280 Broadway
|
A. T. Stewart Dry Goods Store
(Sun Building) |
|
(2013)
|
|
| Location | 280 Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, New York |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 40°42′51.3″N 74°0′22″W / 40.714250°N 74.00611°WCoordinates: 40°42′51.3″N 74°0′22″W / 40.714250°N 74.00611°W |
| Built | 1845-1846, 1850-51, 1851-52, 1872, 1884 |
| Architect |
John B. Snook of Joseph Trench & Co. Trench & Snook (1850-51, 51-52) Frederick Schmidt (1872) Edward D. Harris (1884) |
| Architectural style | Italianate |
| NRHP Reference # | 78001885 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | June 2, 1978 |
| Designated NHL | June 2, 1978 |
| Designated NYCL | October 7, 1986 |
280 Broadway – also known as the A.T. Stewart Dry Goods Store, the Marble Palace, and the Sun Building – an historic building located between Chambers and Reade Streets in the Civic Center district of Manhattan, New York City, was the first commercial building in the Italianate style in New York City. It was designed by John B. Snook of Joseph Trench & Company, with later additions by other architects. It was built for the A. T. Stewart Company, which opened New York's first department store in it. It later housed the New York Sun newspaper and is now the central offices for the New York City Department of Buildings.
The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965, and was designated a New York City landmark in 1986.
Alexander Turney Stewart had opened his mercantile business across the street, but when it started to prosper, he had what became known as the "Marble Palace" built on the site of Washington Hall, the former headquarters of the Federalist Party. Stewart's department store featured a number of marketing innovations designed to increase the volume of turnover and keep up with the increasing capacity of industrial manufacturing. He was among the first to set fixed prices for his goods and drew female customers through special sales and fashion shows. The success of his store inspired numerous imitations north along a five block strip of Broadway. At the height of their success in the 1850s, this portion of Broadway became popular among the city's elite for window shopping while parading in the latest fashions.
The building was the first commercial structure in the city in the Italianate style, and the first to be clad in Tuckahoe marble – after 1850 supported by cast iron on the ground floors – both of which set the style for the "commercial palaces" which followed it.
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