New York City's Ladies' Mile Historic District

About this book

Before Fifth Avenue gained its glitz, the women of Gilded Age New York dominated Ladies' Mile. Drawing on her years of experience researching and writing about forgotten women and pieces of business history, award-winning author Stephanie Forshee pulls from historic photographs and her personal collection of retail memorabilia to give readers a glimpse of what life and the retail scene looked like during this iconic period. The heyday of the department store began when Alexander Turney Stewart first expanded his spectacle of a store, known as the Marble Palace, and moved uptown along Broadway between East Ninth and Tenth Streets. Neighbor merchants like Lord & Taylor, Brooks Brothers, R.H. Macy & Co., Tiffany & Co., Siegel Cooper & Co., FAO Schwarz, and hundreds of others each angled for the most innovative ways to appeal to their new target customer: wealthy women. New Yorkers in the late 19th century flocked to the area--known for its grandeur--in search of the finest millinery, gowns, corsets, cloaks, and gloves. Ladies' Mile was not just a place to stroll and spot the latest fashions. The opulent commercial district that occupied the blocks between Fourteenth and Twenty-Third Streets, stretching as far west as Sixth Avenue and east to Park Avenue, became the first gathering place for women to convene amongst themselves without a male chaperone. As women of the period secured jobs in the area, they gained buying power, ambition, and financial freedom.Foreword author Thomaï Serdari's expertise in luxury marketing and retail adds a layer of important context about this lavish area.