Science, Industry and Business Library > B. Altman & Co.

HE opening of the Fifth Avenue store of B. Altman & Co. marked an important epoch in the mercantile history of New York. The aristocratic avenue, so long sacred to the resident wealth and fashion of America's metropolis, had for some time been gradually yielding -- with more or less gentle protest -- to the encroachments of business; now it gracefully capitulated. The high-class dry goods store, with its beautiful architecture, its allure of attractive merchandise, its fashionable clientele, brought about a transformation that was at once decisive, brilliant and complete.

But Mr. Altman's ideal had not yet been attained. The store he planned was still larger, still more commodious; a store in which shopping was to become a pleasure instead of a task; a store in which the patron's needs were not merely to be supplied, but anticipated; a store in which the personal comfort, not of patrons only, but of employees also, was to receive the most thoughtful consideration. It was to be a store of infinite resources; equipped with every device calculated to contribute to the greatest efficiency of service; in brief, a store of the highest modern order.

With these aims in view, the twelve-story addition on Madison Avenue has been erected. With its completion, the store of B. Altman & Co. becomes not only one of the largest dry goods establishments in the world, but also one of the most completely equipped. It now occupies an entire city block, extending east from Fifth Avenue to Madison Avenue, and north from Thirty-fourth Street to Thirty-fifth Street. Within this immense building every modern improvement known to architectural and engineering science is in active operation, rendering it technically perfect as to light, heat, ventilation and distribution of floor space.

The new addition, like the original building, follows in detail the dignified style of the Italian Renaissance, complete harmony of design and character being preserved throughout. French limestone, quarried and imported especially for the purpose, has been used in constructing the entire building (the Madison Avenue front alone excepted) up to and including the eighth floor, the remaining four floors (of the superstructure) being of white glazed brick. On the side fronting Madison Avenue the central elevation is of white brick above the second floor, the corner pavilions at each side being of French limestone to the eighth floor. Large display windows lend distinction to the Madison Avenue corners at Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth Streets; and a spacious vestibule, with marquise extending over the sidewalk to the curb, forms a stately and impressive entrance, especially convenient for patrons arriving in carriages and private motors.

A very commodious carriage entrance, with enclosed portico for the shelter of patrons awaiting their vehicles, is located on Thirty-fifth Street.

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