Arnold Constable & Company was a

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

chain in the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

metropolitan area. At one point it was the oldest department store in America, operating for over 150 years from its founding in 1825 to its closing in 1975. At the company's peak, its flagship "Palace of Trade" in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

– located at 881-887

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

at East 19th Street, through to 115

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 populatio ...

– was acknowledged to be the store which took the largest portion of the "

carriage trade A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping a ...

", in New York, serving the rich and elite of the city, such as the wives of

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in ...

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invent ...

, J.P. Morgan,

John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was ...

and

Cornelius Vanderbilt Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...

History

Arnold Constable & Company began as a small dry goods store at 91 Front Street in lower Manhattan opened in 1825 by Aaron Arnold, who had immigrated to the United States from the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

. Arnold moved the business to a larger space on Pine Street, and took on partners, his nephews George and James Hearn, with the business being known as Arnold and Hearn until 1842, when the Hearns began their own store. James Mansell Constable was an employee of A. Arnold & Co. who would later marry Arnold's daughter, and he was taken on as a partner in 1842, with the store name changing to Arnold Constable & Company in 1853.Pearson, pp.85-86 Arnold Constable 307-311 Canal Street

Migrations and expansions

In 1857 the store moved into a four-story white

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorpho ...

dry goods Dry goods is a historic term describing the type of product line a store carries, which differs by region. The term comes from the textile trade, and the shops appear to have spread with the mercantile trade across the British Empire (and form ...

palace A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

located at 309-311

Canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface fl ...

White & Willsensky, p.103 with frontages on

Howard Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also prob ...

, and

Mercer Mercer may refer to: Business * Mercer (car), a defunct American automobile manufacturer (1909–1925) * Mercer (consulting firm), a large human resources consulting firm headquartered in New York City * Mercer (occupation), a merchant or trader, ...

Streets. A few years later as the country suffered from inflation, the store became one of the first to issue charge bills of credit to its customers each month instead of on a bi-annual basis. The firm continued to expand, and in 1862 added a five-story building at 307 Canal, as well as a fifth-story to the original building. The new additions were aesthetically integrated with the existing structure. Recognized as an

emporium Emporium may refer to: Historical * Emporium (antiquity), a trading post, factory, or market of Classical antiquity * Emporium (early medieval), a 6th- to 9th-century trading settlement in Northwestern Europe * Emporium (Italy), an ancient town ...

for high-quality fashions, the store soon outgrew its Canal Street store, and in 1869 the firm erected a marble building on Broadway and East 19th Street, designed by

Griffith Thomas Griffith Thomas (1820—1879) was an American architect. He partnered with his father, Thomas Thomas, at the architecture firm of T. Thomas and Son."Ladies' Mile" Shopping District. The store was one of the pioneers of this shopping district, being among the first to move there.Pearson, pp.11-13 At the time, Arnold Constable was the second largest dry goods store in the city, and the building was called the "Palace of Trade" by newspapers. The building was expanded in 1872, adding carpets to its inventory and an upholstery department, and then extended all the way through the block to

in 1876-77 to accommodate a wholesale department. Arnold Constable was then said to be "one of the largest business establishments in the world," and the business was so profitable that the ''

New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the ''New York Herald Tribune''. Hist ...

'' reported in 1897 that the company was the fifth largest real-estate owner in New York City. Among the properties the company owned was an office building at Fifth Avenue and East 18th Street, which connected to the firm's gigantic emporium. Despite Arnold's death in 1876 the business continued to expand over the years until it was necessary to follow the city's uppertens population uptown and move into an even larger space at Fifth Avenue and 40th Street in 1914, the site of the former Vanderbilt mansion, and now the

Mid-Manhattan Library The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL), popularly known as the Mid-Manhattan Library, is a branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL) at the southeast corner of 40th Street and Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of Ne ...

of the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress) ...

European expansion

Clark Lawrence Sharpstein (1807-1880) started was a clerk at Arnold's nephew's store before moving to Arnold, Constable when it was still on Canal Street. He quickly gained a senior position at the company, and was one of the drivers behind the move to Broadway. Arnold sent him on buying trips to Paris. In 1855, he established a Paris branch of Arnold, Constable, becoming a partner in the overall firm. He continued to run the Paris store until his death, except for a one-year leave in 1870. The European business also included a London store; a lithograph depicting that store is in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Later years

In 1925, Arnold Constable joined with the specialty retailer Stewart & Company and expanded into the suburbs. In 1937, the first suburban branch opened in

New Rochelle, New York New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state of ...

. Later suburban expansions included locations in Hempstead and

Manhasset Manhasset is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York. It is considered the anchor community of the Greater Manhasset area. The population was 8,176 at the 2020 United States ce ...

on Long Island,

Upper Darby, Pennsylvania Upper Darby Township, often shortened to Upper Darby, is a home rule township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The township borders Philadelphia, the nation's sixth most populous city as of 2020 with 1.6 million residents. As of the 2020 cen ...

and in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

. Most branch stores were in downtown areas, often in small shopping centers. There were 11 to 12 American stores in the 1960s before business declined, a victim of the growth of malls over standalone stores. Eventually, the 10 suburban branches closed. In 1961, Arnold, Constable sold its main store to the New York Public Library for its Mid-Manhattan Branch, but leased the first few floors back from the library to continue operating the store. By July 1974, it terminated the lease on all but the ground floor space. In March 1975, it closed down the main store altogether. Smaller mall stores continued and even expanded, under the ''NoName'' and ''Garment District'' brands. The NoName stores literally had no name and no logo. A logo design was trademarked but never used. In the 1990s, remaining operations were sold to Canadian retailer Y M Inc., which now operates US chains Annie Sez, Mandee, and Afaze.

The "Palace of Trade"

The second Arnold Constable flagship store now located in the

Ladies' Mile Historic District The Ladies' Mile Historic District was a prime shopping district in Manhattan, New York City at the end of the 19th century, serving the well-to-do "wikt:carriage trade, carriage trade" of the city. It was designated in May 1989, by the New York ...

began as the second of two twin buildings with marble facades, both designed by architect

Griffith Thomas Griffith Thomas (1820—1879) was an American architect. He partnered with his father, Thomas Thomas, at the architecture firm of T. Thomas and Son.Second Empire Commercial style,Pearson, pp.83-84 the other being for the retailer Edward Hoyt, who moved uptown to the area at about the same time as Arnold Constable. Later alterations to the buildings have obscured their identical beginning. The Arnold Constable building grew by accretion over time, with sections divided by brick firewalls, but the interiors were kept as open as possible, supported by only cast-iron columns to allow for flexibility in displaying merchandise. In later years, sections would be connected together with courts naturally lit with skylights. As well as sales floors, the building contained warehouse storage space and workshops.Pearson, p.17 The first major alteration to the building occurred in 1872, with a extension along 19th Street, adding a side entrance. The "miraculous" two-story

mansard A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

roof was also added at that time. Four years later, another was added, bringing the building to Fifth Avenue. Griffith Thomas did both extensions, and followed his original design, except that the ornamentation was done in cheaper

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impu ...

rather than in the more expensive marble of the original building. In 1883-84, an annex was added on 18th Street, which was connected to the main building by a four-story bridge, and directly at the ground floor and basement. This building was designed by William Schickel in

Renaissance Revival style Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range ...

. In 1894, a twelve-story tower, also designed by Schickel, was added at the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and East 18th Street. Originally intended for ground floor retail with manufacturing above, the upper floors were redesignated for office use before the building was completed in 1895.Pearson, p.222 After Arnold Constable & Company moved farther uptown in 1914, the building was converted, in 1915, for wholesale use. The "Palace of Trade" was well-thought-of as architecture. The ''

'' said of the completed building: "By a nice arrangement and symmetrical adaptation of all its parts the massiveness of the structure is pleasantly relieved, and the building thus rendered, from an architectural point of view, one of the finest edifices in the city."

References

Notes Bibliography
Arnold Constable history
* *Pearson, Marjorie (ed.
''NYCLPC Ladies' Mile Historic District Designation Report, volume 1''

New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...

(May 2, 1989)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Arnold Constable and Company Defunct department stores based in New York City Broadway (Manhattan)