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Bloomingdale's (New York City, New York)

USA / New Jersey / West New York / New York City, New York / Third Avenue, 1000
 store / shop, interesting place, department store, Art Deco (architecture), 1886_construction

12-story Art-Deco department store originally completed in 1886. Bloomingdale's was founded in 1861 when brothers Joseph and Lyman G. Bloomingdale started selling hoop-skirts in their Ladies Notions' Shop on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The pair were sons of Benjamin Bloomingdale, a Bavarian-born salesman who had lived in North Carolina and Kansas, and settled in New York City. In 1872, the Bloomingdale brothers opened their first store at 938 Third Avenue, and the store moved in 1886 to its current location on 59th Street and Lexington Avenue, which eventually expanded to include the entire block. The main front of the building, the tallest at 12 stories, was completed in 1930 and occupies the full west end of the block. Designed by Starrett & Van Vleck, it is clad in black-painted brick above a 2-story base of black polished granite and tiles, capped by a light-grey stone band course.

There are two entrances on Lexington Avenue, both with two sets of stainless-steel-and-glass double-doors below stainless-steel transoms with Art-Deco designs, covered by suspended metal canopies. The southern entrance is also flanked by a pair of large picture-box windows, and the canopy is wider, extending out to cover these as well. In between the two entrances, the ground floor has six bays of large display windows with stainless-steel framing, organized into two groups of three. There is another group of three bays at the north end, and a single bay at the south end. The 2nd floor has tripartite windows above each ground-floor display window, with the outer panes narrower at their upper halves, with curved joints between the wider and narrower halves. The windows are surrounded by black tiles, with black granite piers separating the groups of three. There are smaller window bays above the entrances, but with the same style of windows and tiles. Metal lettering at the middle of the top of the 2nd floor reads "BLOOMINGDALE'S" in a whimsical font, and a row of nine projecting flagpoles extend from just below the band course topping the base.

The upper floors of the west facade have 20 bays of windows divided into 3-over-4 small panes, with each bay separated by a slightly-projecting pier in alternating widths. In between the 3rd & 4th floors the spandrels are decorated with silver-painted medallions, and the wider piers decorative bands in the same color. The spandrels below the 8th-floor windows have projecting, half-octagonal elements that grow narrower in three tiers towards their bases. The 9th-floor windows are topped by slightly-projecting stone panels that are thicker are the center, and the wider piers have vertical stone panels at this floor. There is a shallow setback above the 9th floor, except at the 3rd-6th bays from the south, which continue up one floor to the lower roof line at the 10th floor. Both corner bays are angled at the 10th floor. The top two floors are clad in black metal panels and are set back from the lower roof line, with ribbon bands of windows. A mechanical penthouse rises from the southern half of the roof.

The black Art-Deco design continues for a short section at the west end of the south facade on 59th Street. It has four bays at the base. The end bay is wider and has a display-windows both floors. The other bays have no openings on the ground floor (filled completely by the black tiles), and tripartite window openings on the 2nd floor that have been filled in with black metal panels. The upper floors have six bays like those on the west facade. There is also a matching section at the west end of the north facade on 60th Street, except that here the wider bay of the base is at the east side.

Continuing east on 60th Street, the 2-story base is clad in black brick, with matching black tiles in the first three bays. The middle bay of these three has an entrance to the subway station. Next there are two large loading docks with roll-down metal gates, and a third, shorter loading dock, followed by a black metal service door flanked by a small window on either side (painted over in black). The east end of this section has a secondary entrance with metal-and-glass double-doors. This section matches the height of the west section on Lexington Avenue, with a similar arrangement of windows and a setback above the 9th floor. The brick is beige, and there are 14 bays, with many of the window openings filled in with beige metal panels. Other than at the top, the ornament from the west section is missing from this section. There is also an area at the 2nd-5th bays from the east that begins to setback earlier, above the 7th floor.

Farther east is an older building section that is only four floors tall. The ground floor here is taller, almost the height of the base to the west. Its west half is clad in black iron, and the east half is clad in black brick and iron, with black polished granite tiles at the base of both. The west half has four bays, with an entrance with metal-and-glass double-doors in the eastern one, and plate-glass windows in the other three, all topped by black metal louvers. The east half has a wide bay in the center, with plate-glass surrounding an entrance a glass door. It is flanked by a bay of plate-glass on either side, and there are narrower end bays with round-arched windows with decorative, slender cast-iron pilasters at the ends. Smaller metal louvers top each of these bays, and the whole ground floor of this section is capped by a dentiled, black metal cornice; the eastern half has smaller dentils, as well as a row of tiny roundels, a patterned floral band interrupted by metal lettering spelling "BLOOMINGDALE BROTHERS", and a delicate wrought-iron railing on top. The upper floors are beige stone in a French Second-Empire style. The west part has six windows grouped into two trios, and the east part has three such trios, all with stone surrounds including bracketed sills and cornices. The west section has a bracketed cornice setting off a black slate mansard roof at the 4th floor, which is pierced by four rounded dormer windows. The east section has a thinner, dentiled cornice (with a projecting, bracketed section in the center), and the mansard 4th floor is taller, divided into three bays, each with a large double-window framed by fluted pilasters. The center one is topped by a triangular pediment and the mansard rises higher here, while the outer two have rounded pediments. There is also a wrought-iron balcony railing at the center of the 3rd floor.

The final, easternmost section on 60th Street has six floors, and is clad in black cast-iron (with some small areas of black brick infill), and black polished granite at the lower two floors of the east end bay. The upper floors of the end bay have triple-windows divided by iron mullions. The same arrangement in seen at all floors in the middle bay and west bay, and the three bays are separated by intermediate bays of one window. At the 2-story base the piers dividing the bays are banded. All of the window openings in the middle and west bays have been filled in with either black metal panels or louvers. There are iron bands separating the lower floors as well as the top floor, and brick spandrels in each bay between the 3rd-5th floors.

The 6-story west facade on Third Avenue continues the highly-polished black granite base, with a central entrance with glass doors below a rounded metal canopy. To either side the ground floor has three widely-spaced bays of display windows. There is a large Bloomingdale's logo at the middle of the 2nd floor. The four upper floors have a wide center bay of seven windows divided by iron mullions. To either side are two bays of three windows, each separated by a single-window bay. The south facade of the east section has a granite east end bay at the lower two floors, with a display window on the ground floor. The rest of the ground floor is black-painted stone with a brown granite water table. It has two small picture windows next to the east end bay, followed by five bays of plate-glass show-windows below black-and-white striped awnings. There is a small service door at the west end of this section. The upper floors have nine bays of paired windows, many of which have been replaced by black metal or brick panels

The 11-bay-wide middle section of the south facade is six floors high. The tall ground floor is black-painted stone, and the 2nd floor is black-painted brick with stone banding. There is an entrance in the 5th bay from the east, with glass double-doors and sidelights below a steel canopy. The four bays to the east have plate-glass display windows, as do two of the three bays to the west, with the middle one having a smaller set of glass double-doors. All of these bays have black-and-white striped awnings. The 3rd bay from the west has a recessed set of service doors below a field of stone panels, and the west end has a double-wide bay of stainless-steel-and-glass, with glass double-doors, below a stainless-steel canopy and steel louvers. The high ground floor is capped by a dentiled band course. The 2nd floor has paired windows in each bay, with upper transoms and cornices. The upper floors are beige stone, and have 3-story openings on the 3rd-5th floors, with tripartite windows. They consist of metal-framed oriels at the 3rd & 4th floors, with the end panes angled back. There are elaborately-ornamented beige metal spandrel panels between the 3rd & 4th floors, and dentil bands with central, small, triangular pediments above the 4th floor. The piers have elaborate capitals with cartouches at the top of the 4th floor, and the 5th floor has round-arched tripartite windows. The 6th floor has triple-windows in each bay, in decorated surrounds, separated by fluted columns. The piers between bays have elaborate foliate ornament. The 6th floor is crowned by a projecting cornice with alternating brackets and rosettes on the soffit (underside), above a row of dentils and an egg-and-dart molding.

In 1924, Bloomingdale's began to understand the buying power developing in New York suburbs and established a daily delivery route to the north shore of Long Island. They delivered to Douglaston, Great Neck, Little Neck, Plandome, Manhasset, Port Washington, Lakeville, and Sands Point.

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Coordinates:   40°45'43"N   73°58'1"W
This article was last modified 1 year ago