The Siegel-Cooper Stable -- Nos. 214-216 W 17th Street

Except for the disheartening loss of the cornice, the facade survives amazingly intact.

In the 1850s the northern suburb which would be known as Chelsea was well-developed.  Land that had been rural only 30 years earlier was now dissected by streets and avenues, lined with brick and brownstone-faced homes.

A public primary school was erected at Nos. 214 to 216 West 17^th Street to accommodate the growing population.  In 1854 the enrollment of Ward School No. 11 included 596 boys and 568 girls.   But by 1875 the building was no longer adequate.  A new structure was built a block away at No. 314 West   17^th Street; and the old school was replaced by a tenement building.

The three-story apartment building, owned by William J. McCarthy, filled with tenants of modest means; many with Irish surnames.  In 1876 sisters Lizzie F. and Mary J. Norcott shared an apartment.  The women both taught in the boys’ department of Grammar School No. 8 at No. 66 Grant Street.

One amazing resident here was centenarian Mary Clements.  The spry widow had nine children and had lived for years with her seventh son, Robert, at No. 678 10^th Avenue.  He vowed never to marry while his mother lived.  When Robert died in August 1890, she moved to No. 214 West 17^th Street with her 84-year old son, James.

Vigorous and sharp, the 103-year old woman walked to the corner store at around 2:00 on the afternoon of February 28, 1891 to get coffee.  Upon her return she mentioned that she felt faint.  The Tyrone Constitution reported “She simply sat down on a lounge and died, just as a clock would stop when it runs down.”

The life of the tenement house was drawing to an end.  On November 3 1893 an advertisement in The Evening World offered “2d Floor, 5 rooms, 214 West 17^th st. $20.”  But earlier that year, on May 6, the Real Estate Record & Guide noted that the McCarthy heirs had sold the building for $16,000.

Nearly two years later, on March 23, 1895 The New York Times reported on the planned Siegel, Cooper Department store a block and a half away on Sixth Avenue.  The massive 85,560 square foot store would require an auxiliary facility as well.  Well-heeled Victorian shoppers rarely concerned themselves with taking their purchases with them.  And, in fact, the cumbersome size of packages containing large hats and gowns made such an endeavor nearly impossible.  Large emporiums therefore operated their own delivery services.

Real estate operators Simon Adler and Henry S. Herrmann demolished the 17^th Street tenement building to replace it with a six-story brick stable.  On July 13, 1895 the Record and Guide reported that Siegel, Cooper & Co. had leased the planned building "for a long term of years.”  The journal later said Adler & Herrmann’s stable was built “for occupancy by the Siegel-Cooper Co.’s extensive outfit of horses and wagons.”

Five floors of beige brick were trimmed in brownstone and ruddy-colored terra cotta.  They sat on a cast iron base where wide vehicle bays bustled with the comings and goings of horse-drawn delivery wagons.

The three-color scheme was executed in beige brick, ruddy terra cotta bands, and brownstone trim.

The department store’s “extensive outfit of horses and wagons” apparently soon outgrew the 17^th Street building and Seigel-Cooper erected its own building a block away.  The firm subleased Nos. 214-216 West 17^th Street to wagon manufacturer Ketterer & Kobler.

With minimal alterations, the stable was converted to Ketterer & Kobler’s business wagon factory.  Founded by Charles Percival Ketterer, the firm specialized in designing and manufacturing “specialty wagons.”  When the American Telephone and Telegraph embarked on its ambitious project of stringing telegraph lines across America, it turned to Kettering & Kobler for its vehicles.  Among the custom wagons it ordered were six-man sleeping wagons, kitchen and lunch wagons, and foremen’s wagons.

But, as had been the case with Siegel-Cooper; the 17^th Street facility became insufficient.  In 1904 Ketterer & Kobler laid plans for its own factory building two blocks away at Nos. 211-215 West 19^th Street.

The Sun, November 4, 1900 (copyright expired)

When Ketterer & Kobler moved out in 1905, John Conboy signed a ten-year lease on the 17^th Street property (still described as a stable by the New-York Tribune).  The total rent was set at $60,000—about $167,000 a year in today’s dollars.  Conboy operated the building as both a stable and warehouse.

The case iron base through which horse-drawn drays and later automobiles once came and went has been transformed to a residential entrance.

By the 1920s horses had almost completely disappeared from the streets of Manhattan.  In 1928 the old stable building, now owned by the Ascher Realty Corp., was converted to an automobile garage.  Trouble came in 1941 when members of the Garage Washers and Polishers Union went on strike.  Their methods went beyond picket lines, extending to violence.

On March 29, 1941 the Metropolitan Garage Board of Trade included the 17^th Street facility in its list of garages “crippled” by the hostility.  The board told reporters that “garage owners trying to perform a few simple services for customers were attacked by marauding bands who in some instances overturned cars.”

As the building continued to be used as a garage throughout the coming decades, its façade was little changed.  Then in 1981 it was converted to apartments—two per floor.   The renovation included a façade cleaning and a sympathetic transformation of the ground level to a residential entrance and lobby.

photographs by the author

The 1902 Siegel-Cooper Warehouse -- No. 249 West 17th Street

In 1902 the massive Siegel-Cooper Department Store on Sixth Avenue laid plans for a new warehouse nearby.  The store was just seven years old and had been leasing a combined store-warehouse building at Nos. 214-216 West 17^th Street—a structure erected especially for Siegel-Cooper.   But by now that facility was no longer sufficient for the store’s extensive stable of horses,  delivery wagons, and large stocks of goods.

A postcard captured the scope of the 85,560 square foot store.

On May 18, 1902 The New York Times reported that it was the Siegel-Cooper Company who had purchased “that part of the old Colonial Brewery property running through from 249 to 255 West Seventeenth Street to 236 to 242 West Eighteenth Street.”  The large plot stretched 97 feet along both streets.  The store announced its intentions to “erect a large storage warehouse.”

Within a week De Lemos & Cordes--the architectural firm that had designed Siegel-Cooper's exuberant Beaux Arts department store building--began work on the plans for the new building.  On May 24 it announced that the five-story building would be of “steel construction, with electric elevators, etc.”

By the time of the structure’s completion the five stories had grown to seven.  Matching facades on 17^th and 18^th Streets were understandably understated as compared with the Sixth Avenue store.  Yet the utilitarian structure boasted its own architectural flair.  The tripartite design was defined by two thick bandcourses.  Red brick rusticated piers that rose the height of the building along with segmental arched openings at the fifth floor comprised the sparse ornamentation of the upper floors.

For the first two floors, however, the architects used lusty terra cotta ornaments to distinguish the façade.  Each pier culminated with winged orbs bearing a sash emblazoned with SC&Co; and the bay doors were flanked by large, intricate wreaths.  These, most likely, originally framed the supports of decorative lamps.  Terra cotta keystones over the bays included the firm’s entwined monogram.  Directly above, brick pilasters with prim terra cotta capitals supported a metal entablature that announced the store’s name.

The up-to-date amenities of the 125,000 square foot warehouse went beyond electric elevators.  The Spectator, on March 31, 1904, noted “The plant is splendidly equipped with every modern fire-resisting and extinguishing appliance.”

The intricate terra cotta wreaths most likely served as frames for lamp brackets.

But the same year that The Spectator made the comment Henry Siegel was in trouble.  The man who had been called “the Napoleon of the Department Store industry” had overextended himself.  The Chicago-based businessman sold the New York operation to Joseph B. Greenhut for $500,000.  Greenhut later reported that Siegel wept during the transaction.

Greenhut’s purchase of the department store came at an ill-advised time.  Already the grand emporiums of what was known as the Ladies’ Mile were abandoning Sixth Avenue, following Roland Macy’s lead.  In 1902 he had shocked New York by moving Macy's department store ten blocks north of the shopping district, to 34^th Street and Broadway.

Nevertheless, Greenhut pushed on, confident that the Sixth Avenue shopping district would rebound.  His optimism was soon dashed.  By 1913 the expansive 17^th Street warehouse was no longer used for storage of goods; but had been converted to the Greenhut store’s cabinet-making shop.  For at least two years 20 men worked on custom furniture here.

In 1915 the Greenhut operation failed.    On December 4 that year The New York Times reported that Gimbel Brothers, located on Greeley Square just south of Macy’s, had leased the “former Siegel-Cooper warehouse” for $25,000 a year.

Eventually Gimbel Brothers purchased the property, retaining it for decades.  But by 1940 the department store was no longer using the warehouse and had converted it to offices and loft space.  In January that year the Saxon Paper Products Company took space; and three years later when Gimbels finally sold the building The Times noted “It is now occupied by the Jewel Sales Company and the Saxon Paper Company.”

The building would be sold and resold over the next decades.  In 1949 Saxon Paper Products was still here, sharing space with the Sinco Shoe Stores.

The old warehouse building received a startling internal make-over in 1983 when Benny Zucker took over 10,000 square feet for his silk flower business.  Zucker’s family had been importing artificial flowers from China for generations.  He hired a team to transform the space—two merchandising consultants, two architects, an illustrator, a lighting and an audio specialist.

The result was a gigantic showroom for handmade flowers—mostly of silk—featuring dramatic lighting, artistic tableaux, and the sounds of ducks, crickets, birds and waterfalls.  Customers purchased the items by the stem—ranging from 50 cents apiece to $5,000 for a fake tree.

The flower showroom made way for Barneys warehouse at the turn of the century.  Here the luxury retailer offered customers discounted merchandise for more than a decade.  On February 20, 2001 Times columnist Monte Williams commented on the undisguised pipes and wires, as well as the demeanor of the warehouse sale patrons.

“Barneys with eight stores in America, is known for its Spartan civilization.  But it warehouse sale is decidedly uncivilized.”

In 2013 Savanna, a real estate private-equity firm, purchased the old Siegel-Cooper warehouse along with the adjacent building at No. 245 West 17^th Street.  Vice President Kevin Hoo announced the firm’s intentions to spend $21 million to “preserve and enhance the loft-style aesthetic.”

The architectural firm Studios was commissioned to “reimagine” the buildings.  The resultant renovation preserved the original hardwood floors and exposed 17-foot ceilings, and restored the masonry façade.   Unlike so many vintage building make-overs that result in luxury housing; Savanna’s focus was on retail and office space.

It worked.  In 2013 the American home furnishings retailer Room & Board took 60,000 square feet for its flagship showroom; followed by Twitter which leased 140,000 square feet as its headquarters.  Savanna sold the building in 2014 for $335 million.

 

Except for the unfortunate loss of the cornice on both facades, and, of course, the sympathetic street level make-overs; little has changed to the 1902 Siegel-Cooper warehouse from which once teams of horses pulled package-filled drays to the homes of shoppers.

photographs by the author

"The Big Store" -- 1896 Siegel-Cooper Department Store

from the collection of the New York Public Library

In 1893 when the World’s Columbian Exposition opened in Chicago, Henry Siegel and Frank Cooper were running a highly successful department store there. The gleaming white, monumental architecture of the fair left a lasting impression on Siegel who suddenly envisioned a store unsurpassed world-wide.

Only two years later the designs had been drawn by architects DeLemos & Cordes; a colossal structure to be built on 6th Avenue – along the Ladies’ Mile – between 18th and 19th Street. It was intended to astound. As plans were prepared for filing with the Department of Buildings, The New York Times announced on March 23, 1895 the anticipated 85,560 square foot store.

“Siegel, Cooper & Co. have recognized, as progressive New-York merchants have recognized also, that a dry goods building need not be a public eyesore in the street… A splendid tower will be built on the Sixth Avenue side, in the centre of the front, that will reach 250 feet above the sidewalk. This tower will be surmounted by a great cluster of electric lights that will be visible from a long distance. The walls of the building are to be of different kinds of stone, gracefully ornamented.”

The $4 million that Siegel and Cooper spent on their “gracefully ornamented” building bought them the largest department store in the world. The scope of the structure was unheard of – six stories tall and a full block wide, stretching back to Fifth Avenue. Lavish Beaux-Arts ornamentation in marble, yellow brick, terra cotta, copper and bronze recalled “the grandeur of ancient Rome.”

Two gigantic bronze, fluted pillars supported the triple-arched entranceway. On the second floor over-sized windows allowed passengers on the 6th Avenue elevated train to window shop. A ramp enabled those same passengers to enter directly into the store on the second floor. In ornamentation, sheer size and grandeur, Siegel-Cooper outdid all competitors.  Henry Siegel deemed it "The Big Store."

Central to the first floor was a fountain in the center of which was a 13-foot high statue of “The Republic,” by Daniel C. French. Costing $15,000 it was brass with face and arms of white marble. Colored lights illuminated the fountain. “The figure is a heroic one of a female in classical garb,” said The New York Times. “The arms are extended upward. One hand supports a staff of Liberty, the other a golden orb, on which an eagle perches. On the globe glows an electric star, the light of which is in vacuum and opalescent…”

Before long the phrase “meet me at the fountain” was a catch-phrase for shoppers along the Ladies' Mile.

The day after the store’s opening in 1896, The New York Times reported that nearly 150,000 people attempted to enter the store. Inside 3,000 employees were waiting to serve them. “Persons visiting Siegel, Cooper & Co.’s store will be spared the annoyance of seeing over-worked shop girls behind the counters and children of stunted growth running up and down stairs. There will be separate elevators for the use of the employees,” said The New York Times. For its children employees, Siegel-Cooper provided a classroom and two hours of school per day.

In addition to the expected goods – silverware, linens, clothing and china, for instance -- Siegel-Cooper sold groceries (canned goods were canned on the premises), furniture, pets and hardware. An enormous refrigerated room kept meats and dairy foods fresh.  In the fish department, huge tanks displayed the live fish for the shopper's ease of choice. On the roof, an vast conservatory offered giant palms, orchids and rare plants for sale.

Francis Morrone and James Iska, in their The Architectural Guidebook to New York City, wrote “The quintessential New York experience was to buy a five-cent ice-cream soda and sit beside the fountain, taking in the pageant of fashionably attired women making their shopping rounds.”

A girl in pigtails follows her well-dressed mother base the colossal bronze columns.  A wooden show window projects onto the sidewalk.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

Of the 124 departments, some were found in no other shopping establishment. The store offered both a dentist and doctor office, a beautician and a barber shop, a post office, an office for theatre tickets and a bank.  In the basement the store operated its own plant for power, lighting, heating and ventilation.  The bicycle department had a track for test rides.

In September 1896 a rumor circulated that Siegel-Cooper would be offering a sale on bicycles -- $100 bikes would be sold for $9.99. Before dawn on September 14, 1896 several men in bicycle suits had lined up. By 7:00 the crowd had grown to a few hundred.

And it continued to grow.

An hour and a half later Police Captain Chapman estimated the number at 40,000, blocking 6th Avenue from 17th Street to 22nd. When the doors to the store were finally opened, one patrolman suffered two broken ribs in the crush of the crowd.  Upstairs in the bicycle department “The counter was overturned. The railings were broken. Cases of wheels were knocked down and men in trying to extricate themselves stepped on the bicycles and broke some,” reported The New York Times. “During the trouble dresses were torn and a few women fainted. No one besides the policemen were hurt much.”

There had never been any bicycles on sale that day.

By 1904 Henry Siegel, whom Joseph Devorkin called “the Napoleon of the Department Store Industry,” was financially over-extended. He sold his department store to Joseph B. Greenhut for $500,000. Greenhut later reported that Siegel cried during the transaction. Greenhut’s timing, however, was bad.

In 1902 the Macy Department Store had moved uptown to a block-encompassing emporium on West 34th Street.  Little by little the shopping district followed. By 1915 Greenhut’s store failed. Although he reorganized and reopened, it lasted only three years, closing for good in 1918.

As World War I raged overseas, Henry Siegel’s Renaissance-style palace was put into use as a military hospital. Where Edwardian ladies with broad-brimmed hats had shopped for laces and Limoges teacups, doughboys now recuperated in make-shift wards.

World War I soldiers at the US Debarkation Hospital #3 within the Siegel-Cooper Building.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

After the war the grand structure was reduced to loft space. In 1937 the central tower was removed and at some point the statue of The Republic from the fountain was shipped off to Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Tishman Speyer purchased the mostly-empty building in 1987 and in 1991 exterior restoration was initiated. Now, along with most of the great emporiums of The Ladies’ Mile, the Siegel-Cooper building has been rejuvenated with new stores. The Siegel-Cooper had little alteration to its façade even at street level and the exterior looks very much as it did on opening day in 1896.

photographs by the author