FREE: 1900 W & J Sloane Company-NYC-Postal Card

The listing, 1900 W & J Sloane Company-NYC-Postal Card has ended.

The stretch of Broadway just above Union Square saw the rise of grand emporiums in the years after the Civil War. Arnold Constable & Company erected its Second Empire extravaganza in 1869, to be followed a year later by Lord & Taylor’s similar ornate structure.

Across Broadway, between 18th and 19th Street, W. & J. Sloane would build something entirely different.

By now the Sloane firm had come a long way from its founding in 1843. William Sloane had learned the craft of weaving in his native Scotland. Nine years after arriving in New York, he opened a store on Broadway across from City Hall where he sold oilcloth floor coverings and carpets. When his brother, John, joined him in 1852 the firm became W. & J. Sloane.

The store had gained a reputation for high-quality goods by the end of the Civil War and catered to New York’s carriage trade. With the death of their father and uncle, William’s three sons – John, William D. and Henry T.—carried on the business.

Like other businesses, the Sloane company followed the northward march of commerce; moving to 501 Broadway in 1855, to 591 Broadway six years later, then to 649-655 Broadway. In 1881 the Sloanes were ready to relocate again.

Property was purchased on the east side of Broadway, lots 800 through 880, in the city’s most fashionable shopping district. Architect William Wheeler Smith was put to work designing a store that would look nothing like any of the surrounding emporiums. Completed in 1882 it was six stories of brick, stone, cast iron and terra cotta that melded Renaissance, Baroque and Gothic elements into what has been called by some the “Commercial Palace Style.” Cornices above the first, third, fifth and sixth floors accentuated the horizontal, while shallow brick pilasters stretched upward. Smith playfully embellished the façade—particularly within the terra cotta capitals of the pilasters—with birds, monsters, angels and other fantastic figures. Mailed correctly and shipped free.