Alexander Turney Stewart
Alexander Stewart | |
---|---|
Belfast Academical Institution | |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse |
Cornelia Mitchell Clinch
(m. 1823) |
Alexander Turney Stewart (October 12, 1803 – April 10, 1876) was an American[1] entrepreneur who moved to New York and made his multimillion-dollar fortune in the most extensive and lucrative dry goods store in the world.
Stewart was born in Lisburn, Ulster, Ireland, and abandoned his original aspirations of becoming a Presbyterian minister to go to New York City in 1823. He spent a short time teaching before returning to Ireland to receive the money his grandfather had left him, purchase some Belfast linens and laces, and return to New York to open a store.
Stewart had extraordinary skill in business, and by 1848 he had built a large marble-fronted store on Broadway between Chambers Street and Reade Street, which was devoted to the wholesale branch of his business. In 1862 he built a new store covering an entire city block between Broadway and Fourth Avenue and between 9th and 10th streets. It was eight stories tall and attracted the wonder and business of upscale New York. Trainloads of wealthy customers from outlying cities came to shop.
Stewart made most of his money through wholesaling and especially New York City real estate. He opened branches of the company in other parts of the world and owned several mills and factories. He had an annual income of
Early years
Alexander Turney Stewart was born in Lisburn, Ireland, to Scottish Protestant parents on October 12, 1803. Three weeks after his birth, Stewart's farmer father died of tuberculosis. About two years later Stewart's mother remarried and followed her new husband to America, leaving Stewart behind to be raised by his grandfather, John Torney.
Torney wanted his only grandson to become a minister in the
Upon completing his formal education at
After six weeks at sea, Stewart arrived at his mother's home. He became a $300-a-year tutor at Isaac N. Bragg's Academy, a school for wealthy youths on
A. T. Stewart & Co.
Historians know little about Stewart's life between 1818 and 1822, except that he returned to Ireland upon receiving his grandfather's inheritance of value between US$5,000 and $10,000. The will pertaining to Stewart stated:
- I bequeath to my dear grandson ALEXANDER all the rest of my property, houses, and land, with the appurtenances thereto, stock, crop, and chattels of every kind. The money arising from the sale of the property devised to him to be subject to the payment by my said grandson ALEXANDER T. STEWART of an annuity to his grandmother, MARTHA STEWART, of three guineas a year during her life.[4]
Upon returning to New York City in 1823, Stewart married Cornelia on October 16. Before marrying, Stewart opened his first store, located at 283 Broadway, which sold Irish fabrics and domestic calicos purchased with funds from his inheritance and earnings as a tutor.
The store opened on September 1, 1823, just across from City Hall Park, north of Chambers Street on the opposite side of Broadway from where his later Marble Palace was to stand. Rented for $375 a year, it measured 12.5 feet wide by 30 feet deep, rather small by today's standards but average during the 19th century. A larger front section used for the business was divided by a thin wall from a smaller back section which served as Stewart's residence.
Unlike other dry goods competitors located along Pearl Street, Stewart placed his store several blocks west on Broadway. He believed customers would travel to buy goods where they could most easily find the best prices, stating that the key to success was not where the store was placed, but rather where "to obtain wholesale trade to undersell competitors".[5]
When first opening the store, Stewart placed cases full of merchandise along the sidewalk in front of the store as a way of advertising his establishment. Stewart claimed that "the messy clutter in front of the store and pushing crowds advertised the business."[6]
As he rose to the top of the retail developers, Stewart included no signs on any place of his store and did not use any advertisements until May 13, 1831. He felt that anyone who wanted to shop in his store would "know where it was located."[7]
A natural salesman, Stewart realized that "you will deal with ignorant, opinionated and innocent people. You will often have an opportunity to cheat them. If they could, they would cheat you, or force you to sell at less than cost. You must be wise, but not too wise. You must never actually cheat the customer, even if you can.... You must make her happy and satisfied, so she will come back."[8] Stewart held that the key to establishing a great business was to make friends with the customers and encourage their return, i.e., to focus on customer service.[3]
Between 1846 and 1848, the construction and finishing details of one of Stewart's most famous buildings, the "Marble Palace" at 280 Broadway, were completed. This establishment, "the cradle of the department store",[9] sent A. T. Stewart & Company to the top of America's most successful retailers.
The building, originally four stories over a ground floor supported on cast-iron Corinthian columns, survives at 280 Broadway at the corner of Chambers Street,[10] just across from his first store. It offered imported European women's clothing. In addition to its merchandise, the second floor offered the first women's "fashion shows" as full-length mirrors enabled women to view themselves from different angles.
The Italianate design, faced with Tuckahoe marble, featured four floors of pedimented windows, the first commercial building in the United States to display an extravagant exterior. Inside, Stewart wanted not only to display his merchandise, but to emphasize natural light from the structure's central rotunda and high ceilings.
"The Marble Palace" claimed to be one of the first "big stores" that sold merchandise and was a huge financial success. In 1855 Stewart's personal fortune was estimated to be $2.25 million.
However, in 1862, Stewart's "true" department store, referred to as the "Iron Palace", was built. This six-story building, with its
By 1877 it had expanded to thirty departments, carrying a wide variety of items. As noted by The New York Times, "a man may fit up his house there down to the bedding, carpets and upholstery."[12]
The Iron Palace building was taken over in 1882 by Hilton, Hughes & Co. (who were associates of Stewart), then by Wanamaker's department store in 1896, ultimately burning down in 1956.[13][14] Drawings of the interior from the Hilton, Hughes era.
Mail order business
A. T. Stewart & Company did not go unnoticed throughout the country. Along with his successful retail store in New York City, Stewart also established himself as one of the wealthiest men in the United States by allowing women all over the country to purchase and order items from his wholesale department store.
Beginning in 1868, Stewart began receiving letters from women in rural parts of the United States requesting his merchandise. Stewart promptly replied to these letters and orders by sending out the requested products and even paying the postage. Once their orders were received, women would send back the payment for them.
Seeing potential for the
Defeated for Secretary of the Treasury
In March 1869 President Ulysses S. Grant offered Stewart the position of Secretary of the Treasury (after Joseph Seligman had declined it), but he was not confirmed by the United States Senate. One impediment to Stewart's appointment was a provision in the 1789 law which established the Treasury Department, prohibiting an importer from heading the Department. Grant requested the two houses of Congress to override the provision, but upon the objection of Charles Sumner, the request was not considered in the Senate. The main reason was that Republicans were angry with Stewart for supporting President Andrew Johnson, and for opposing high protective tariffs that the GOP promoted in its appeal to industry.[15]
Fifth Avenue mansion
In 1869 and 1870 A. T. Stewart built the first of the grand
It had three main floors and an attic in a mansard roof. A mezzanine floor at cornice height was used for storage. The house was separated from the sidewalks by a moat-like light well that lit the service areas in the basement. The main parlor ran the full length of the house's Fifth Avenue frontage.
On the death of Stewart's widow in 1886, it was rented as premises for the Manhattan Club and was portrayed in paint in 1891 by Childe Hassam.[17] The structure was razed in 1901 to make way for the new premises of the Knickerbocker Trust Company.
Central Railroad
Stewart incorporated the
Death and influence
Before Stewart died in 1876, he had succeeded in creating his own manufacturing facilities. He wanted to have his own mills to supply his wholesale and retail operations. With these mills, located in New York and New England, Stewart produced his own woolen fabrics and employed thousands of workers. Stewart also served on several New York State Chamber of Commerce Committees between 1862 and 1871. Though never elected as a New York State officer, he attended Lincoln's funeral as a Chamber delegate.
Before his death he was building at
Stewart died as one of the richest men in New York, just behind a
The body of Stewart was stolen from its tomb, between nine o'clock on the evening of November 6, and daylight on the morning of November 7, 1878,[21] 2 years, 6 months, 24 days after his burial at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery. The remains were held for $20,000 ransom. The ransom was paid and remains were returned, although never verified as his. A local legend states that the mausoleum holding his remains is rigged with security devices that will cause the bells of the Cathedral to ring if ever disturbed.[22][23]
According to biographer Harry Resseguie, his vast fortune was soon lost. It:
Was either wasted in inept business ventures, poured into charities never contemplated by its owner, or frittered away in dissipation, luxurious living, or in fees to a swarm of lawyers during a quarter-century of litigation over the estate.[24]
The bulk of the Stewart fortune, willed to Mrs. Stewart with Judge Henry Hilton as trustee, was the subject of protracted litigation, although a swarm of long-lost Turney relatives were quickly dismissed. Claims were based in part on Mrs. Stewart's hasty transfer of the dry goods business in 1876 to Hilton, in exchange for the $1,000,000 willed to Hilton, who carried on the business under the name E. J. Denning & Co.[25]
Mrs. Stewart, who lived quietly in New York and at the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga Springs, New York, which she inherited, died of pneumonia October 25, 1886,[26] and ex-Judge Hilton died there 24 August 1899.
In 1896, the Iron Palace was bought by
Posthumous libel
On May 1, 1890, a notice appeared in the New York Times announcing
See also
- Baltimore, Maryland-based chain of department stores
- Stewart Dry Goods an unrelated now-defunct Louisville, Kentucky chain
- A. T. Stewart (pilot boat) the name of this boat was nominated by the friends of Mr. Stewart
Notes
- ^ "Alexander Turney Stewart | American merchant | Britannica".
- Gross Domestic Product deflatorfigures follow the MeasuringWorth series.
- ^ a b "The Wealthiest Americans Ever". The New York Times. July 15, 2007.
- ^ Elias, 6.
- ^ Elias, 11
- ^ Hubbard, 109.
- ^ Elias, 15.
- ^ Hubbard, 112.
- ^ "A. T. Stewart Company Store". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived 2011-06-05 at the Wayback Machine 30 June 2009.
- ^ a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 912.
- ^ Jensen, Joan M. and Sue Davidson, eds. A Needle, A Bobbin, A Strike: Women Needleworkers in America. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1984, p. 63.
- ^ Elias, 24.
- ^ "EV Transitions: A.T. Stewart, John Wanamaker, the Great Fire, and the Great Flood (Part I)". 12 November 2010.
- ^ "EV Transitions: A.T. Stewart, John Wanamaker, the Great Fire, and the Great Flood (Part II)". 16 November 2010.
- ^ Harry E. Resseguie, "Federal Conflict of Interest: The A.T. Stewart Case: A Century-Old Episode with Current Implications." New York History 47.3 (1966): 271-301 online.
- ^ "Interior of A.T. Stewart Residence: Six Flights of Splendor". www.vintagedesigns.com.
- ^ The Manhattan Club (The Stewart Mansion) is at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (illustration Archived 2006-05-09 at the Wayback Machine).
- ^ "The Richest Americans - 3". Fortune. February 2007. Archived from the original on 23 February 2007.
- ^ With an estimated wealth at death of $50,000,000, Stewart's wealth/GDP ratio equaled 1/178.
- ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
- ^ James Carroll Power, "History of an Attempt to Steal the Body of Abraham Lincoln" (1890), p. 80
- ^ Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of New York (1928).
- ^ Door Wayne Fanebust, The Missing Corpse: Grave Robbing a Gilded Age Tycoon.
- ^ Harry E. Resseguie, “The Decline and Fall of the Commercial Empire of A. T. Stewart.” The Business History Review, vol. 36, no. 3, 1962, pp. 255–286. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3111398 online]
- ^ The National Cycloppaedia of American Biography, s.v. "Stewart, Alexander Turney".
- ^ After legacies to the Smith family to the amount of $1,200,000; to the Butler family of $300,000; to her three half sisters $10,000 each annually during life, and to her brother (since dead) $20,000 annually, her will stipulated the residue be given in equal shares to Charles J. Clinch and Henry Hilton. New York Times 17 April 1888, abstract.
- ^ Elias, 24
- ^ "Defending Stewart's Memory", New York Times (May 1, 1890)
Further reading
- Birmingham, Stephen, ISBN 0-425-07557-5
- All Biographies: Alexander Turney Stewart. 2005. Webified Concepts, LLC.
- Did You Know?: Featuring A Historically Significant Lower Manhattan Attraction. 2005. Company 39, Inc.
- Elias, Stephen. Alexander T. Stewart: The Forgotten Merchant Prince. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1992.
- Hubbard, Elbert. AT Stewart: Little Journeys To The Homes Of Forgotten Business Men. V. 25: No. 4. East Aurora, NY: The Roycrofters, 1909.
- Iarocci, Louisa. The Urban Department Store in America, 1850-1930 (Routledge, 2017).
- Laermans, Rudi. "Learning to consume: early department stores and the shaping of the modern consumer culture (1860-1914)." Theory, Culture & Society 10.4 (1993): 79-102.
- Resseguie, Harry E. "Alexander Turney Stewart and the development of the department store, 1823-1876." Business History Review 39.03 (1965): 301-322. in JSTOR
- Resseguie, Harry E. "A.T. Stewart's marble palace—The cradle of the department store." New York Historical Society Quarterly 48.2 (1964): 130-162.
- Resseguie, Harry E. "The Decline and Fall of the Commercial Empire of AT Stewart." Business History Review 36.3 (1962): 255-286.
- Smith, Matthew Hale. "Alexander T. Stewart." Ch. IV of Sunshine and Shadow in New York. Hartford: J. B. Burr and Company (1869): 52-62.
External links
- 1918 Biographical Sketch
- Gilding the Gilded Age: Interior Decoration Tastes & Trends in New York City A collaboration between The Frick Art Collection and The William Randolph Hearst Archive at LIU Post.