The history of 675 Avenue of the Americas
From Adams Dry Goods to Trader Joe’s
Quartz is moving to a new office. We’re documenting it here because many of our questions apply to other growing startups. Our introductory post explains more about what we’re up to. Follow our publication for updates.
Many of us at Quartz are history nerds, so it seemed fitting to explore the century or so that preceded our move to the Flatiron District. We’re thinking about ways to incorporate this history into the space.
Our new office is on the fourth floor of 675 Avenue of the Americas, more commonly known as Sixth Avenue, between 21st and 22nd Streets. The building was constructed in 1901 and 1902 to house Adams Dry Goods, a new department store in the burgeoning shopping district known as Ladies Mile. That area was the original home of many renowned retailers, including Bergdorf Goodman, Lord & Taylor, and Tiffany & Co.
Samuel Adams—not the early American statesman—had been successfully selling clothing, homeware, and other merchandise to affluent shoppers who frequented the neighborhood. He decided that a more stately, six-story structure would befit Adams Dry Goods, and commissioned the architecture firm De Lemos & Cordes, which had designed many buildings in the area that housed rival stores like the famous Siegel-Cooper Dry Goods.
The building went up in pieces, so shopping could continue during construction. Its Beaux Arts design was similar to Siegel-Cooper and other department stores nearby, evoking a theater or other public building. Its granite facade, accented by four Ionic columns, suggested commercial success. A rectangular atrium of green and white marble ran through the entire structure, allowing natural light to shine on the pricey merchandise. Pneumatic tubes, a relatively new technology in American retail, zipped cash around the store to quickly make change for customers.
Adams Dry Goods was erected around the same time as the Flatiron Building, which would become the neighborhood’s iconic piece of architecture and its namesake. The Flatiron also sported a Beaux Arts style but was more notable for its triangular base. It originally housed some retail stores and a restaurant at ground level, with offices in the 19 floors above.
Despite all the fancy shopping along Sixth Avenue, it was still a gritty scene. The IRT railway clamored overhead, and horse manure lined the street. (Adams put his men’s clothing on the second floor to attract the notice of train commuters.) Skeptics thought it a poor location for a new retail shopping boom.
They were right. Macy’s had established the neighborhood in the first place when it opened on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets. But in 1902, the same year that Adams Dry Goods debuted its new building, Macy’s up and left for Herald Square at 34th Street and Broadway. It was the beginning of the end for Ladies Mile. B. Altman, another huge department store, decamped for Fifth Avenue in 1906.
As business waned, Adams sold his store to Hugh O’Neill, whose O’Neill Dry Goods immediately to the south was a lower-priced competitor. They prevailed for a time, with three floors devoted to furniture. But soon, the combined business failed, too. Adams Dry Goods shut down in 1913.
The building’s history over the next century is a microcosm of downtown Manhattan’s economy. It was partially vacant for long stretches of time and only fully revitalized in the 1980s, when a new owner converted the building into office spaces above the ground floor. Ladies Mile became an historic district in 1989. Here’s an abbreviated history of tenants that occupied the building between the closure of Adams Dry Goods and today:
1910s: US Army storage
1920s: The Hershey Company
1930s: Various warehouses
1940s: Central Time Clock, Inc.
1960s: Milton Paper Co.
1980s: Mattel, Inc.
1990s: Barnes & Noble
2000s: Trader Joe’s and Gap
2010s: Michael’s, Harmon Face Values, eBay, Weight Watchers
Among those tenants, the most notable are Hershey, which produced chewing gum there, Mattel, for which the building has recently been named, and Trader Joe’s, now its best-known occupant. The entrance of Barnes & Noble helped spark a rebirth of the retail district, which now includes Bed, Bath & Beyond and the Container Store just a few blocks to the south. But the bookstore closed a decade later, and the anchor tenants are now grocery store Trader Joe’s and crafts shop Michael’s.
We’re still figuring out how to incorporate this history into our new office. Maybe we’ll hang some of the old photographs. Maybe the coffee area will be called Adams Dry Goods. And as we’re walking into the building, we’ll know something about the initials ADG still inscribed on the corners.
These sources were invaluable in assembling the history of the building:
- New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, report on the Ladies Mile historic district (pdf, pages 385–391)
- New York City Department of Buildings, property profile overview for 675 Avenue of the Americas
- Tom Miller, “The 1900 Adams & Co. Building — 675 Sixth Avenue,” Daytonian in Manhattan, Oct. 7, 2010
- Christopher Gray, “Make-Overs on Lower Sixth Avenue; In a Department Store Graveyard, New Signs of Life,” The New York Times, Dec. 12, 1993
- Guelda Voien, “New York Retail Explained,” The New York Observer, Dec. 9, 2009
