurred in East Tennessee , but was suppressed by the Confederacy, which arrested over 3,000 men suspected of loyalty to the Union; they were held without trial. The Civil War
22260-430: The essential role of cotton in the European economy. The European aristocracy was "absolutely gleeful in pronouncing the American debacle as proof that the entire experiment in popular government had failed. European government leaders welcomed the fragmentation of the ascendant American Republic." However, a European public with liberal sensibilities remained, which the U.S. sought to appeal to by building connections with
22470-577: The establishment of a superiority over every other in Europe, and to render it perfectly unique in its kind. This venture is described as having all of the basic characteristics of the department store; it was a public retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different departments. Jonathan Glancey for the BBC writes: Harding, Howell & Co was focused on the needs and desires of fashionable women. Here, at last women were free to browse and shop, safely and decorously, away from home and from
22680-420: The expanded seventh floor. When the renovation began in early 1982, the company's CEO Ira Neimark predicted that the expansion would double Bergdorf Goodman's sales. The first phase of the renovation (including the new escalators) was finished in August 1983, followed the next month by a new intimate-apparel department on the fourth floor. The same year, the lighting designer Douglas Leigh added floodlights atop
22890-415: The extensive business, which is there carried on. Immediately at the entrance is the first department, which is exclusively appropriated to the sale of furs and fans. The second contains articles of haberdashery of every description, silks, muslins, lace, gloves, &etc. In the third shop, on the right, you meet with a rich assortment of jewelry, ornamental articles in ormolu, French clocks, &etc.; and on
23100-426: The fifth floor and workrooms on the sixth floor. Bergdorf Goodman added a shoe department, and it also added a boudoir and hired Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia to run the boudoir. Bergdorf Goodman subleased the ground floor and basement of 750 Fifth Avenue to the linen shop Mosse Inc. in July 1929, and the ground floor and basement of 754 Fifth Avenue was leased to Tecla Pearls Inc. that November. In addition,
23310-431: The fifth floor were the offices, while the sixth through eighth floors contained manufacturing. The ninth floor contained a penthouse for Edwin Goodman, the store's founder, which had 16 rooms and was accessed by an elevator. In the basement were two fur rooms, and there was also a mezzanine with employee areas. Bergdorf Goodman expanded into 746 Fifth Avenue in 1951 and converted that storefront into five small shops around
23520-507: The fifth floor, a personal-shopping department on the fourth floor, and designer sportswear boutiques on the third floor. The 5F department on the fifth floor opened in October 2005, and the BG restaurant opened the next month. In addition, Guerlain moved its store to the basement. The third level was the final part of the Bergdorf Goodman Building to be renovated, reopening in December 2006. At that point,
23730-420: The fifth-floor renovation, which involved relocating stockrooms, adding a stair, and demolishing some interior walls. Bergdorf Goodman spent $ 150,000 to renovate its hosiery department the next year. During 1994, Bergdorf Goodman opened a Vivienne Westwood boutique on the third floor and a cafe on the fifth floor. The northern portion of the sixth floor was also reconstructed to accommodate more boutiques. After
23940-454: The first and seventh floors, accessed via a hexagonal rotunda at the first story, in addition to boutiques on each story. The boutiques had different designs; for example, Angela Cummings's jewelry shop was decorated in gray and cream colors, while the Guerlain boutique had a French-style design with pink marble. There were designer salons on each floor by the 1980s, and the former Goodman penthouse
24150-488: The first department stores may have been Bennett's in Derby , first established as an ironmonger (hardware shop) in 1734. It still stands to this day, trading in the same building. However, the first reliably dated department store to be established, was Harding, Howell & Co. , which opened in 1796 on Pall Mall , London. The oldest department store chain may be Debenhams , which was established in 1778 and closed in 2021. It
24360-434: The five storefronts in between. The five central storefronts, which originally carried the addresses 744–752 Fifth Avenue, have a symmetrical A-B-C-B-A design from south to north. The facades of each storefront have been modified throughout the years so they appear as a single building. In the northern pavilion, the lowest two stories are rusticated similarly to the 58th Street facade, and there are two display windows flanking
24570-437: The floor. During that project, Bergdorf Goodman added 5,000 square feet (460 m) of selling space by removing some backroom areas. Bergdorf Goodman also built six accessories boutiques on the ground floor, along Fifth Avenue, in 1988. The boutiques, designed by J. T. Nakaoka, cost $ 1 million to construct. Bergdorf Goodman announced plans to relocate its men's apparel department across the street to 745 Fifth Avenue in 1988. At
24780-566: The following: clothing, cosmetics, do it yourself , furniture , gardening, hardware, home appliances , houseware , paint, sporting goods, toiletries, and toys. Additionally, other lines of products such as food, books, jewellery, electronics, stationery , photographic equipment, baby products, and products for pets are sometimes included. Customers generally check out near the front of the store in discount department stores , while high-end traditional department stores include sales counters within each department. Some stores are one of many within
24990-456: The former boundaries of each storefront. There is a brick penthouse structure above the four southernmost pavilions, as well as a metal structure connecting the brick penthouse to the northern pavilion. Originally, almost all of the structures had simple entrances and large display windows, except for the northernmost storefront. At Edwin Goodman's request, the northernmost structure contained rusticated marble blocks, French-style ornament, and
25200-558: The fur-manufacturing facility on the seventh floor in 1976. The company announced plans for a haute couture department on the second floor in 1977, and several storefronts for European design firms opened on that story the next year. The building originally had 15 such shops, many of which became highly profitable. Several entire floors had been renovated by 1980, and Bergdorf Goodman was also planning an extensive renovation, having closed its only other store in White Plains, New York . By then,
25410-504: The ground floor had opulent "mirrors and chandeliers" in addition to upscale merchandise, while the upper stories had sunlight on three sides, "an amenity rare in New York". Architectural Digest , in its 2019 obituary of Bergdorf Goodman CEO Ira Neimark, said the building's interior "maintains its status as a frequent attraction for members of the design community" because of the 1980s renovations. Department store A department store
25620-565: The ground floor of 748 Fifth Avenue in late 1940 for an expansion of the Delman Shoe Salon. The same year, the jewelry firm Van Cleef & Arpels leased number 744, and the beauty salon Victor Ferrantelle leased the second floor of number 748. The gown store Rose Amado, the furrier M. P. Penichek, and the milliner Northridge Inc. all leased space in 1 West 57th Street in 1941. In addition, Florence Reichman opened her millinery store in that building. After Grande Maison de Blanc moved out of
25830-462: The growing market of baby boomer spending. A handful of U.S. retailers had opened seasonal stores in resorts, as well as smaller branch stores in suburbs, in the 1920s and 1930s. Examples include, in suburban Los Angeles , The Broadway-Hollywood , Bullocks Wilshire , The May Company-Wilshire , Saks - Beverly Hills , as well as two Strawbridge and Clothier stores: Suburban Square (1930) and Jenkintown (1931) outside Philadelphia. Suburban Square
26040-439: The homefront economy could no longer supply. Surdam contends that the blockade was a powerful weapon that eventually ruined the Southern economy, costing few lives in combat. The Confederate cotton crop became nearly useless, cutting off the Confederacy's primary income source. Critical imports were scarce, and coastal trade largely ended as well. The blockade's success was not measured by the few ships that slipped through but by
26250-460: The house in 1926, and the mansion was razed the next year. After Brown acquired the Vanderbilt site, he hired Albert Buchman and Ely Jacques Kahn to design several store structures on the site, each ranging from six to eight stories. Cross & Brown were hired as the real estate brokers. Kahn later recalled that, although neither Brown nor the site's real estate brokers had asked his opinion for
26460-545: The international press. By 1861, Union diplomats like Carl Schurz realized emphasizing the war against slavery was the Union's most effective moral asset in swaying European public opinion. Seward was concerned an overly radical case for reunification would distress European merchants with cotton interests; even so, he supported a widespread campaign of public diplomacy. U.S. minister to Britain Charles Francis Adams proved adept and convinced Britain not to challenge
26670-399: The late 1950s, late 1960s, and early 1980s. The building was converted into Bergdorf Goodman's women's store in 1990, after a new men's store opened across Fifth Avenue. Further renovations were carried out during the 2000s and 2010s. The design was intended to evoke the architecture of the old Vanderbilt mansion. The building is clad in white South Dover marble , with multicolored veins, and
26880-403: The left, with all the different kinds of perfumery necessary for the toilette. The fourth is set apart for millinery and dresses; so that there is no article of female attire or decoration, but what may be here procured in the first style of elegance and fashion. This concern has been conducted for the last twelve years by the present proprietors who have spared neither trouble nor expense to ensure
27090-525: The merger, he would have needed to convert the Bergdorf Goodman Building to an office building. After the FTC approved the acquisition the next year, Goodman leased the building to Broadway-Hale and continued to live in the penthouse apartment atop the building. Under the terms of the lease, Broadway-Hale could not sell items at other stores in Manhattan that were also being sold at the Bergdorf Goodman Building. The Goodman family later revoked this lease restriction after
27300-590: The movement to abolish slavery and its influence over the North. Southern states believed that the Fugitive Slave Clause made slaveholding a constitutional right. These states agreed to form a new federal government, the Confederate States of America , on February 4, 1861. They took control of federal forts and other properties within their boundaries, with little resistance from outgoing President James Buchanan , whose term ended on March 4. Buchanan said
27510-459: The nation and, from the 1920s, they started to build department stores directly linked to their lines' termini . Seibu and Hankyu are typical examples of this type. In the middle of the 1920s, American management theories such as the scientific management of F.W. Taylor started spreading in Europe. The International Management Institute (I.M.I.) was established in Geneva in 1927 to facilitate
27720-422: The national prestige brought by the great Parisian stores. The great writer Émile Zola (1840–1902) set his novel Au Bonheur des Dames (1882–83) in the typical department store, making it a symbol of the new technology that was both improving society and devouring it. Australia is notable for having the longest continuously operating department store, David Jones . The first David Jones department store
27930-472: The need to counter the Union's naval superiority, built or converted over 130 vessels, including 26 ironclads. Despite these efforts, Confederate ships were largely unsuccessful against Union ironclads. The Union Navy used timberclads, tinclads, and armored gunboats. Shipyards in Cairo, Illinois, and St. Louis built or modified steamboats . The Confederacy experimented with the submarine CSS Hunley , which
28140-418: The new Confederacy sent delegates to Washington to negotiate a peace treaty. Lincoln rejected negotiations, because he claimed that the Confederacy was not a legitimate government and to make a treaty with it would recognize it as such. Lincoln instead attempted to negotiate directly with the governors of seceded states, whose administrations he continued to recognize. Complicating Lincoln's attempts to defuse
28350-484: The next several decades, the Fifth Avenue building remained Bergdorf Goodman's only location. Meanwhile, Dobbs & Co. leased the three southernmost structures, at the northwest corner of 57th Street and Fifth Avenue, that January. At the time, Dobbs planned to use four floors in all three structures; Crofut & Knapp Co. was to lease the fifth floor, while the remaining two or three floors in each structure would be leased to other stores. Dobbs & Co. combined five of
28560-412: The northern section of the building. The ground-level spaces are connected via ramps because Fifth Avenue slopes downward to the north. Above the street level, each of the storefronts' upper levels is at the same height. The interiors were built with high ceilings and few columns. Originally, the Bergdorf Goodman Building was divided into many small rooms. If the Bergdorf Goodman store had been unsuccessful,
28770-418: The northernmost section of the building, with two display windows on Fifth Avenue and four on 58th Street. By the 2020s, the Bergdorf Goodman Building was one of the relatively few stores along Fifth Avenue that still had elaborate window displays. Along the 58th Street elevation of the facade, the lowest two stories are clad in rusticated marble blocks above a granite water table . The Bergdorf Goodman store
28980-449: The northernmost storefront, while the other stores were leased to a variety of tenants, such as Dobbs & Co., Parke-Bernet , and the Tailored Woman. The Mutual Life Insurance Company took over the storefronts at a foreclosure auction in 1934. Bergdorf Goodman bought the northern half of the site the next year, followed by the southern half in 1947, and eventually expanded its store into the entire building. Major renovations took place in
29190-514: The northernmost structure, the store gradually obtained the rest of the storefronts through the 1940s. The design largely consists of French classical architectural elements, though there are also Art Deco –style motifs such as low relief ornamentation and decorative panels. The building is clad in white South Dover marble with bronze window frames, while the top of the building is within a green mansard roof . The building's white facade blended in with other structures along Grand Army Plaza, such as
29400-472: The one-price policy (so there was no haggling), simple merchandise returns and cash refund policy, selling for cash and not credit, buyers who searched worldwide for quality merchandise, departmentalization, vertical and horizontal integration, volume sales, and free services for customers such as waiting rooms and free delivery of purchases. In 1858, Rowland Hussey Macy founded Macy's as a dry goods store. Marshall Field & Company originated in 1852. It
29610-448: The onset of COVID-19 in 2020, most U.S. retailers offered a curbside pickup service as an option on their websites, and a dedicated area at one of the store entrances accessible by car. Along with discount stores, mainline department stores implemented more and more "stores-within-a-store". For luxury brands this was often in boutiques similar to the brands' own shops on streets and in malls; they hired their own employees who merchandised
29820-417: The ordinances of secession, those of Texas, Alabama, and Virginia mentioned the plight of the "slaveholding states" at the hands of Northern abolitionists. The rest made no mention of slavery but were brief announcements by the legislatures of the dissolution of ties to the Union. However, at least four—South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, and Texas —provided detailed reasons for their secession, all blaming
30030-406: The original flagship. The project was to include several new boutiques, as well as the relocation of multiple departments on the first through fourth stories, at a cost of $ 5 million. The company opened an accessories department on the building's fifth floor in 1992, and it renovated that floor in a contemporary architectural style, adding lower-priced clothing departments there. Eva Jiřičná designed
30240-508: The original mansion, while Richard Morris Hunt designed an annex to the rear on 58th Street in the 1890s. After Vanderbilt died in 1899, his widow Alice Claypoole Vanderbilt continued to own the mansion. Though Cornelius had bequeathed a life estate in the mansion to Alice, he did not bequeath the mansion itself. As such, all of Cornelius's heirs had to agree on any potential sale, and the New York Supreme Court had to approve such
30450-497: The outer two storefronts. In December 1927, the New York Building Congress gave awards to sixteen people who had worked on the buildings. Edwin Goodman announced in January 1928 that he would move into a 14-room apartment atop the northernmost structure. At the time, the store manufactured its own garments on site, and city law allowed only janitors to live above the store. To get around this restriction, Goodman assumed
30660-564: The penthouse apartment and took over Bergdorf Goodman after his father's death. Andrew Goodman announced in January 1955 that he would add the Miss Bergdorf specialty shop to the building. The work included installing two elevators, adding 15 fitting rooms, and redesigning the fifth floor in a neoclassical Regency style for $ 500,000. The Miss Bergdorf shop opened that August, being the store's first major expansion in nearly three decades, and quickly became popular. The building's hosiery department
30870-460: The radical notion of shopping for pleasure rather than necessity and its techniques were adopted by modern department stores the world over. The store was extensively promoted through paid advertising. The shop floors were structured so that goods could be made more accessible to customers. There were elegant restaurants with modest prices, a library, reading and writing rooms, special reception rooms for French, German, American and "Colonial" customers,
31080-446: The railing is a French window with a carved frame. On the second through eighth stories, the facade is divided vertically into seven bays of sash windows . The outermost bays have one window per floor, while the inner bays have three windows per floors. At the third and eighth stories, band courses run horizontally across the facade (linking all the window sills ), while on the other stories, each bay has its own window sill. There
31290-422: The rear of its store. Following World War II, the Tailored Woman announced plans to expand into the upper stories of 742 Fifth Avenue once existing tenants' leases expired. Meanwhile, Mary Lewis leased space on the second floor of number 746, relocating its women's shoe salon there in August 1947. Bergdorf Goodman acquired the structures closest to 57th Street in December 1947, giving the company full control of all
31500-480: The rear. In addition, there was a cafeteria, stock room, and hat-repair shop in the basement. After Parke-Bernet took over 742 Fifth Avenue, the first floor included a Renaissance-style exhibit gallery and a library. The second floor became a salesroom, while the third and fourth stories were exhibit galleries; all three floors had 18th-century French decorations. The Tailored Woman occupied the first three floors of 742 Fifth Avenue between 1939 and 1967. The second floor
31710-515: The renovated main floor in September 2016. The company also planned to add 25,000 square feet (2,300 m) of selling space on the eighth and ninth floors by relocating its backroom spaces and offices to the Paris Theater. Bergdorf Goodman's senior vice president Linda Fargo opened a Linda's shop on the fourth floor in 2017, and the Barrett salon in the building closed two years later. The building
31920-427: The run up to the Civil War were partisan politics , abolitionism , nullification versus secession , Southern and Northern nationalism, expansionism , economics , and modernization in the antebellum period . As a panel of historians emphasized in 2011, "while slavery and its various and multifaceted discontents were the primary cause of disunion, it was disunion itself that sparked the war." Abraham Lincoln won
32130-469: The same year. The J. Mendel fur boutique on the second floor opened in 1999. Bergdorf Goodman expanded its beauty departments into the basement that year. The support and material-handling offices in the basement were moved to a warehouse in Queens . In addition, a coat check, lounges, flower shop, and restaurant were added; the project cost $ 30 million. The beauty department, designed by Yabu Pushelberg , inspired
32340-665: The selling space, and rang up the transactions at the brand's own cash registers. The main difference was that the boutique was physically inside the department store building, although in many cases there are walls or windows between the main store space and the boutique, with designated entrances. Incomplete list, notable stores of 50,000 m (538,196 sq ft) or more. Individual department store buildings or complexes of buildings. Does not include shopping centers (e.g. GUM in Moscow, Intime "Department Stores" in China) where most space
32550-488: The seventh floor in 2010. The following year, the building added boutiques by the fashion designer Jason Wu , the fashion house Tom Ford , and Chanel. A store for the fashion house Valentino also opened within the building, and Bergdorf Goodman planned to add shops and expand the fifth-floor shoe department and children's area. Bergdorf Goodman announced in 2013 that it would renovate the structure once again as part of its five-year BG 20/20 plan. The project involved expanding
32760-465: The seventh floor. Several departments were expanded, including the couture department on the second story, Miss Bergdorf on the fifth story, and BiGi on the sixth story. The enlarged men's salon and a new entrance opened in November 1968. The BiGi department reopened the next February, and several other departments reopened later in 1969. By then, several real-estate developers had expressed interest in buying
32970-458: The shoe salon, relocating the Chanel and Celine boutiques, and expanding several of the designer boutiques, in addition to adding a designer-clothing lab and a store for the fashion label The Row to the sixth floor. The project also involved removing some partitions and separating the jewelry and leather departments on the first floor. A Dior boutique opened there in 2013, and the hair department in
33180-402: The site, the final plans called for the construction of several stores, connected via an alley. According to Kahn, the developers met weekly to discuss the construction of the buildings, but "there was still the question as to whether the development was entirely what the circumstances warranted". G. Richard Davis & Co. was hired to erect the structures. In March 1927, Bergdorf Goodman leased
33390-500: The southwest corner, and the Cornelius Vanderbilt II House on the northwest corner. By the 1900s, that section of Fifth Avenue was becoming a commercial area, and stores were also developed on 57th Street in the 1910s. Before the Bergdorf Goodman Building's construction, the site at 754 Fifth Avenue was occupied by Cornelius Vanderbilt II 's brick-and-stone mansion, which was completed in 1882. George B. Post designed
33600-568: The southwestern corner of Missouri (see Missouri secession ). Early in the war the Confederacy controlled southern Missouri through the Confederate government of Missouri but was driven out after 1862. In the resulting vacuum, the convention on secession reconvened and took power as the Unionist provisional government of Missouri. Kentucky did not secede, it declared itself neutral. When Confederate forces entered in September 1861, neutrality ended and
33810-523: The spaces could have been leased out to smaller companies. Each floor spans approximately 25,000 square feet (2,300 m) and is designed in different materials and colors. Theodore Hofstatter & Co. designed Bergdorf Goodman's original store in the Louis XV and Louis XVI styles, except for one Modern French-style salon. The interiors were designed to resemble those of wealthy customers' homes. On each story, decorations in different colors were hung from
34020-526: The stalwart island Fort Sumter. Anderson's actions catapulted him to hero status in the North. An attempt to resupply the fort on January 9, 1861, failed and nearly started the war then, but an informal truce held. On March 5, Lincoln was informed the fort was low on supplies. Fort Sumter proved a key challenge to Lincoln's administration. Back-channel dealing by Seward with the Confederates undermined Lincoln's decision-making; Seward wanted to pull out. But
34230-446: The state reaffirmed its Union status while maintaining slavery. During an invasion by Confederate forces in 1861, Confederate sympathizers and delegates from 68 Kentucky counties organized the secession Russellville Convention, formed the shadow Confederate Government of Kentucky , inaugurated a governor, and Kentucky was admitted into the Confederacy on December 10, 1861. Its jurisdiction extended only as far as Confederate battle lines in
34440-578: The store consisted of six sales floors, plus a restaurant, event space, and salon on the top three floors. On the seventh floor is the BG Restaurant, an American cuisine cafe in a green-and-blue space designed by Kelly Wearstler . In addition, there is a cafe in the basement. The southern portion of the structure at 742 Fifth Avenue originally was known as the Dobbs Building, after its original tenant, Dobbs & Co. The Dobbs store had an Italian-style entrance hall made of marble and Caen stone. The rest of
34650-465: The store had buildings on both sides of Deansgate linked by a subterranean passage "Kendals Arcade" and an art nouveau tiled food hall. The store was especially known for its emphasis on quality and style over low prices giving it the nickname "the Harrods of the North", although this was due in part to Harrods acquiring the store in 1919. Harrods of London can be traced back to 1834, though the current store
34860-430: The storefront at number 746 in July 1934, and Grande Maison's store opened that September. Mutual Life moved to foreclose on the buildings again in August 1934, saying Barclay-Arrow owed $ 6,575,000 (equivalent to $ 149,753,000 in 2023). Mutual Life bought the buildings later that month, paying $ 100,000 (equivalent to $ 2,278,000 in 2023) at a foreclosure auction. The art-glass firm Steuben Glass leased space at
35070-411: The storefront at number 746, the dressmaker Mary Lewis leased space at that address in February 1944 and opened a six-story shop there that April. The Mary Lewis store's bright-yellow front door, designed by Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill , elicited complaints from other business owners, since it clashed with the building's overall design. Mary Lewis expanded its space the next year, adding a shoe shop at
35280-403: The storefronts into a single store. The Bergdorf Goodman Building's four southernmost structures were thus originally known as the Dobbs Building. The Dobbs store opened on October 16, 1928. Multiple retailers negotiated for space in the remaining structures on the Vanderbilt site. The development of the Bergdorf Goodman Building contributed to the growth of 57th Street as a retail corridor. After
35490-456: The storefronts. At the time, the Tailored Women, Mary Lewis, and Van Cleef & Arpels rented the other storefronts. 754 Fifth Avenue Inc., acting on behalf of Bergdorf Goodman, acquired the southernmost structures in February 1948. Subsequently, 754 Fifth Avenue Inc. sued the Tailored Woman for unpaid rent; the Tailored Woman, in turn, claimed the owner was hurting business by interfering with
35700-706: The structure at the southwest corner of 58th Street and Fifth Avenue from Frederick Brown. Bergdorf Goodman was to pay Brown $ 187,500 a year until 1949. Bergdorf Goodman offered to buy the rest of the Vanderbilt site outright, but Brown rejected the offer. Brown submitted plans for the first building to the New York City Department of Buildings later that March, and the plans for the other stores were filed that April. The plans called for an arcade extending between 57th and 58th streets, as well as seven storefronts measuring between 22 and 40 feet (6.7 and 12.2 m) wide. The central five storefronts were to be shorter than
35910-452: The substitute provision to select which man should go into the army and which should stay home. There was much evasion and resistance to the draft, especially in Catholic areas. The New York City draft riots in July 1863 involved Irish immigrants who had been signed up as citizens to swell the vote of the city's Democratic political machine , not realizing it made them liable for the draft. Of
36120-451: The thousands that never tried. European merchant ships could not get insurance and were too slow to evade the blockade, so they stopped calling at Confederate ports. To fight an offensive war, the Confederacy purchased arms in Britain and converted British-built ships into commerce raiders . The smuggling of 600,000 arms enabled the Confederacy to fight on for two more years, and the commerce raiders targeted U.S. Merchant Marine ships in
36330-428: The time, the store occupied 141,000 square feet (13,100 m), and its annual sales amounted to about $ 1,000 per square foot ($ 11,000/m). The relocation of the men's department would allow the women's departments in the original building to be renovated. The cosmetics department in the original building was expanded in June 1990. After the new men's store opened that August, Bergdorf Goodman announced plans to renovate
36540-452: The title of "janitor", leading to him being called "New York's wealthiest janitor". The Bergdorf Goodman store in the northernmost structure opened to the public in early March 1928, being the first structure to open. When the store buildings were completed, there were concerns that the stores would not receive much traffic. However, within two months of the new store's opening, Bergdorf Goodman reported that its business had increased by 60%. For
36750-528: The upper floors of number 746. The Tailored Woman opened a "markdown room" within its portion of the building in April 1951, and it subleased the seventh floor of number 742 to the perfumer Chanel Inc. the next year. During the early 1950s, Bergdorf Goodman also renovated its portion of the building as part of a five-year program. Workers relocated the elevators, installed an air-conditioning system, relocated various departments, and added several new departments. Edwin Goodman died in 1953. His son Andrew moved into
36960-430: The war created jobs for arms makers, ironworkers, and ships to transport weapons. Lincoln's administration initially struggled to appeal to European public opinion. At first, diplomats explained that the U.S. was not committed to ending slavery and emphasized legal arguments about the unconstitutionality of secession. Confederate representatives, however, focused on their struggle for liberty, commitment to free trade, and
37170-478: The war due to multiple factors: severe food shortages, failing railroads, loss of control over key rivers, foraging by Northern armies, and the seizure of animals and crops by Confederate forces. Historians agree the blockade was a major factor in ruining the Confederate economy; however, Wise argues blockade runners provided enough of a lifeline to allow Lee to continue fighting for additional months, thanks to supplies like 400,000 rifles, lead, blankets, and boots that
37380-579: The war. In December 1860, the Crittenden Compromise was proposed to re-establish the Missouri Compromise line, by constitutionally banning slavery in territories to the north of it, while permitting it to the south. The Compromise would likely have prevented secession, but Lincoln and the Republicans rejected it. Lincoln stated that any compromise that would extend slavery would bring down
37590-436: The winter of 1860–1861. Nationalists in the North and "Unionists" in the South refused to accept the declarations of secession. No foreign government ever recognized the Confederacy. The U.S. government, under President James Buchanan , refused to relinquish its forts that were in territory claimed by the Confederacy. According to Lincoln, the American people had shown they had been successful in establishing and administering
37800-474: The world" within a few years. Some European observers at the time dismissed them as amateur and unprofessional, but historian John Keegan concluded that each outmatched the French, Prussian, and Russian armies, and without the Atlantic, could have threatened any of them with defeat. Unionism was strong in certain areas within the Confederacy. As many as 100,000 men living in states under Confederate control served in
38010-425: The years, the building has contained numerous smaller shops and boutiques as well. The Bergdorf Goodman Building is a New York City designated landmark . The site was occupied by the Cornelius Vanderbilt II House from 1882 to 1927. The real-estate developer Frederick Brown bought the site in 1926 and hired Buchman & Kahn to design several store structures on the site. Originally, Bergdorf Goodman leased out only
38220-405: The years, with a facade made of marble. Much of the first story consists of display windows, and there is a service entrance as well. There is an arched entrance along 57th Street, designed in a similar manner to the 58th Street entrance. The archway is made of Alabama white marble, with elaborate carvings, and is topped by illuminated letters spelling out "Bergdorf Goodman". Above the ground story,
38430-449: The years. The building's former tenants also designed their respective spaces in various styles, and there are multiple smaller shops and salons throughout the structure. The Bergdorf Goodman Building is at 754 Fifth Avenue, on the west side of Fifth Avenue between 57th and 58th streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The land lot is approximately rectangular, covering 26,100 square feet (2,420 m). It has
38640-481: Was a civil war in the United States between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union. The central conflict leading to war was a dispute over whether slavery should be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states , or be prohibited from doing so, which many believed would place slavery on
38850-426: Was also converted into salons in the late 1990s. The building also displayed artists' work during the late 20th century. When the basement was converted into a beauty department in 1999, a hole was cut through the basement's ceiling to entice customers, though the hole was infilled in 2008. In the 21st century, the building's lower stories were generally designed in a more formal style than the upper stories. Following
39060-556: Was built between 1894 and 1905. Opened in 1830, Austins in Derry remained in operation as the world's oldest independent department store until its closure in 2016. Lewis's of Liverpool operated from 1856 to 2010. The world's first Christmas grotto opened in Lewis's in 1879, entitled 'Christmas Fairyland'. Liberty & Co. in London's West End gained popularity in the 1870s for selling Oriental goods. In 1889, Oscar Wilde wrote "Liberty's
39270-628: Was closed down in 1820 when the business partnership was dissolved. All the major High Streets in British cities had flourishing department stores by the mid-or late nineteenth century. Increasingly, women became the main customers. Kendals (formerly Kendal Milne & Faulkner) in Manchester lays claim to being one of the first department stores and is still known to many of its customers as Kendal's, despite its 2005 name change to House of Fraser . The Manchester institution dates back to 1836 but had been trading as Watts Bazaar since 1796. At its zenith
39480-470: Was expanded the same year. Bergdorf Goodman announced in March 1959 that it would add 21,000 square feet (2,000 m) by infilling an interior courtyard, leasing back the eighth floor of 742 Fifth Avenue from the Tailored Woman, and leasing the sixth floor of the Paris Theatre. This would provide space for an expansion of the beauty salon and bridal, corset, fur, men's, and shoe departments, in addition to
39690-528: Was famous for his marketing innovations; a reading room for husbands while their wives shopped; extensive newspaper advertising; entertainment for children; and six million catalogs sent out to customers. By 1880 half the employees were women; unmarried women employees lived in dormitories on the upper floors. Au Bon Marché soon had half a dozen or more competitors including Printemps , founded in 1865; La Samaritaine (1869), Bazar de Hotel de Ville ( BHV ); and Galeries Lafayette (1895). The French gloried in
39900-462: Was founded in 1900. Arnold Constable was the first American department store. It was founded in 1825 as a small dry goods store on Pine Street in New York City. In 1857 the store moved into a five-story white marble dry goods palace known as the Marble House. During the Civil War, Arnold Constable was one of the first stores to issue charge bills of credit to its customers each month instead of on
40110-408: Was high because many soldiers were more concerned about the fate of their local area than the Southern cause. In the North, " bounty jumpers " enlisted to collect the generous bonus, deserted, then re-enlisted under a different name for a second bonus; 141 were caught and executed. From a tiny frontier force in 1860, the Union and Confederate armies grew into the "largest and most efficient armies in
40320-534: Was inadequate by the time it opened. Meanwhile, Alice Vanderbilt asked the New York Supreme Court for permission to sell the mansion in 1925, citing the neighborhood's redevelopment, and the court granted her request the same year. The real-estate developer G. Maurice Heckscher initially wanted to build a high-rise hotel on the Vanderbilt Mansion's site. A rival developer, Frederick Brown, instead bought
40530-454: Was little space for the store to physically expand. The cost of the renovation was estimated at $ 75 million. The renovation of the first and second stories was finished in 2003, and the Cummings boutique in the building closed that year. The Bergdorf Goodman Building underwent additional renovations in the mid-2000s. These included a new seventh-floor restaurant, a rebuilt sportswear department on
40740-405: Was made of bullion lost from mints. He stated that it would be US policy "to collect the duties and imposts"; "there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere" that would justify an armed revolution. His speech closed with a plea for restoration of the bonds of union, famously calling on "the mystic chords of memory" binding the two regions. The Davis government of
40950-566: Was marked by intense and frequent battles. Over four years, 237 named battles were fought, along with many smaller actions, often characterized by their bitter intensity and high casualties. Historian John Keegan described it as "one of the most ferocious wars ever fought," where, in many cases, the only target was the enemy's soldiers. As the Confederate states organized, the U.S. Army numbered 16,000, while Northern governors began mobilizing their militias. The Confederate Congress authorized up to 100,000 troops in February. By May, Jefferson Davis
41160-505: Was not successful, and with the ironclad CSS Virginia , rebuilt from the sunken Union ship Merrimack . On March 8, 1862, Virginia inflicted significant damage on the Union's wooden fleet, but the next day, the first Union ironclad, USS Monitor , arrived to challenge it in the Chesapeake Bay . The resulting three-hour Battle of Hampton Roads was a draw, proving ironclads were effective warships. The Confederacy scuttled
41370-470: Was once part of the common lands of the city of New York. The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 established Manhattan's street grid with lots measuring 100 feet (30 m) deep and 25 feet (7.6 m) wide. Upscale residences were constructed around Fifth Avenue following the American Civil War . These included two residences on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street: a mansion belonging to Frederic W. Stevens at
41580-567: Was opened on 24 May 1838, by Welsh born immigrant David Jones in a "large and commodious premises" on the corner of George and Barrack Streets in Sydney , only 50 years after the foundation of the colony. Expanding to a number of stores in the various states of Australia, David Jones is the oldest continuously operating department franchise in the world. Other department stores in Australia include Grace Bros founded in 1885, now merged with Myer which
41790-411: Was originally accessed via two bronze doorways from the north wing. The arched entrance on 58th Street was built with curved glass-panels, and the doorway was enlarged during a 2003 renovation. The modern-day archway has a green marble frame with a revolving door surrounded by curved sidelights . There is a marble balcony directly above the archway, with brackets supporting a wrought iron railing. Behind
42000-460: Was pushing for another 100,000 soldiers for one year or the duration, and the U.S. Congress responded in kind. In the first year of the war, both sides had more volunteers than they could effectively train and equip. After the initial enthusiasm faded, relying on young men who came of age each year was not enough. Both sides enacted draft laws (conscription) to encourage or force volunteering, though relatively few were drafted. The Confederacy passed
42210-441: Was repainted green, while the third floor was repainted blue. When Mary Lewis Inc. leased 746 Fifth Avenue in 1944, the store had six dressing rooms on that building's first story, various departments on the second to fifth floors, and offices on the sixth floor. The basement of number 746 had receiving and shipping departments, and there was a roof garden. When the building was completed, Architecture and Building magazine wrote of
42420-763: Was sworn in as president. In his inaugural address , he argued that the Constitution was a more perfect union than the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union , was a binding contract, and called secession "legally void". He did not intend to invade Southern states, nor to end slavery where it existed, but he said he would use force to maintain possession of federal property, including forts, arsenals, mints, and customhouses that had been seized. The government would not try to recover post offices, and if resisted, mail delivery would end at state lines. Where conditions did not allow peaceful enforcement of federal law, US marshals and judges would be withdrawn. No mention
42630-450: Was temporarily closed in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City , and it reopened for limited service after three months. The Palette cafe in the basement was renovated by Kit Kemp in 2021, and Maison Schiaparelli opened a boutique on the fourth floor that year. In addition, a beauty salon known as Salon Yoshiko opened on the ninth floor in 2022, though it closed down after
42840-585: Was the United States' first "modern" department store in Philadelphia : the first to offer fixed prices marked on every article and also introduced electrical illumination (1878), the telephone (1879), and the use of pneumatic tubes to transport cash and documents (1880) to the department store business. Another store to revolutionize the concept of the department store was Selfridges in London, established in 1909 by American-born Harry Gordon Selfridge on Oxford Street . The company's innovative marketing promoted
43050-486: Was the first shopping center anchored by a department store. In the 1950s, suburban growth took off – for example, in 1952, May Company California opened a four-level, 346,700-square-foot (32,210 m ) store in Lakewood Center near Los Angeles, at the time, the largest suburban department store in the world. However, only three years later it would build an even bigger, 452,000-square-foot (42,000 m ) store in
43260-505: Was the first to fly over the English Channel ), and the first public demonstration of television by John Logie Baird took place in the department store in 1925. In Japan , the first "modern-style" department store was Mitsukoshi , founded in 1904, which has its root as a kimono store called Echigoya from 1673. When the roots are considered, however, Matsuzakaya has an even longer history, dated from 1611. The kimono store changed to
43470-594: Was the first to introduce the concept of the personal shopper, and that service was provided without charge in every Field's store, until the chain's last days under the Marshall Field's name. It was the first store to offer revolving credit and the first department store to use escalators . Marshall Field's book department in the State Street store was legendary; it pioneered the concept of the "book signing". Moreover, every year at Christmas, Marshall Field's downtown store windows were filled with animated displays as part of
43680-533: Was the premier department store on the busiest shopping street in the Midwest at the time, State Street in Chicago. Marshall Field's served as a model for other department stores in that it had exceptional customer service. Marshall Field's also had the firsts; among many innovations by Marshall Field's were the first European buying office, which was located in Manchester, England, and the first bridal registry. The company
43890-439: Was the principal cause of the secession, a view disproven by historical evidence, notably some of the seceding states' own secession documents . After leaving the Union, Mississippi issued a declaration stating, "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world." The principal political battle leading to Southern secession was over whether slavery would expand into
44100-525: Was too late. " King Cotton " was dead, as the South could export less than 10% of its cotton. The blockade shut down the ten Confederate seaports with railheads that moved almost all the cotton. By June 1861, warships were stationed off the principal Southern ports, and a year later nearly 300 ships were in service. The Confederates began the war short on military supplies, which the agrarian South could not produce. Northern arms manufacturers were restricted by an embargo, ending existing and future contracts with
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