9. Ladies’ Mile Historic District was a prime shopping district
The Ladies’ Mile Historic District was a shopping district extending roughly from 15th Street to 24th Street between Park Avenue South and Sixth Avenue. A popular site at the end of the 19th century, the shopping district replaced previously identical brownstone townhouses. Many of the department stores incorporated cast iron into the Beaux-Arts, Romanesque Revival, and Neo-Renaissance designs. Another popular location within the district was The Fifth Avenue Hotel, whose guests included the Prince of Wales. The New York Landmarks Preservation Committee designated the area was designated a histroric district in 1989 to preserve 440 buildings.
During the district’s peak, many of New York’s first department stores settled there, including B. Altman, Bergdorf Goodman, Lord & Taylor, Tiffany & Co. The Sohmer Piano Building contained showrooms and manufacturing facilities, while Steinway Hall and the Academy of Music invited some of the largest names in music at the time. The original Metropolitan Museum of Art did the same for many famous artists and art lovers. Women were the target consumers of many of the stores, and the neighborhood became a safe place for women to walk without men. By the time the Flatiron Building was completed in the early 1900s, the neighborhood was bustling, though World War I resulted in many of the buildings becoming warehouses. Most were not torn down though, and in the place of the original department stores are plenty of newer clothing retailers.