Sunglass Hut (New York City, New York)

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5-story mercantile building completed in 1903. Designed by William H. Hume & Son, it was specifically built on this lot by Henry Siegel. But no matter how many stores open up along the strip, no other store could touch Macy's in its size or vast selection of goods. Its supremacy was challenged in 1896, however, when Chicago's Siegel-Cooper department store came to town. They snapped up nearly a full city block between 18th and 19th Streets, and on their huge plot they built the world's largest store. Macy's new owners, brothers Isidor and Nathan Straus, were not going to be outdone. They took a bold step and began buying up lots all the way north at 34th Street, an almost obscene distance north of the existing shopping district. But leapfrogging the competition had worked for Macy's before, and its new owners intended to make it work again. Word got out that Macy's planned to outdo Siegel-Cooper by building an even larger store on their new site, just as soon as they secured all of the necessary plots. Siegel-Cooper, in an attempt to thwart its rival's plan, swooped in a purchased the corner lot at 34th and Broadway, holding it ransom in an attempt to stop Macy's construction. Macy's would have none of it, and opted to build around the corner lot. Furious and defeated, Siegel-Cooper was stuck with their corner lot, as well as their enormous building down on 18th Street in what was now seen as an out-of-fashion shopping district. The company went bankrupt in 1916, and its New York store closed in 1917, barely 20 years after opening. Macy's bought the little corner lot for $1,000,000 and covered it with Macy's advertisements: a final humiliation in what was never a proud feud for its former rival. Today, the spiteful little corner building still exists, wrapped in an enormous light-up Macy's shopping bag.

In 1908 Siegel sold his interest in the 34th Street building to Robert Smith who sold it in 1911 for $1 million, giving rise to the nickname for Broadway & 34th, the Million Dollar Corner. Much of the building's facade has, for decades, been taken up by billboards for Macy's, but they still do not own the building, only renting the exterior space. The facade has been renovated, with the lower two floors clad in white pre-cast stone with black trim and modern windows. The upper floors are now wrapped to look like a giant red Macy's shopping bag, complete with handles at the top and "tissue paper" sticking up. The ground floor is occupied by Sunglass Hut.

ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/the-tiny-hold...
newyorkdailyphoto.blogspot.com/2008/03/holdout-and-hold...