9. Tiffany & Company (Breakfast at Tiffany’s)

audrey_hepburn-breakfast-at-tiffanys-nyc-untapped-cities-shervinImage via Wikimedia Commons

From her flirtatious extravaganzas/shenanigans to her sentimental moments of confider, Audrey Hepburn’s role as the vivacious, cunning, yet ditsy socialite Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s is laden with memorable scenes, including the iconic opening where she has her breakfast in front of the jewelry store, Tiffany & Company, where “nothing very bad could happen to you there.”

The inception of the Tiffany & Company can be traced back to Brooklyn, Connecticut in 1837, where the company was founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. Young under the name Tiffany, Young and Ellis. The name was altered to Tiffany & Company in 1853 when Charles Tiffany took over, and since 1940, their flagship store has been on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th street.

When the building opened 75 years ago, the 24-foot-high, column-less ceiling was an impressive engineering feat unto itself. Moreover, the flagship store of Tiffany & Company was the first commercial building in New York City with central air-conditioning. Interestingly, the Atlas Clock perched outside of the store is older than the store. It was originally mounted on top of another Tiffany & Company store at 550 Broadway in 1853 before being moved to the company’s flagship location upon its construction.