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Vanished New York City Art Deco: Stewart and Company / Bonwit Teller

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Stewart and Company 721 5th Avenue. Wurts Bros. Photo. Image from the Museum of the City of New York.

Stewart and Company

Timing in business is everything and Stewart and Company did not have good timing. By the late 1920’s Manhattan’s new fashionable shopping district centered around 57th Street. In 1928 Stewart and Company decided to move their store up 5th Avenue from their 37th Street location. The northeast corner of 5th Avenue and 56th Street seemed to be a perfect site for the new store. Stewart and Company’s new home occupied the site of five private townhouses constructed by William Waldorf Astor between 1889 and 1898. The townhouses converted to commercial properties in 1911. Construction of the new store began as soon as the site was cleared.

The Northeast corner of 5th Avenue & 56th Street.

The demolition of the town houses at 5th Avenue & 56th Street. Image from NYPL Digital Collections.

Warren and Wetmore, the architectural firm responsible for some of the finest examples of Beaux-Arts structures in New York, including Grand Central Terminal (1913) and the Heckscher Building (1921) embraced modernism for their design of the Stewart and Company Building. The building rose to twelve stories in unbroken simplicity. The only ornamentation on the façade were the elaborate entrance and the two friezes of dancing women. At the time Stewart and Company’s opening these details drew the most criticism. Helen Appleton Read’s article “Modern Shops” in the January 18, 1930 issue of Vogue had this to say:

“Since we have become, as it were, architecturally conscious, it is small wonder that a shop demonstrating the aesthetic of modern architecture and situated in the most fashionable section of the New York shopping centre has become the talk of the town, and more than a seven days’ wonder. They make convincing demonstration of the aesthetic possibilities of functionalism. The occasional lapses from the precept, the too ornate doorway of the building and the ornaments over the lower windows, are not sufficient to mar the general effect of fine simplicity.”

Stewart and Company’s metal and ceramic 5th Avenue entrance, detail, 1929. Wurts Bros. photograph. Museum of the City of New York.

Dancing lady frieze - Stewart and Company Building.

Ornamental frieze above the 8th story, 1929. Wurts Bros. photograph, Museum of the City of New York.

Walter Rendell Storey writing in The New York Times, November 3, 1929 about Stewart and Company reported:

“In the exterior of the new Stewart Building Whitney Warren has epitomized what might be termed a classic expression of metropolitan architecture. The austerity of its monolithic characteristics is challenged by the entrance decoration in green and sliver metal and golden-hued tiling, as well as by the two bas-reliefs cut in an otherwise unornamented white stone facade at the ninth story. The cubical mass feeling that is found in some of the best modern architecture is obviously achieved. Ornamental detail is reserved for the entrance and show windows. It is in these areas of decoration that the special purpose of a smart modern fashion shop of today is suggested. The whole portal is the work of Trygve Hammer, after designs by Warren & Wetmore. The bas-reliefs were carved by Rene Chambellan.”

Vogue Advertisement for Stewart and Company. October 26, 1929.

Stewart and Company broke away from the traditional department store layout. Instead of aisle after aisle of display cases the new store comprised many shops. These “shops” of course were not individually owned as in a present day mall. They were rooms or alcoves devoted to specific merchandise. The design of the shops and floors fell to several different interior design firms. Again The New York Times article by Storey gives the best description of the interior of Stewart and Company –

“As one enters the first impression is of warmth of color. Absent are the cool effects so often disclosed in the modern mode. One quickly discovers, too, that the architects who were responsible for each floor provided for the comfort of patrons as well as for convenient display of merchandise. On the ground floor, designed by J. Franklin Whitman, Jr. of Whitman & Goodman, spaciousness makes possible a variety of vistas that is distinctly alien to the old type of store arrangement. Some of the side sections of the ground floor are veritable small specialty shops themselves. Where perfumes are sold, for example, a semi-circular alcove is paneled in dark brown wood. Slender black columns are capped with a band of silver.

Stewart and Company’s Evening Salon advertisement from the November 9, 1929 Vogue.

This atmosphere of intimacy is carried out still further on the second and third floors, also designed by Mr. Whitman. On the second floor, entering the section in which women’s shoes are displayed, one is not confronted with the usual shelves stacked with boxes. Paneled walls of satinwood trimmed with metal form the background. Tall pilasters reach from the floor to the high ceiling. There are handsome metal grills. Informally placed chairs and settees in the modern style further the suggestion of a smart metropolitan club.”

Artist rending of the Stewart women’s shoe department. Vogue, November 9, 1929

The Storey article continues –

“. . . the fourth floor – which, together with the sixth, seventh and eighth floors, was planned by Eugene Schoen – one sees the color scheme soften from black and cream to gray. At the far end definite colors lure the eye. Opening off the centre space are intriguing places for the showing of sports apparel; a ‘Winter’ and a ‘Summer’ room, each with walls appropriately decorated. Appropriateness has been studied with such care that once finds dressing rooms lined with blue for blonde and with tan for the brunette.

Mr. Schoen makes much use of open show windows, placed in strategic positions. These, with their effective illumination and their exotic woods, plainly paneled, provide congenial accents – not failing, at the same time to serve as a practical vehicles for display of merchandise.

One of the most interesting of the several floors is the eighth, where bronzes, ceramics, glass and small pieces of furniture are displayed. Here the architect has created a number of small alcove shops which surround the octagonal central floor space. In the furniture designed for his settings Mr. Schoen has developed graceful chairs and sofas in African mahogany and queen’s wood. Pastel upholstery harmonizes unobtrusively with the various interiors or sections.”

Stewart and Company, the Gift Floor. Vogue Magazine advertisement, November 23, 1929.

“More luxurious is the decoration of the fifth floor by Carlu & Boyle. Here, as a setting for furs a salon in gray harewood has been installed. The smartness of sophistication hovers over the interior with its black pilasters set along the walls, its silver metal work around the doorways and its black rug. In the center portion of the floor are huge wall mirrors. Smaller salons provide various backgrounds, from an intimate one in powder blue with white bas-relief decoration, to a formal long salon where metal and glass combine with new architectural details of cornices and pilasters to produce a distinctly modern setting.”

– Walter Rendell Storey, New York Times, November 3, 1929

Schoen, Inc. New York Times advertisement.

Eugene Schoen, Inc. advertisement for the opening of Stewart’s & Company. New York Times October 21, 1929.

The individual shop concept of Stewart’s separated it from every other store in the city. Stewart and Company was the very epitome of modern. It opened with a gala luncheon attended by notables in art and industry. The guests included Harvey Wiley Corbett, Frank Crowinshield, Whitney Warren, Grover Whalen, Raymond Hood and Eleanor Roosevelt. Unfortunately the timing could not have been worse, thirteen days after the luncheon the stock market crashed. Stewart’s, a small company had become over extended and with the onset of the depression never attained the customers it needed to survive. By the spring of 1930 Stewart and Company filed for bankruptcy and went out of business.

: Stewart Millinery Shop, 1929. Image from Vogue.

: The millinery shop at Stewart and Company, 1929. Image from Vogue.

Bonwit Teller

Bonwit Teller, 1930. Store window. Sigurd Fischer photograph, Museum of the City of New York.

On September 15, 1930 Bonwit Teller opened in the former Stewart Building. This marked 35 years of progress, from the opening of their first store on Sixth Avenue and 18th Street in 1895. Two more shops followed in 1896 and 1898. Consolidation of the three stores into one location at Fifth Avenue and 38th Street occurred in 1911. And like Stewart’s the year before, now Bonwit’s moved up to the new fashionable shopping district around 57th Street.

Remodeled 5th Avenue Entrance, Bonwit Teller.

Bonwit Teller, Ely Jacques Kahn’s remodeled 5th Avenue entrance, 1930. Sigurd Fischer photograph, Museum of the City of New York.

Before moving into the Stewart Building, Bonwit’s hired one of the best architects in New York, Ely Jacques Kahn to redesign the store. The New York Times reported on September 14, 1930:

“In taking over the Stewart Building Bonwit Teller found it necessary to reconstruct the interior and to make radical external changes to fit the physical necessities of their organization. The general layout of the shop has been so changed as to achieve twice the space on the main floor obtainable under the original plan. Lighting and ventilation facilities also have been increased.

: Ely Jacque Kahn’s redesign of the main floor, 1930. Photograph by Sigurd Fischer, Museum of the City of New York.

: Main floor of Bonwit Teller, 5th Avenue & 56th Street. Sigurd Fischer photograph, Museum of the City of New York.

: 1930 Main Floor of Bonwit Teller. Photograph by Sigurd Fischer, Museum of the City of New York.

The changed front of the building presents a facade in a combination of Benedict metal and glass. The facade runs to the second floor and has a vestibule of similar treatment.”

: Two story Benedict metal and glass entrance to Bonwit Teller, designed by Ely Jacques Kahn, 1930. Photograph by Sigurd Fischer, Museum of the City of New York.

: Bonwit Teller 5th Avenue entrance, 1930. Sigurd Fischer photograph, Museum of the City of New York.

: Bonwit Teller’s main entrance detail. Photograph by Sigurd Fischer, Museum of the City of New York.

The New York Herald-Tribune reporting on October 5, 1930 said this of Bonwit Teller’s new store:

“Except on the main floor the lighting arrangement consists of a suspended ceiling fixture casting an indirect light.

Of the eight floors of the building devoted to merchandise, the fourth is perhaps the most beautiful. It is finished in harewood and is soft grey in tone. This floor is devoted to the special order department, furs and a French corner in which are assembled such boudoir accessories as pillows, lamps and other things.”

: Bonwit Teller, evening ware. 1930 Sigurd Fischer photograph. Image from the Museum of the City of New York.

: Bonwit Teller Fur Department, 1930. Sigurd Fischer photograph, Image from the Museum of the City of New York.

: Bonwit Teller 1930. Sigurd Fischer photograph. Image from The Museum of the City of New York.

: Bonwit Teller 1930 interior . Sigurd Fischer photograph. Image from The Museum of the City of New York.

: The re-constructed 5th Avenue entrance – Ely Jacque Kahn, 1930. Sigurd Fischer photograph, Museum of the City of New York.

: Vestibule of the 5th Avenue entrance of Bonwit Teller, 1930. Sigurd Fischer photograph, Museum of the City of New York.

Bonwit Teller found the success that eluded Stewart and Company, initially. In 1934 during a period of financial difficulty Bonwit Teller partnered with Floyd Odlum, and well known financier. His Atlas Corporation acquire the store chain. This new management proved to be one of the most forward thinking and cutting edge of any department store in Manhattan. They proved this at the close of 1936 when The Museum of Modern Art presented an exhibit entitled Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism. Fourteen works by Salvador Dali were featured in the show. This inspired Bonwit Teller to commission Dali to design a window for the store. For the 1936 Christmas season and into 1937 5th Avenue shoppers viewed the first surrealist art ever featured in a department store showcase window. In total eight windows were presented, one based on a Dali sketch with the others drawing inspiration from it.

Bonwit Teller advertisement in the New York Herald-Tribune. December 20, 1936.

Dali designed window at Bonwit Teller. 1936.

“She was a Surrealist Woman like a Figure in a Dream.” The window based on a sketch by Salvador Dali. December 1936. Worsinger Photo, Museum of the City of New York.

Below are Bonwit Teller’s art department designed surrealist windows.

: Surrealist Window No. 1., 1936. Worsinger Photo, Museum of the City of New York.

: Surrealist Window No. 2., 1936. Worsinger Photo, Museum of the City of New York.

: Surrealist Window No. 3., 1936. Worsinger Photo, Museum of the City of New York.

: Surrealist Window No. 3., 1936. Worsinger Photo, Museum of the City of New York.

: Surrealist Window No. 5., 1936. Worsinger Photo, Museum of the City of New York.

: Surrealist Window No. 6., 1936. Worsinger Photo, Museum of the City of New York.

: Surrealist Window No. 7., 1936. Worsinger Photo, Museum of the City of New York.

In 1938 Odlum’s wife Hortense became president of Bonwit Teller. The store underwent an expansion during this period, too. In 1938 saw the addition of two floors and construction began on a twelve story 56th Street annex that opened in 1939.

: Steel Framework for the Bonwit Teller’s 56th Street expansion. 1938. Wurts Bros. photograph Museum of the City of New York.

: Bonwit Teller’s 56th Street expansion nearing completion. 1938-1939. Wurts Bros. photograph Museum of the City of New York.

: Bonwit Teller’s 56th Street expansion completed. 1939. Wurts Bros. photograph Museum of the City of New York.

Bonwt Teller ca. 1945, around the time of its sale to the Hoving Corporation. Wurts Bros. photograph, Museum of the CIty of New York.

Through the next couple of decades Bonwit Teller remained one of the most popular department stores in Manhattan. Ownership transferred to the Hoving Corporation in 1946 and then to Genesco in 1956. Genesco a large conglomerate operated more than 60 apparel and retail companies, that included stores like Henri Bendel, but was basically a shoe retailer. With this change in ownership in the mid-1950’s Bonwit Teller’s slow decline began. Bonwit Teller had developed a cutting edge fashion reputation with such designers as Christian Dior. Now as a result of the new management they began to lose both their fashion and sales momentum.

Bonwit Teller in 1956. Photograph from Pinterest.

The decline of Bonwit Teller continued through the 1970’s. And in 1979 ownership passed to a new parent company, Allied Stores Corporation. Allied retained all the stores in the chain, except for the flagship 5th Avenue location. Judith Cummings reported in The New York Times on May 20, 1979:

“49 Years of Elegance Ends At Bonwit’s 5th Ave. Store – Bonwit Teller closed its Fifth Avenue retail operation for the last time yesterday, passing the way of the Savoy Plaza Hotel as an enduring standard of elegance on the avenue. What was left of such an era ended yesterday, amid emptied racks and tag-end reductions for last-day shoppers at the 49-year-old specialty store next to Tiffany’s. A Manhattan real-estate developer, Donald Trump, who paid $15 million for the Bonwit property, has proposed tearing the store down to erect in its place a $100 million, 60 story skyscraper, with a mix of apartments, offices and shops.”

Demolition of the building began the following March. Yet all would not be lost. According to Suzanne Daley in The New York Times, March 16, 1980:

“The bronze grill work above the main entrance and the two relief sculptures high up on the façade will be offered to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. If the donation is approved by the Board of Trustees of the museum, and if they survive the move, the developers will receive a tax deduction.”

Demolition of Bonwit Teller’s flagship store, 1980. One of the two Rene Paul Chambellan Dancing Lady bas-reliefs.

But this never happened. Robert D. McFadden in The New York Times, June 6, 1980:

“Developer Scraps Bonwit Sculptures –

Two stone bas-relief sculptures high on the façade of the Bonwit Teller Building under demolition on Fifth Avenue – pieces that had been sought with enthusiasm by the Metropolitan Museum of Art – were smashed by jackhammer yesterday on the orders of a real estate developer.

The destruction of the Art Deco panels stunned some art appraisers and elicited expressions of surprise and disappointment from officials of the Met, where they were to have been installed by the department of 20th-century art. One appraiser placed their value at several hundred thousand dollars.

Donald J. Trump, the developer, who is razing the structure to make way for a $100 million 62-story bronze-color glass tower of apartments, offices and stores, had said several months ago that he would give the white stone panels to the museum if the cost of removing them did not prove prohibitive.

But John Baron, a vice president of the Trump Organization, said after the demolition yesterday that the company had decided not to preserve the sculptures because ‘the merit of these stones was not great enough to justify the effort to save them.’

Mr. Baron said the company had got three independent appraisals of the sculptures. These, he said had found them to be ‘without artistic merit’ and worth less than $9,000 in ‘resale value.’ He said it would have cost $32,000 to remove them carefully and would have delayed demolition by a week and half.

‘How extraordinary’, said Ashton Hawkins, vice president and secretary of the board of trustees of the Met, when told of the Trump decision. ‘We are certainly very disappointed and quite surprised. Can you imagine the museum accepting them if they were not of artistic merit? Architectural sculpture of this quality is rare and would have made sense in our collections. Their monetary value was not what we were interested in.’

Destruction of the Rene Paul Chambellan bas-reliefs on June 5, 1980. New York Times photograph.

Peter M. Warner, a researcher at an architectural firm opposite the Bonwit building, had seen the panels from his 12th-floor windows for years and watched yesterday as they were destroyed. ‘I really couldn’t believe my eyes,’ said Mr. Warner, who described himself as a student of historical architecture. ‘I had read that they were probably going to the Metropolitan.’ Instead, he recalled: ‘I looked out the window and saw they had cut the left-hand panel in half horizontally and were proceeding to do the same to right-hand panel. It’s very regrettable to see the destruction of these important artifacts.”

And what happened to the huge metal grill also promised to the Metropolitan Museum of Art? It never made it to the museum. According to an article by Josh Barbanel in The New York Times, June 7, 1980:

“The real estate developer who ordered the destruction of two bas-relief sculptures that adorned the partly-demolished façade of the Bowit Teller building he does not know what has happened to a rare bronze grillwork that is no longer in the same building.

The glided 20-by-30 foot grillwork of interlocking geometric designs built into the main entrance of the Fifth Avenue building on the northeast corner of 56th Street was offered to the museum last February by the Trump Organization, along with the two Art Deco sculptures if they could be successfully ‘

The grillwork, attributed to the decorative designer, Ely Jacques Kahn, was successfully removed from the building several weeks ago, but later disappeared.

‘We don’t know what happened to it,’ said John Baron, a vice president of the Trump Organization, when asked about the grillwork.”

Grillwork over the Bonwit Teller entrance.

“Benedict nickel” grillwork, designed by Otto J. Teegen over the 5th Avenue entrance to Bonwit Teller. 1930 Wurts Bros. photograph. NYPL Digital Collection

Robert D. McFadden in another article on the destruction of the Bonwit’s building exterior art wrote in The New York Times, June 8, 1980:

“Designer Astonished by Loss of Bonwit Grillwork

A prominent architect who 50 years ago designed the huge Art Deco grillwork over the main entrance of the Bonwit Teller Building, expressed astonishment yesterday that a real estate developer had lost track of the elaborate solid nickel ornament.

The 15-foot by 25-foot grillwork, which apparently vanished from the demolition site several weeks ago, and the 15-foot sculpture panels, which were smashed by jackhammers on Thursday afternoon, had been sought by curators of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Asked about the grillwork, John Baron, a vice president of the Trump Organization said: ‘We don’t know what happened to it.’

Otto J. Teegen said he designed the grillwork in 1930, a year after the building was erected. When P.J. Bonwit took it over in 1930, he asked the architectural firm of Ely Jacques Kahn to redesign much of the interior and exterior.

Mr. Teegen, who at that time was employed by Ely Jacques Kahn, was commissioned to do the grillwork and many items of the interior. He said that the grillwork, a large panel of interlocking geometric designs was made of ‘Benedict nickel’. It was extremely heavy and would have required cranes and trucks to remove and could not merely have been mislaid or stolen. It’s not a thing you could slip in your coat and walk away with. It might have been stolen, although it would not have been worth much as salvage. But you don’t judge something like that by an amount of money.”

By 1981 nothing remained of Warren & Wetmore’s monolithic limestone building. New high-rise glass towers were replacing established 5th Avenue landmarks. And on the site of the former Stewart’s / Bonwit Teller building rose a monument to ego, the 58-story Trump Tower.

The corner of 5th Avenue & 56th Street and the construction of Trump Tower, 1981. File photo.

Trump Tower at the corner of 5th Avenue & 56th Street. Completed in 1983.

Gone was one of the most elegant and best examples of Art Deco department store architecture of the 20th-century. Completed in the fall of 1983 Trump Tower is no equal in class and style to the old Stewart / Bonwit Building at 721 5th Avenue.

Bonwit Teller looking Northeast across 5th Avenue. May 9, 1946. Wurts Bros. photograph, Museum of the City of New York.

Anthony & Chris (The Freakin’, Tiquen Guys)

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Vanished New York City Art Deco: The Airlines Terminal

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Vanished New York City Art Deco: The Airlines Terminal

Today with ultra tight airline security such a building couldn’t exist. But back when flying was for the wealthy and the most glamorous form of travel, a building in the middle of Manhattan matched that glamour. The Airlines Terminal made getting to the brand new New York Municipal Airport-La Guardia Field in the borough of Queens easier.

Post Card view of the Arilines Terminal.

Airlines Terminal Vintage Postcard. Circa 1941

Located at the southwest corner of Park Avenue and 42nd Street, the Airlines Terminal stood on the site of the Hotel Belmont (1906). The Belmont closed its doors in 1930. Torn down in 1931, a beer garden occupied the site for a short time in 1933. Other than that for most of the decade the site remained vacant.

A postcard of The Hotel Belmont.

The demolition of the Hotel Belmont in the summer of 1931. Photo: Digital Collection

Plans for the Airlines Terminal building at 80 East 42nd Street became public in September of 1939. Architect John B. Peterkin’s (1886 – 1969) design for the five-story building is best described as modern classical. The terminal consolidated the reservations, ticketing and baggage handling for the five major American airlines (American, Eastern, TWA, United and PamAm). Other facilities planned for Airlines Terminal were a restaurant, stores on the ground level and a 600 seat newsreel theatre.

: John B. Peterkin’s drawing for the Airlines Terminal at 80 East 42nd Street. Drawing from The New York Herald-Tribune, 9/12/39

: Peterkin’s sketch for the Airlines Terminal’s Newsreel Theatre. Drawing from Cinematreasurers.org

Construction of the terminal began in the fall of 1939, with May, 1940 scheduled for the opening. The New York Herald-Tribune reported on September 12, 1939:

The building will be of limestone on all street frontages and will incorporate many new devices, including automatic elevators for the airline buses, inclosed and separate from the rest of the building. The building will have mechanical ventilation throughout. Two street levels, one on Forty-second Street and the other on Forty-first Street, will permit the terminal to be on the grade floor on Forty-first Street, where the buses will take passengers to and from the flying fields. The terminal will be reached by two large escalators from the entrance on Forty-second Street.

42nd Street construction site of the future Airlines Terminal. November, 1939. Photo: NYPL Digital Collection

The Airlines Terminal steel frame construction was noteworthy for its use of welding instead of riveting. Shortly before it went up, the Herald-Tribune reported on January 19, 1940:

The steel frame of the new Airlines Terminal to be erected on the site of the old Belmont Hotel at Park Avenue and Forty-second Street will be welded. John B. Peterkin, architect announced yesterday. No riveting will be used, either in the shop or on the site, to assemble the frame. The structure, which will rise five stories about the street level and extend four stories below, will require about 1,300 tons of welded steel. If riveting had been adopted, Mr. Peterkin said, 150 additional tons of steel would have been required. Work will be started in a few days.

In early 1940, while still under construction, the Airlines Terminal size was enlarged. The March 3, 1940 New York Times reported:

The space to be occupied as a terminal has been doubled under a new arrangement without increasing the size of the building. Originally, the terminal itself was to be only on the street level on Forty-first Street and reached by an escalator from Forty-second Street. Now a lower floor will be taken by the terminal, giving it one floor for incoming passengers an another for outgoing. The airlines decided to enlarge their ticket and reservations facilities because of the great increase in flying by the American public and because of the success of the trans-oceanic clippers. When the terminal first was conceived in the early part of 1938 it was believed that a single floor of facilities would take care of all the requirements for many years. Developments since then have proved otherwise.

The steel frame of the Airlines Terminal the day the cornerstone was laid.

April 22, 1940. The cornerstone ceremony. Photo from the New York Times, 4/23/40

Newspaper construction photo of the Airlines Terminal.

The Airlines Terminal under construction. July, 1940. Photo from the New York Times.

Mayor Fiorello La Guardia laid the Airlines Terminal cornerstone on April 22, 1940. But the enlargement of the building delayed it’s opening. The New York Times reported the following day that the new planned opening would be in September. Then September came and went. A gala dedication dinner announced for December 17th got pushed back into the new year. On December 28, 1940 a jurisdictional dispute between two unions over telephone wiring threatened to further delay the opening. Members of the United Telephone Organization went on strike, halting work on the installation of telephones and switchboards. Due to the hard work of mediators the strike came to a quick end on December 30th. Finally on January 8, 1941 the gala dedication dinner was held, even though the terminal still needed its finishing touches completed. Speakers at the dinner included Mayor La Guardia and Juan Trippe, founder of Pam American Airways.

: Cover of the menu for the Dedication Dinner of the Airlines Terminal. NYPL Digital Collections.

: Speakers page. Airlines Terminal Dinner. NYPL Digital Collections

: Airlines Terminal Dedication Dinner – Menu. NYPL Digital Collections

Almost three weeks following the gala dinner at 12:01 A.M., January 26, 1941 the doors opened for business. Twelve hours later Mayor La Guardia made an official visit to the terminal. Accompanied by his two children and a friend the mayor inspected the air line buses and the huge elevators that lifted them to the second floor. According to the New York Hearld-Tribune, January 27, 1941:

“The mayor stopped to admire the mural in the rotunda. Made of cast aluminum it showed an eagle in flight beside a man. The symbolism of the mural as explained to the mayor is the eagle must have wings to fly, but man soars through his intellect. What Mayor La Guardia saw during his visit evidently pleased him, for he told John B. Peterkin, terminal architect: ‘You’ve done a fine job.'”

Airlines Terminal Park Avenue and 42nd Street. View looking Southwest, 1941. Photo NYPL Digital Collection

The symmetrical facade, devoid of almost all decoration, stood in modern contrast to the Beaux-Arts architecture of Grand Central Terminal directly opposite on 42nd Street. Otto Bach created the polychromatic stainless steel mural of the world set above the concave main entrance. This provided not only a grand gateway to the building itself but also symbolically to the airport and the world beyond.

Entrance Detail of the Airlines Terminal

Detail of the Airlines Terminal showing the entrance and Otto Bach’s mural. Vintage Post card.

Detail: Airlines Terminal main entrance. Wurts Bros. Image – Museum of the City of New York.

Equally important in the exterior design was Rene Chambellan’s (1893-1955) decorative carvings and eagles sculpture and light fixture. The out stretched wings of the eagles supported the lantern and the 80 foot flag pole made of Oregon pine. The lantern originally flashed alternating green and amber light through filters, illuminating and dimming every 10 seconds.

Rene Chambellan's eagle sculpture and lantern.

Detail of the Eagle Sculpture and Lantern, by Rene Chambellan.

Very few images of the interior exist of the Airlines Terminal. Because of the lack of photographs the best description of the inside of the building comes from the New York Times – January 5, 1941:

New Airlines Depot

Gay Decorations and Modern Mechanisms Give It an Arabian Nights Atmosphere

Walls of Gold. At the head of the escalator the traveler or sightseer will gaze south through a great oval salon. The ceiling is an elongated dome, sky blue and richly beautiful. One-eighth of an acre of stainless steel colored with pure gold makes up the first thirty perpendicular feet of wall all around the rotunda below the azure dome. Giant figures of a symbolic man and bird in flight (in aluminum) dominate the upper wall ends. Ticket offices of the various airlines occupy wall spaces below the upper golden sidewall.

The circular information booth is located in the center of the rotunda floor. But in this one the four-faced clock is mounted at the intersection of right-angled wings of light-transmitting plastic eleven feet high. They are the largest sheets of this magic material ever produced. Edges of the wings are feathered to emit the inner light.

Airlines Terminal Rotunda. Showing circular information booth with illuminated plastic wings before the installation of the clock. Photo from the New York Times.

Photo postcard of the interior of the Airlines Terminal.

Vintage postcard of the Airlines Terminal rotunda. Photo by William Hoff.

Escalators just inside the Airlines Terminal main entrance on 42nd Street. Wurts Bros. Image – Museum of the City of New York.

The Airlines Terminal was an immediate success. Service to Newark Airport began shortly after its opening. After the end of the Second World War traveling by air started to gain in popularity. By the end of 1946 the terminal was serving between 11,000 and 12,000 people each day. As a result a small adjunct office opened on 42nd Street under the Park Avenue viaduct in Pershing Square. Approximately 235 12 passenger buses were leaving from the 41st Street ramps at the back of the terminal, with another 60 leaving from the smaller Pershing Square station per day. Then to make matters worse New York International Airport (better known as Idlewild and since 1963, JFK) in Queens opened in 1948.

Vintage photo postcard of the Airlines Terminal rotunda.

Vintage William Hoff Postcard – Airlines Terminal interior detail showing rotunda entrance to the airport limousines. Rene Chambellan’s aluminum sculpture above the door.

Limousine ramps and airport limousines in the basement of the Airlines Terminal. 1/22/41. Photo from Getty Images.

The increase of passengers of course resulted in an equal increase of airport buses on midtown streets. To reach the two Queens airports buses leaving the terminal had to travel a few blocks southeast to get into the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. If the traffic to Queens was bad, getting to Newark Airport was even worse. New Jersey bound buses would drive on congested crosstown streets before entering the Lincoln Tunnel. Unfortunately the solution to the problem would eventually doom the 42nd Street building.

Airlines Terminal March 8, 1951. Wurts Bros. image – Museum of the City New York.

In July, 1951 an announcement came that a new Airlines Terminal at First Avenue between 37th and 38th streets would open by 1953. The new location was directly across 37th Street from the entrance to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. When the new terminal opened on November 30, 1953 all bus service transferred to the new east side facility. Even buses to Newark would leave from the East Side, at least temporarily. As a result the original Airlines Terminal on 42nd Street became to a reservation service center only.

Vintage postcard of the East Side Airlines Terminal. Circa 1955. The trees at the bottom left hide the entrance to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel.

Interior of the East Side Airlines Terminal.

Before the east side terminal even opened to the public construction started on the West Side Airlines Terminal. The new facility would serve Newark Airport exclusively. At 42nd Street and Tenth Avenue, the new terminal had easy access to the Lincoln Tunnel. With the opening of the terminal on September 15, 1955, travel time to Newark reduced to only 21 minutes.

West Side Airlines Terminal – 42nd Street & 10th Avenue. View looking South East across 10th Avenue. Photo: Getty Images.

Interior of the West Side Terminal on its closing day, August 27, 1972. Photo: Getty Images

Comparing the two new terminals to the original one shows how much changed in less than 15 years. By the mid-1950’s air travel had become more commonplace than it was before the Second World War. While still thrilling, it lost some of its glamour and the architecture of the new terminals reflected that change. Gone were the symbolic murals and decorative metal work. Utilitarian is the best adjective to describe the interior decoration of the new facilities.

As a result of the two new terminals, the name of the original needed to change. In 1954 the Airlines Terminal on 42nd Street became the Airlines Building.

Pre – 1954 Facade Engraving.

1954 from terminal to building and reduced importance.

And there were other changes too. Because of loss of patronage at newsreel theatres in general, the Airlines Terminal theatre became a first run art house for British and foreign films in May, 1949. But the change in programming was not enough to save it from closing. By October, 1955 the space once occupied by the theatre was converted into a Horn & Hardart’s Automat.

Airlines Terminal Newsreel Theatre, Circa 1941.

Detail: An Automat in the space once occupied by the newsreel theatre. 1955.

The interior of the Airlines Building Automat, where once the news of the day was served now it is pot pies and coffee. Circa, 1955. NYPL Digital Collection

Airlines Building, October 20, 1955. Wurts Bros. Image – Museum of the City of New York.

Beginning in the early 1970’s the Airlines Building, and the city itself went into decline. Then the airlines moved out. Manhattan Air Terminal, Inc., told The New York Times:

That a more spacious and modern terminal would open at 8:00 A.M. tomorrow (6/12/72) in the Pershing Square Building, just across Park Avenue from the old terminal, at 100 East 42nd Street. The company said it had taken a 20-year lease on the mezzanine of the building, which has direct access to the IRT subway.

Snapshot of the Airlines Building in the mid-1970’s.

In the photo above, the Airlines Building’s elegance shines through the grime, but its days were numbered. As is the case with so much Manhattan real estate the land value is far greater than the value of the building. And in a building so small, the rental income could not possibly cover its operating costs and taxes. Then the inevitable news came on August 2, 1978 (as reported in the New York Times):

The Airlines Terminal Building, once a thriving ticket and terminal headquarters for leading world airlines at 80 East 42nd Street, will be demolished beginning later this week, Philip Morris Inc. announced yesterday.

In its place the company, which manufactures cigarettes, beer and other products, is planning to build an office building of approximately 25 stories that will serve as an addition to its corporate headquarters, which are in an adjacent building.

Robert L. Ryan, a spokesman for the company, said that a demolition permit had been obtained and that safety scaffolding would be erected in the next few days, with demolition work on the three story Art Deco building expected to last two to three months.

The building has an imposing exterior, but it is not considered one of the better examples of the Art Deco style of architecture. Kent Barwick, chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, said: “It is an interesting building, but certainly not among the most important architectural treasures of this city.”

The 26 story, 360 foot Philip Morris Building. Completed in 1983. View southwest across 42nd Street.

Although gone from New York for nearly 40 years a bit of the Airlines Terminal survives. 350 miles south of Manhattan in Richmond, Virginia the eagles that once looked over 42nd street, stand in front the former Best Products headquarters building on Parham Road. So if you find yourself in Richmond and you want to see a bit of Art Deco New York check them out.

: Rene Chambellan’s Eagle sculpture for the Airlines Terminal. in front of the Best Products Building. Richmond, Virginia.

: Former Airlines Terminal eagle.

Anthony & Chris (The Freakin’, Tiquen’ Guys)

If you enjoyed this article then check out these earlier Driving For Deco blog posts:

Reference Library Update

Reference Library Update: The Sixty-First Floor, Please – House Beautiful – April, 1932. Article by Helen Sprackling about the Chrysler Building apartment of photographer Margaret Bourke-White designed by John Vassos. 5 page article & 2 vintage advertisements. Click on the magazine cover to read the article.

: LIFE photographer Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971) focusing her camera on the splendors of the snow-capped rooftops of Manhattan’s office bldgs. fr. her perch atop the eagle gargoyle on the Chrysler Building. Photo from thephotographersgallery.com