Lord & Taylor Building

History and architecture

Lord & Taylor is one of New York City’s oldest retail stores and a recognized innovator in the history of department stores. The store traces its origins to the dry goods store established on Catherine Street in 1826 by Samuel Lord and his partner George Washington Taylor. As residential New York continued its northward momentum, Lord & Taylor, like other retailers, followed, relocating several times before moving to Fifth Avenue and 38th Street.

Starrett & Van Vleck’s 1913-14 building for Lord & Taylor marks a turning point in retail design. The dignified, Italian Renaissance Revival store with its prominent chamfered corner, deep copper cornice, austere limestone base, gray face-brick center section and two-story colonnade was the first “frankly commercial” building along the fashionable Fifth Avenue shopping district then developing above 34th Street. On Fifth Avenue the formal two-story arched entrance, is flanked by two tiers of display windows; those on the lower tier annually showcase the store’s animated holiday displays.

In 1945, Lord & Taylor elected Dorothy Shaver as president of the store, the first woman to hold that position in a prominent retail store. A major force in retailing, Ms. Shaver, during her long tenure with Lord & Taylor , promoted new trends in home décor with the 1928 Exposition of Modern French Decorative Art, designed by Ely Jacques Kahn; fostered American fashion designers like Bonnie Cashin, Claire McCardell and Vera Maxwell; and created entirely new departments offering junior, misses, petite, bridal and maternity fashions.

Under her aegis, noted designer Raymond Loewy updated selling floors and was instrumental in the design of the earliest suburban branch stores. Under succeeding administrations Lord & Taylor continued to expand its network of stores nationwide. Lord & Taylor was incorporated by its president Edward Hatch in 1904. In 1910 it became part of United Dry Goods Company, which later became the Associated Dry Goods Company. Lord & Taylor was sold to the private equity firm NRDC Equity Partners in 2006.