Lord & Taylor Building
424 5th Avenue | also 2 West 39th Street, 7 West 38th Street, 8 West 39th Street | Midtown | built 1920
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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.
- 1912
Lord & Taylor leases a large Fifth Avenue lot that wraps around a holdout corner
In late 1912 Lord & Taylor announced a lease with brothers Frank V. and John Howes Burton for a sizable lot on Fifth Avenue's west side between 38th and 39th Streets, 260 feet long along 38th Street. The lot curved around a corner parcel and building at Fifth Avenue and West 39th Street whose owner had not sold. Starrett & Van Vleck filed plans in February 1913.
- 1914
The new flagship keeps deliveries off the street and lowers window displays into the basement
The Fifth Avenue building was packed with new retail machinery. A sloping drive between 38th and 39th Streets reached the receiving and delivery departments, so trucks did not load on the street, and window displays were swapped by lowering them to the basement on tracks. Dumbwaiters and conveyors carried parcels to a wrapping desk. The tenth floor held four restaurants, and the seventh floor had a concert hall with a built-in pipe organ.
- 1914
Lord & Taylor opens its Fifth Avenue flagship store
Starrett & Van Vleck designed an Italian Renaissance Revival building for Lord & Taylor at Fifth Avenue and 39th Street, replacing the retailer's earlier home in the Ladies' Mile district. The store opened on February 24, 1914, and served as Lord & Taylor's flagship for more than a century.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1928
Dorothy Shaver stages a French modern design exposition with paintings by Picasso
In 1928 Dorothy Shaver staged a French modern decorative art exposition at Lord & Taylor, an offshoot of the Paris exposition of modern decorative and industrial arts. Alongside furniture and housewares it hung paintings, among them works by Picasso, Utrillo and Derain. Shaver had set up the store's interior decorating service in 1922.
“In 1928, Shaver mounted the Exposition of Modern French Decorative Art at Lord & Taylor…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1938
A blizzard window display in warm weather sparks a dispute with the Fifth Avenue Association
In an unusually warm November 1938, Lord & Taylor filled a window with a blizzard scene that showed no merchandise, only a sign warning that winter would arrive sooner or later. The Fifth Avenue Association disputed it, apparently on the grounds that it went against a ban on cheap trinket shops. The store took the displays down and later put them back up.
“…the company was involved in a dispute with the Fifth Avenue Association over a window display that did not display any merchandise…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1945
Dorothy Shaver becomes the first woman president of a major retail store
Dorothy Shaver was elected president of Lord & Taylor in 1945, the first woman to hold that post at a major store. She had come in 1921 promoting her sister's rag dolls, and joined full-time in 1924. She went on to back American designers such as Claire McCardell and Bonnie Cashin and to introduce junior, petite, bridal and maternity departments.
“Miss Shaver, a native of Arkansas, was the first woman to serve as the president of a major retail store when she was elected to that position in 1945…”
- 1976
A mirrored-glass remodel changes the main floor and four upper floors
In 1976, under chairman Joseph E. Brooks, the main selling floor and four upper floors were remodeled to designs by R. J. Pavlik of Fort Lauderdale. Mirrored glass covered the columns and walls, and travertine sales counters replaced wooden ones. The basic architecture of the main floor was left alone.
“…covered the columns and walls with mirrored glass and replaced the wooden sales counters with travertine…”
- 1979
The store starts playing the national anthem every morning before opening
Beginning in 1979, during the Iran hostage crisis, Lord & Taylor played The Star-Spangled Banner each morning before the Fifth Avenue store opened. The company's chairman at the time wanted to send a message that the United States was the greatest country in the world, and the ritual became a store tradition.
“Starting in 1979 during the Iran hostage crisis, the store played The Star-Spangled Banner (the U.S. national anthem) each morning before opening.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1986
The store leases the neighboring Dreicer Building and expands into it
Associated Dry Goods, the parent of Lord & Taylor, leased in 1986 the whole building where Fifth Avenue meets West 39th Street, long known as the Dreicer Building, which the store's lot wraps around. The store soon grew into the space. That same year the May Department Stores Company bought Associated Dry Goods.
“…signed a lease for the use of the entire building on the corner of West 39 th Street known for many years as the Dreicer Building and soon expanded the store…”
- 2007
The city designates the Lord & Taylor building a landmark
New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Starrett & Van Vleck building a city landmark on October 30, 2007, listing it as landmark number 2271 in recognition of its department-store architecture on Fifth Avenue.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2020
Amazon buys the former Lord & Taylor flagship for offices
After WeWork acquired the building in a joint venture for about $850 million in February 2019, Amazon purchased it a year later for roughly $978 million. Amazon opened offices in the building in mid-2023, eventually housing as many as 2,000 employees there.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2023
Amazon employees begin moving into the former department store
Amazon staff started relocating into the building in mid-2023 after extensive renovations, and the company formally opened its offices there that September. It nicknamed the building Hank, after a unit of yarn, and planned to have 2,000 employees working there by the following year, in advertising, music, video and fashion teams.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Lord & Taylor BuildingWikipedia
- The 1898 Dreicer Building - Nos 436-468 5th AvenueDaytonian in Manhattan
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