The New York herald., 1922-03-26
By J. CLYDEsDALE CUsHMAN.


Three-quarters Of century ago Jules
Verne anticipated the invention OF the
submarine in his Twenty Thousand
Leagues Under the Sea-" Fifteen years
ago. while the airplane was still In Its
infancy, II. G. Wells wrote of a battle
in the clouds. 1t needs no such power
OF vision as these writer's possessed,
however, to foresee the part that Fifty
seventh street will play in the logical
business development Of New York. A
pretty definite conclusion may be ar
rived at after brief study of the his
tory OF New York and the rapid shifting
or commercial sections which accom-
panied the upbuilding OF the great city.
II Is the fact that history repeats itself
that affords such substantial basis for
optimism regarding the future Of Fifty
seventh street.
Looking away back among the records
OF the great business institutions that
form the backbone of New York to-day
We find In 1927 Arnold & Hearn, the
present James A. Hearn store. was To-
Gated at Canal street Lord & Taylor
In 1893 were situated at 47-49 Cath
arine street and in 1850 the retail CEN
ter OF New York was between Worth
and Canal streets, with such firms estab-
lished in this section as Arnold Con-
stable, Seaman 4 Muir, James A. Hearn.
Lord < Taylor still remained in Cath
arine street soon after moving TO
Grand and Christie streets. In 1853 the
w. & j. Sloane carpet warehouse was at
Broadway and Park place.
The trend of the retail business move
ment has always been upward, and as
New York has grown In size and popu-
lation. has become more rapid. In 1858
the shopping section moved TO Four
teenth street, with II. III. Macy & Co. at
204 sixth avenue and Tiffany dominat-
ins Vnion Square. BY 1875 one finds
TINT practically all OF the big stores
were located between Tenth and Twenty
third streets, Broadway to Sixth avenue.
The trend then centered around Twenty
third street.
u. III. Macy & Co. were the first to
make n break and move to Thirty fourth
street. The sound foresight OF this
move was readily demonstrated In their
being followed by McCreery. and when
u. Altman & Co. moved from Sixth
avenue and Eighteenth street. buying
the larger part of the block they now
Oithpgs Nlt INN ~ EbrtN boOHl
was started.
The progress OF the great retail stores
was closely followed by smaller shops.
banks, trust companies and business
buildings in this section. Shortly after
this the Knickerbocker Trust Company
Building replaced the old A. T. Stewart
establishment ON Thirty-fourth street.
About twenty years ago the Monolith
Building was erected there by the late
Samuel Green. This was the first large
reinforced concrete building in New
York. and Il is interesting TO note the
contrast between the Monolith Building
and the great steel structures. such as
the woolworth. Equitable Life. Heck
scher and other buildings OF to-day.
It was about seventeen years ago
when W. X. Martin. principal owner OF
Rogers, Peet & Co. built the Marbridge
Building on the site or the old Broad
way Tabernacle, and the North River
Savings Bank Building was erected The
latter was recently purchased by Fred
erick Brown. The Cheseboro- Potter
Freedman Syndicate bought property nj
West Thirty-fourth street about 1907.
| erecting building WHO'RE, incidentally,