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

HIEF among the interesting features of the Fifth Floor are the Executive Offices, consisting of the President's Room, the Board Room and an anteroom or reception office. This suite of offices is unique in that it presents to the gaze of the visitor, in facsimile, the interiors of three of the most impressive rooms in Mr. Altman's Fifth Avenue home. From that wonderful art repository, now dismantled, has been brought the carved woodwork which conceals the walls of what may truthfully be termed one of the most beautiful and most remarkable office suites in the world. The room reserved for the President, Mr. Friedsam, is Mr. Altman's library in duplicate, and contains, among many objects of interest, his desk and other library furniture; his dining-room has been as faithfully reproduced in the Board Room; and the anteroom is a replica of his famous Renaissance room.

The Writing and Rest Room for women patrons of the store is also located on this floor, in the Madison Avenue addition. The reposeful atmosphere of the room--accentuated by the carefully modulated light, the softly carpeted floor, the comfortable chairs, the graceful writing tables, with their supplies of engraved stationery--has been attained only after thoughtful consideration of the most insistent needs of the tired shopper. The walls of this room are paneled in mahogany; the mahogany furniture is in the Adam style. The upholsterings are of rich blue velvet, harmonizing with the blue of the carpet. Adjoining this room is a smaller one, for the use of patrons who may be indisposed, or of mothers with infants. Within easy reach are the telephone booths, the Bureau of Information and the General Offices.

The Rug Department, occupying some seventy thousand square feet of floor space and admittedly the largest department of its kind in America, is the only retail sales department on the Fifth Floor. It occupies virtually all of the space on this floor in the main building, and carries a stock of individually selected rugs the retail value of which, estimated collectively, approximates two and one-half million dollars. The most ingenious methods are employed in the displaying of the rugs, even the supporting columns being impressed into the decorative scheme; while the entire floor is flooded with mellow light afforded by a system of indirect illumination, installed especially for the purpose of revealing the true color values in the selection of rugs.

The Oriental Rug section, in particular, merits the visitor's keenest attention. Within the enclosure designated as the Antique Room, which is reserved for the display of choice rugs, are several rare antique specimens, fully authenticated, which are well calculated to make a direct appeal to the connoisseur. Some of these have been honored by the special notice of that distinguished authority, Professor Bode; while others enjoy the distinction of having been reproduced in the Martin Book.

One section of this department is set apart for Oriental rugs of unusually large sizes; another is reserved for Chinese rugs; and a most interesting branch is the repair section, which maintains at all seasons a staff of Orientals expert in the making and repairing of valuable rugs.

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