B. Altman & Company Department Store

188 Madison Avenue | also 19 East 34th Street, 355 5th Avenue | Midtown South | built 1913

Open on the map9 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1905

    B. Altman's move to 34th Street sets off a rush of department stores onto middle Fifth Avenue

    Once Benjamin Altman secured the first part of his site at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, one journalist wrote that his was the first major general store to head into middle Fifth Avenue. Real Estate Record and Guide called it inevitable that competitors would follow, and within a month it reported furious real estate speculation in the surrounding blocks. Within a few years Bergdorf-Goodman, Arnold Constable, Best & Company and W. & J. Sloan had all set up shop on the avenue again.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1906

    October 15

    B. Altman opens its limestone store on Fifth Avenue, diagonally across from the Waldorf-Astoria

    Leaving his Sixth Avenue store on the Ladies' Mile, Benjamin Altman opened a new department store at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street on October 15, 1906. Trowbridge & Livingston clad it in French limestone, and The New York Times judged that it added to the beauty of Fifth Avenue. Customers got a fourth-floor waiting room with writing desks, telephone booths and mahogany woodwork.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1910

    October 8

    Altman buys the last Madison Avenue plot and plans an employees' floor in the extension

    On October 8, 1910, the Record and Guide reported that Benjamin Altman had acquired the final parcel on the Madison Avenue side of his block, which let him enlarge the store. The extension was planned to cost about $1 million, and much of its upper space went to staff. The twelfth floor was set aside as an employees' home with lunchrooms, a cafeteria and a medical suite with two wards of seven beds, and the eleventh floor held a recreation room.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1913

    October 7

    Benjamin Altman dies, and the store halts sales and locks its doors mid-afternoon

    Benjamin Altman died on October 7, 1913, at his mansion at 626 Fifth Avenue, aged 72. When a messenger brought word to the store shortly after 3 p.m., managers went from counter to counter telling clerks to stop selling, and customers were shown out before the doors were locked. His funeral was held at Temple Emanu-El that Friday, and the store stayed closed through the following day.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1913

    October 15

    Altman's will hands the store to a foundation and rewards every employee

    When Altman's will was made public on October 15, 1913, it created the Altman Foundation, funded with his shares in the company, to manage the store so that his principles continued. His lawyer John L. Cadwalader said the foundation would always hold the voting majority. Altman left $10,000 to each of his two secretaries and set payments for long-serving staff, with the checks to employees totaling more than $1 million.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1913

    Trowbridge & Livingston's Madison Avenue wing rises four stories above the Fifth Avenue store

    The last extension, carrying the store through to Madison Avenue, was designed by the same architects as the Fifth Avenue building but rises four stories higher and differs somewhat in style. Its lower stories continue many of the 1905 design motifs, treated more elaborately. It was the final piece of a store that was built in stages over several years.

    “…the final extension of the building to Madison Avenue, while also designed by Trowbridge & Livingston and built in 1913, is four stories taller…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  7. 1914

    August 15

    A bus passenger is killed when her hair catches on Altman's 35th Street canopy

    On August 15, 1914, an open-top bus detoured onto East 35th Street and swerved to avoid a car, tilting toward the bronze canopy over Altman's entrance. Hannah Van Dusen, 85, riding on the upper deck with her daughter, had her hair caught in the canopy, was lifted from her seat and fell to the sidewalk, where she died. Officials reenacted the accident and found the canopy's hanging knobs would strike the bus's top railing, though the law called for 13 feet of clearance.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  8. 1989

    November

    B. Altman holds its final sale and closes, ending 83 years on Fifth Avenue

    In November 1989 the store held its last sale, and so many people came that management stopped the escalators to keep the crowds in check. The 880,000-square-foot building was bought by KMO-361 Realty, which planned a New York Resource Center plus a branch of the New York Public Library. The conversion was handled by the architects Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates and Emery Roth & Sons.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  9. 1996

    The New York Public Library's Science, Industry and Business Library opens inside the old Altman store

    The branch was created in 1996, when the library moved its science and business holdings and related collections out of its Main Building into the former B. Altman store. Its entrance faced Madison Avenue, in the block between East 34th and 35th Streets, and it filled two levels, street level and one below ground. In 2016 the library announced the branch would close once the Mid-Manhattan Library renovation was done, and that library's business center took over its collection.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 20 buildings with stories in Midtown South