{"id":3460,"date":"2016-10-15T21:11:49","date_gmt":"2016-10-16T01:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drivingfordeco.com\/staging\/3617\/?p=3460"},"modified":"2016-10-15T21:11:49","modified_gmt":"2016-10-16T01:11:49","slug":"stewart-and-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drivingfordeco.com\/staging\/3617\/stewart-and-company\/","title":{"rendered":"Vanished New York City Art Deco: Stewart and Company \/ Bonwit Teller"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Stewart<\/a>

Stewart and Company 721 5th Avenue. Wurts Bros. Photo. Image from the Museum of the City of New York.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Stewart and Company<\/h3>\n

Timing in business is everything and Stewart and Company did not have good timing. \u00a0By the late 1920’s Manhattan’s new fashionable shopping district centered around 57th Street.\u00a0In 1928 Stewart and Company decided to move their store up 5th\u00a0Avenue 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\u00a0the site of five private townhouses\u00a0constructed by William Waldorf Astor between\u00a01889 and 1898. The townhouses converted to\u00a0commercial properties in 1911. Construction of the new store began as soon as the site was cleared.<\/h4>\n

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\"The<\/a>

The demolition of the town houses at 5th Avenue & 56th Street. Image from NYPL Digital Collections.<\/p><\/div>\n

Warren and Wetmore<\/a><\/span>, 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 fa\u00e7ade 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<\/em> had this to say:<\/h4>\n
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“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.”<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\"5th<\/a>

Stewart and Company’s metal and ceramic 5th Avenue entrance, detail, 1929. Wurts Bros. photograph. Museum of the City of New York.<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Dancing<\/a>

Ornamental frieze above the 8th story, 1929. Wurts Bros. photograph, Museum of the City of New York.<\/p><\/div>\n

Walter Rendell Storey writing in The New York Times<\/em>, November 3, 1929 about Stewart and Company reported:<\/h4>\n
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“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.”<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\"Stewart<\/a>

Vogue Advertisement for Stewart and Company. October 26, 1929.<\/p><\/div>\n

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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.\u00a0These “shops” of course were not individually\u00a0owned as in a present day mall.\u00a0They were\u00a0rooms 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<\/em> article by Storey gives the best description of the interior of Stewart and Company –<\/h4>\n
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“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.<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\"Steward<\/a>

Stewart and Company’s Evening Salon advertisement from the November 9, 1929 Vogue.<\/p><\/div>\n

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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.”<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\"Stewart's<\/a>

Artist rending of the Stewart women’s shoe department. Vogue, November 9, 1929<\/p><\/div>\n

The Storey article continues –<\/h4>\n
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“. . . the fourth floor – which, together with the sixth, seventh and eighth floors, was planned by Eugene Schoen<\/a><\/span> – one sees the color scheme soften from black and cream to gray. \u00a0At the far end definite colors lure the eye. Opening \u00a0off 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 \u00a0with such care that once finds dressing rooms lined with blue for blonde and with tan for the brunette.<\/h4>\n

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 \u00a0accents – not failing, at the same time to serve as a practical vehicles for display of merchandise.<\/h4>\n

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.”<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\"Stewart<\/a>

Stewart and Company, the Gift Floor. Vogue Magazine advertisement, November 23, 1929.<\/p><\/div>\n

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“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.\u00a0Smaller 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.”<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 – Walter Rendell Storey,\u00a0New York Times<\/em>, November 3, 1929<\/h4>\n

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\"Schoen,<\/a>

Eugene Schoen, Inc. advertisement for the opening of Stewart’s & Company. New York Times October 21, 1929.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The individual shop concept of Stewart’s separated it from every other store in the city. Stewart and Company\u00a0was\u00a0the very epitome of modern. It\u00a0opened with a gala luncheon attended by notables in art and industry. The guests included \u00a0Harvey Wiley Corbett<\/a><\/span>, Frank Crowinshield<\/a><\/span>, Whitney Warren<\/a><\/span>, Grover Whalen<\/a><\/span>, Raymond Hood<\/a><\/span> and Eleanor Roosevelt<\/a><\/span>. 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\u00a0the customers it needed to survive. By the spring of 1930 Stewart and Company filed for bankruptcy and went out of business.<\/h4>\n

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