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Commerce and Retail

14th Street, especially in and around Union Square, has always been an important hub for retail. As early as 1858 the first department store, Macy’s, appeared on 14th Street and Sixth Avenue followed by high-end retail stores such as Tiffany’s in 1867, Brentano’s in 1870 and G. Schirmer’s in 1880 (Figure 12).

History Figure 12

12. Street scene, c. 1900.

History Figure 13

13. G. Schirmer, 1898.

History Figure 14

14. 14th Street Store, c. 1905.

By 1880 14th Street was peppered with many types of retail including toy, clothing, and music stores. Silver was another important commodity on 14th Street and Union Square and Tiffany & Co. was at the forefront of this trade. It was also the first company to commission a building on Union Square specifically for its own use. Before Tiffany’s building was constructed, many businesses simply rented and used the existing rowhouses, transforming them to suit their needs. However, when other high-end retail stores moved on to Union Square, such as G. Schirmer, they commissioned their own buildings as well, few of which survive today (Figure 13).

At the same time that the high-end retail moved into the area, so did the department stores such as James Hearn & Sons (1879) located on the south side of 14th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, and Henry Siegel’s 14th Street Store (1903) located on the corner of Sixth Avenue and 14th Street (Figure 14). These department stores were a novelty, not just for 14th Street, but for the entire city. For the first time many different types of goods were sold in the same place. While 14th Street was not the first place in which the department store appeared in the United States, it did have many innovative department stores selling all types of goods and services. For instance, the 14th Street Store was reported to sell wild, exotic, and even controversial goods and commodities such as servants among other such goods. Nevertheless, the stores on 14th Street were located conveniently because 14th Street was made very accessible due to the service of the elevated train on Sixth Avenue, as well as the 14th Street Trolley. The large department stores, unlike the high-end stores, could not simply re-use one rowhouse to suit their needs. Highend retail stores tend to specialize in the selling of one product. Therefore, they do not need as much space as a department store which specializes in the sale of many different products. Instead they had to accommodate their variety of products and to advertise them with large open spaces and large windows for display. Cast iron became the material of choice for many department store owners, especially on 14th Street, because it allowed for large windows and uninterrupted spaces in which to browse the goods of the store (Figure 15).

History Figure 15

15. Rothenberg & Co., with cast iron storefront, c. 1900.

History Figure 16

16. Ohrbach's, c. 1930.

History Figure 17

17. DSW and Wholefoods, 2006.

History Figure 18

18. (Former) Mechanics & Metals Bank, 2006.

Since the more affluent population of the city continued to move northward, the high-end retail and even some department stores followed and relocated further up Fifth Avenue and Broadway. Tiffany’s finally left Union Square in 1905 for a site further north on Fifth Avenue at 37th Street. The last of the high-end retail, Decker Brothers piano dealers and music publisher G. Schirmer, had finally left Union Square by 1913. By the end of the nineteenth century, like the high-end retail stores, the high-end department stores left 14th Street for more trendy locations further north.

However, 14th Street did not die as a hub for retail. The department stores and high-end retail were replaced by bargain department stores, such as Klein’s in 1906, Ohrbach’s in 1923 (Figure 16) and by smaller shops selling low cost goods. These bargain department stores remained in the area of 14th Street and Union Square until the 1960s. By then, 14th Street had already gained the reputation of a bargain district. After the 1960s, the dominant retail store type tended to be the smaller shops selling low cost and often specialized and ethnic goods. In the 1980s a Business Improvement District was created on 14th Street and Union Square. Largely due to the efforts of the Business Improvement District more chain stores entered the area again such as Babies-R-Us, Staples and DSW (Figure 17). Some small scale local businesses and specialty stores still remain on 14th Street adding to the character of the street.

In addition to the influx of retail onto 14th Street and Union Square, other commercial entities followed. Banks appeared on 14th Street almost immediately after the first of the high-end retail stores were established. The first purpose-built bank constructed on 14th Street was the New York Bank for Savings, which still stands on the northwest corner of 14th Street and Eighth Avenue. 14th Street was an ideal place for banks such as the one just mentioned at the time it was built because 14th Street was a major east-west thoroughfare that linked a major shopping district to the industrial areas on the far west of the street.

In the 1920s the speculative bank and office buildings began to emerge on 14th Street. The Mechanics and Metals Bank was the first of these to commission a building not just the use of the bank, but also for offices (Figure 18). At about the same time other office buildings, like theConsolidated Gas Company Building in 1929 and the architect Emery Roth’s office building at 50 East 14th Street also in 1929, were being constructed. All of which helped to create the bustling commercial district that still exists on 14th Street and Union Square today.