Since “Ladies’ Mile” begins at 14th Street, Tiffany and Company, which moved to Union Square in 1870, is a good starting point for our stroll. The company was founded in 1837 by Charles Lewis Tiffany as a “stationary and fancy goods” store on lower Broadway. On the opening day of the new store The New York Times stated that “the building is the largest of its kind devoted to this business of any in the world…” (Nov. 12, 1870, p.2).

You might want to stop for tea at Vantine’s tearoom at 879 Broadway before browsing at W.J. Sloane next door. Sloane’s was originally located across from City Hall in 1843 and it then moved uptown to 649-655 Broadway. In 1882, 880-886 Broadway was constructed. It was built as a retail store with six floors selling furniture and rugs, and an addition on the east side of the building in 1898 was reserved for carpets. The store was known for the quality of its goods and it attracted customers from all over.

If you were looking for clothing you might shop at Arnold Constable & Company on 19th Street and Broadway. Like many of the other stores in the district, Arnold Constable & Company had its origins downtown on Front Street where Aaron Arnold opened a small dry goods store in 1825. It moved in 1853 to larger quarters and then in 1868 to Broadway. It catered to an elite clientele and the wives of Grover Cleveland, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller were known to have shopped there. The New York Times noted that: “There is an air of quiet about the store, and an absence of bustle and crowding around their long counters: but if the number of the day’s sales be comparatively small, the great costliness of the goods carries the amount received to very high figures.” (Dec. 16, 1872, p.2)

Further down Broadway at 19th Street, was the Gorham building, an example of the Queen Anne style of architecture. Occupying 889-891 Broadway, it was constructed in 1883-84, with the first two floors devoted to the selling of fine silver. Eventually the company took over all eight stories of the building. On opening day the New York Times stated that the Gorham Manufacturing Company was “the most extensive silverware house in this country,…” (May 28, 1884).

The next shopping stop might be Lord & Taylor on the corner of 20th Street and Broadway. Founded in 1826, its first location was on Catherine Street, but retail was on the move and by 1861 Lord & Taylor was on Broadway and Grand Street. Outgrowing that location it next moved to a five story commercial building designed by James H. Giles on 20th Street. This building also became too small and in 1890 they acquired the adjacent structure at 6 East 20th Street and over the next decade took over many of the buildings on the block bounded by Broadway and 5th Avenue from 19th to 20th Street.