Gimbels Building (Manhattan Mall)
100 West 33rd Street | also 1275 Broadway, 901 Avenue of the Americas | Midtown South | built 1911
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1909
The Times reports that a giant Gimbels store will serve as the McAdoo tunnels' terminal
On January 30, 1909, The New York Times announced that the Gimbel brothers' planned Manhattan store would also be the terminal of the McAdoo tunnel system, then expected to connect with the Pennsylvania, Central of New Jersey, Erie and Lackawanna railroads. The family leased the land for 105 years and hired Daniel Burnham, who planned a building with 27 acres of floor space, 2,406 support columns and 50 elevators.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1910
Gimbels finishes its $12 million store ahead of schedule, with a Subway Store underground
The Gimbel brothers finished their Sixth Avenue store on June 11, 1910, ahead of schedule, at a cost of $12 million including the land. Because the building sat directly above the subway, they fitted out a double-height Subway Store beneath street level, meant to make basement shopping as stylish as the upper floors. A station of the Sixth Avenue Elevated also stood outside the doors.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1921
A mother leaves her month-old baby in Gimbels' nursery and has not returned by closing time
The store ran a nursery where mothers could leave children while they shopped. At 2:30 p.m. on September 10, 1921, a young woman in a black silk dress handed her one-month-old daughter to the attendant, Stella Ellis, saying she would come back later. When Gimbels closed that evening the baby was still there, and a policeman took the child to Bellevue Hospital.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1925
Gimbels buys the Cuyler Building and links it to the store with a copper-clad sky bridge
In October 1925 Gimbel Brothers bought the 18-story Cuyler Building at 120 to 126 West 32nd Street, saying its growth had made the space necessary. To connect it with the main store, the architects Richard H. Shreve and William F. Lamb designed a three-story Art Deco bridge clad in copper. Sealed up long ago, the span still hangs high above the street as one of the few reminders of Gimbels.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1935
Gimbels turns its sixth floor into a replica of P. T. Barnum's museum
In November 1935, deep in the Depression, Gimbels converted its sixth floor into a copy of the old Barnum Museum. Admission was 15 cents for adults and a dime for children, who came to see about 60 life-sized figures, among them Tom Thumb, Jumbo the elephant, the Fejee Mermaid and a papier-mache Jenny Lind, along with the Cardiff Giant in his coffin and a white whale that spouted when someone pushed a hidden button.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1937
Amelia Earhart tells 500 people in Gimbels' restaurant she will try the Equator flight again
On April 24, 1937, the aviator Amelia Earhart addressed about 500 people in the restaurant of the Gimbels department store. The New York Times singled out one remark: she planned to attempt her round-the-world flight along the Equator again some time around the middle of May.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1955
Bernard Gimbel walks into Macy's and the two rivals post signs sending shoppers to each other
On December 8, 1955, Bernard F. Gimbel visited the office of Macy's president, Jack I. Straus, with an unexpected holiday marketing idea. Soon a sign outside each store pointed shoppers toward the other, a stunt tied to the Miracle on 34th Street. Three years later the film Auntie Mame had Rosalind Russell's Mame tell frustrated customers to go to Gimbels.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1989
The old Gimbels building reopens as the A&S Plaza mall
Gimbels closed in 1986, and the building reopened in 1989 as A&S Plaza, a mall anchored by an Abraham & Straus department store. The mall was 13 stories high, but awkward access to its upper floors made it a financial failure. By 1995 the store had become Stern's and the building was renamed Manhattan Mall.
“After a renovation, the structure reopened in 1989 as A&S Plaza, anchored by an A&S department store.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2006
Vornado reveals a $689 million deal for the Manhattan Mall
On November 28, 2006, Vornado Realty Trust disclosed a $689 million deal to buy the Manhattan Mall from Argent Ventures. The building held about 164,000 square feet of retail and 812,000 square feet of offices leased mostly to Bank of America and Interpublic Group. The sale also included 250,000 square feet of air rights that Vornado was eyeing for its redevelopment of the adjacent Hotel Pennsylvania.
Source: nypost.com
Further reading
- 100 West 33rd StreetWikipedia
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