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A Pittsburgh “Urban” Suprise!

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette advertisement

October 28, 1929 advertisement for the Urban Room in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 

While recently attending a conference in Pittsburgh I received a very pleasant surprise. The site of the conference was the Omni William Penn Hotel, a historic downtown Pittsburgh hotel that first opened in 1916. The majority of the hotel is typical nineteen-teens decor, with an ornate lobby and public spaces.

 

The William Penn Hotel

The exterior of the William Penn Hotel, opened in 1916.

 

 

Through the teens and the 1920’s the William Penn became the première hotel in Pittsburgh. As the 1920’s reached its climax the hotel expanded onto Grant Street. Included in the expansion plans an ultra modern night club would open on the 17th floor. Legendary designer, Joseph Urban would be responsible for bringing New York sophistication to Pittsburgh. Urban had already designed sets for the Ziegfeld Follies, Ziegfeld Shows such as Show Boat and Rio Rita and the Metropolitan Opera.

 

Joseph Urban

Joseph Urban, circa 1925 – image from Columbia University Rare Book Library

 

Urban worked on the Urban Room of the William Penn Hotel concurrently with the redesign of New York’s Central Park Casino. The Urban Room opened on May 9, 1929. The following day the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported:

                                          Dinner, Dance End New Hotel Annex Opening

                                     More than 1,500 are present at the William Penn Fete

Last night, for the first time, the Urban room, connecting the seventeenth floor addition to the ballroom, was thrown open. The interior was designed by Joseph Urban, New York, famous for his stage settings, and is done in a motif of gold and black.

The decoration is carried out in the colors of Pittsburgh from top to bottom, with the chandelier particularly unusual. An immense garden is at one end of the room and , when completed, six setting of flowers, greens and rocks will convert the space into the appearance of an outdoor bower.

The Urban Room

The Urban Room in Pittsburgh’s colors of black and gold.

 

The Pittsburgh Press had this to say of the Urban Room in its June 23, 1929 edition:

                                                        Up Above The World So High

Like a gem in the social sky, shines the newly opened Urban Room of the William Penn Hotel. There amid the gold and ebony splendor of Joseph Urban’s latest and most artistic work, in the topmost corner of the new addition we are going to lunch, dine and dance this summer. It’s delightful how cool it is there and how little competition there is between the soft strains of the orchestra and the great outside. And it will be smarter than sun tan this summer to be seen here with your friends, particularly your out-of-town friends, who demand the best in town. Now our hunger for a cosmopolitan touch to our city can be satisfied by this lovely place presented at just the right time to fill Pittsburgh’s needs.

 

The walls of the Urban Room are alternating painted panels that continue the ceiling mural down to the floor and black Carrara glass (Vitrolite). The effect is striking if a bit subdued.

 

 

The delight that Pittsburgh felt about this new restaurant can be seen in this article from the Pittsburgh Press on June 30, 1929:

 

Urban Room article.

Pittsburgh Press article about the Urban Room, June 30, 1929.

 

With so much of Joseph Urban’s work demolished you can imagine my surprise when I entered the room encountering this high Art Deco space. It is amazing to me that the Urban Room has remained basically unchanged for nearly ninety years. The flowers, greens and rocks mentioned in an article above are gone, but everything else is intact. I initially missed the Historic Landmark wall plaque outside of the Urban Room, so I was unprepared for what I saw. After a few minutes of looking around it seemed to me to be a Joseph Urban design, especially the ceiling mural. I was told about the plaque later and I made sure to get a photo of it.

 

Urban Room Wall Plaque.

The Historic Landmark Wall Plaque outside the Urban Room.

 

As noted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article of 05/10/1929 the “particularly unusual chandelier” is still the centerpiece of the room. A large circular, bronze piece with “sun rays” shooting off it in all directions, hanging from the ceiling by cascading bronze tubes. It is very striking.

 

Should you happen to be visiting Pittsburgh and you like Art Deco, try to see the Urban Room, you won’t regret it.

 

Anthony & Chris (The Freakin’, Tiquen’ Guys)

 

If you enjoyed this blog post you might also enjoy these earlier posts:

Vanished New York City Art Deco: Stewart and Company / Bonwit Teller

The Central Park Casino, Joseph Urban’s long, lost New York City Night Club

 

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Do you know the Muffin Man?

Well, good for you! This post is not about the Muffin Man that lives on Drury Lane. It is about the Pretzel Man!

 

If you read our prior post about the Kensington Giftware line, then you know the Great Depression of 1929 influenced many companies to reimagine their products in creative ways to survive. Chase Co., primarily known for plumbing fittings, was no exception. Reinventing itself, Chase Co. quickly and wisely diversified making household items from available plumbing stock by collaborating with fashionable designers such as Lurelle Guild, Harry Laylon, Russell Wright and Walter Von Nessen. Using their designs, Chase Co. produced  both beautiful and useful items for every occasion. In some cases, the items were just for fun!

 

The signing of the Cullen-Harrison Act into law on March 22, 1933 by President Franklin Roosevelt, legalized beer and wine with low alcohol content. Ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment on December 5, 1933 repealed the Eighteenth Amendment. The end of prohibition influenced the development of bar-ware on a massive scale by many companies and directly lead to the whimsical Pretzel Man.

 

From the fertile mind of Lurelle Guild, he was depicted in 1933 advertisements and was part of the 1934-1936 Chase catalog in a polished copper finish with a brass spike. A New York Herald Tribune article from June 25, 1933 described this fellow as “frivolous” – meant in the kindest way, of course! The cost? $1.00. Although featured in polished chrome in the ad shown above (and at an advertised cost of $1.75), he did not make an appearance in the Chase Co. catalog with this finish until 1935. Very little information is available about this fellow beyond the obvious.

In copper, he would fall into the “hard to find” range at a cost of $100-$120. The chrome would be in the “difficult to find” range and you can expect to pay $180-$200. In either version, it is incomplete without the spike. As seen above, I am fortunate to own a copper one, with it’s spike, found for half the estimated value.  He is approximately 9 inches wide and 16 inches tall.  More than half the height is the spike.  A word of caution, the spike is very long and can be dangerous.  Be sure to use with caution.

 

Several of the copper version are currently available on popular auction sites. One is complete and a reasonable $110.00 asking price. Another one is for sale at a whopping $495 and missing the spike!

 

I hope you enjoyed this brief post about a fun deco collectible. (And thanks to my “hand models” – Susanna, Jonathan and Anthony.)

Chris and Anthony (The Freakin’, Tiquen’ Guys)

If you enjoyed spending time with the Pretzelman you might enjoy these earlier         Driving For Deco Posts –

Cocktails for Two . . . or More

Napier Cocktail Shaker – Weekend Find

Kensington, Deco Aluminum Giftware

 

 

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Fiestaware 101: Part Four Promotional Campaign 1940 – The Salad Set & French Casserole

Fiestaware Dancing Lady Logo

 

The success of the promotional juice set in 1939 led to an all out Fisetaware promotional campaign. From 1940 – 1943 a total six promotional items, all costing $1.00 were offered. This article will look at two of the items – the Salad Set and the French Casserole.

 

The Salad Set

 

Fiestaware salad set, 1940.

Fiestaware promotional salad set. Yellow bowl and green and red Kitchen Kraft fork and spoon.

 

This salad bowl was the first piece specially designed for the promotional campaign. The Fiesta line already had two large bowls in production, the footed salad bowl and the fruit bowl. Because both these bowls were too big to be sold as a dollar promotion Frederick Rhead designed this new one. First modeled in November, 1939, a month later it underwent a revision that added a half-inch in-depth. The final bowl had a diameter of 9 3/4 inches and a depth of 3 9/16 inches. Production started in January of 1940 and the set became available soon there after. As a set, the new yellow bowl came with the Kitchen Kraft fork in green and spoon in red. Fiestaware yellow is the basic color of most of the promotional pieces. The outside of the bowl employs Fiesta’s ring motif, but there are no rings on the inside of the bowl.

 

Fiestaware salad set.

The 1940 promotional Fiestaware salad set, with the red and green Kitchen Kraft spoon and fork.

Today this bowl is rarely found with the fork and spoon that came with it originally. Because this bowl has not been found in any Homer Laughlin documents and not found on any vintage price lists, it is known by collectors as the “unlisted salad bowl”.  In production for only about three years, it is not easy to find. The value of this bowl in yellow is around $100.00. Though yellow is the official color for this bowl a few exist in cobalt blue. Being very rare, cobalt bowls have a much, much higher book value and if found will carry a price tag of around $3,000.00.

 

Cobalt promotional Fiestaware salad bowl.

The very rare cobalt promotional salad bowl.

 

French Casserole

Hands down the most elegant piece created for the promotional campaign, the French casserole is not easy to find today. First modeled for the Fiestaware line in 1935 and named ring shaped casserole (one handle) with a hand applied foot, it did not go into production.  A few trial pieces, in ivory were made. In 1939 Rhead returned to the ring casserole as a piece for the promotional campaign. The elimination of the foot is the major difference between the casserole that went into production in early 1940 and the 1935 design.

 

Prototype casserole

Prototype ring casserole (one handle). The Homer Laughlin Museum, Newell, West Virginia.

 

The French casserole has a hand applied stick handle that is similar to the one used on the after dinner coffee pot. The straight sided finial is unusual, as most Fiestaware lids have flared finials. The finial is another indication that its design dates back to the Fiestaware’s earliest design period. Like the “unlisted salad bowl” the casserole does not have inside rings. Also like the salad bowl the French casserole had a yellow glaze, though some trial pieces in cobalt blue exist.

 

French casserole in yellow.

Fiestaware promotional yellow French casserole, 1940.

 

Like all the promotional items, the French casserole had a production life of barely three years. This is not an easy piece to find and especially to find in excellent condition. The book value for a French casserole in mint condition is between $290.00 – $310.00. I’ve personally only seen three or four of them over the last 15 years, all with chips, and all with a price tag of over $100.00. I’ve never come across a cobalt one. Cobalt ones are exceedingly rare and have a value that is correspondingly high, around $4,500.00.

 

Cobalt blue French casserole.

The very, very rare French casserole base in cobalt blue.

 

The next Fiestaware entry will continue with items from the promotional campaign and will examine the sugar, creamer, tray and the kitchen sets.

 

Anthony & Chris (The Freakin’, Tiquen’ Guys)

 

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Vanished New York City Art Deco: Stewart and Company / Bonwit Teller

Stewart and Company, 1929

Stewart and Company 721 5th Avenue. Wurts Bros. Photo. Image from the Museum of the City of New York.

 

Stewart and Company

Timing in business is everything and Stewart and Company did not have good timing.  By the late 1920’s Manhattan’s new fashionable shopping district centered around 57th Street. In 1928 Stewart and Company decided to move their store up 5th Avenue from their 37th Street location. The northeast corner of 5th Avenue and 56th Street seemed to be a perfect site for the new store. Stewart and Company’s new home occupied the site of five private townhouses constructed by William Waldorf Astor between 1889 and 1898. The townhouses converted to commercial properties in 1911. Construction of the new store began as soon as the site was cleared.

 

The Northeast corner of 5th Avenue & 56th Street.

The demolition of the town houses at 5th Avenue & 56th Street. Image from NYPL Digital Collections.

Warren and Wetmore, the architectural firm responsible for some of the finest examples of Beaux-Arts structures in New York, including Grand Central Terminal (1913) and the Heckscher Building (1921) embraced modernism for their design of the Stewart and Company Building. The building rose to twelve stories in unbroken simplicity. The only ornamentation on the façade were the elaborate entrance and the two friezes of dancing women. At the time Stewart and Company’s opening these details drew the most criticism. Helen Appleton Read’s article “Modern Shops” in the January 18, 1930 issue of Vogue had this to say:

“Since we have become, as it were, architecturally conscious, it is small wonder that a shop demonstrating the aesthetic of modern architecture and situated in the most fashionable section of the New York shopping centre has become the talk of the town, and more than a seven days’ wonder. They make convincing demonstration of the aesthetic possibilities of functionalism. The occasional lapses from the precept, the too ornate doorway of the building and the ornaments over the lower windows, are not sufficient to mar the general effect of fine simplicity.”

 

5th Avenue Entrance.

Stewart and Company’s metal and ceramic 5th Avenue entrance, detail, 1929. Wurts Bros. photograph. Museum of the City of New York.

 

 

 

Dancing lady frieze - Stewart and Company Building.

Ornamental frieze above the 8th story, 1929. Wurts Bros. photograph, Museum of the City of New York.

Walter Rendell Storey writing in The New York Times, November 3, 1929 about Stewart and Company reported:

“In the exterior of the new Stewart Building Whitney Warren has epitomized what might be termed a classic expression of metropolitan architecture. The austerity of its monolithic characteristics is challenged by the entrance decoration in green and sliver metal and golden-hued tiling, as well as by the two bas-reliefs cut in an otherwise unornamented white stone facade at the ninth story. The cubical mass feeling that is found in some of the best modern architecture is obviously achieved. Ornamental detail is reserved for the entrance and show windows. It is in these areas of decoration that the special purpose of a smart modern fashion shop of today is suggested. The whole portal is the work of Trygve Hammer, after designs by Warren & Wetmore. The bas-reliefs were carved by Rene Chambellan.”

 

Stewart and Company Ad from Vogue

Vogue Advertisement for Stewart and Company. October 26, 1929.

 

Stewart and Company broke away from the traditional department store layout. Instead of aisle after aisle of display cases the new store comprised many shops. These “shops” of course were not individually owned as in a present day mall. They were rooms or alcoves devoted to specific merchandise. The design of the shops and floors fell to several different interior design firms. Again The New York Times article by Storey gives the best description of the interior of Stewart and Company –

“As one enters the first impression is of warmth of color. Absent are the cool effects so often disclosed in the modern mode. One quickly discovers, too, that the architects who were responsible for each floor provided for the comfort of patrons as well as for convenient display of merchandise. On the ground floor, designed by J. Franklin Whitman, Jr. of Whitman & Goodman, spaciousness makes possible a variety of vistas that is distinctly alien to the old type of store arrangement. Some of the side sections of the ground floor are veritable small specialty shops themselves. Where perfumes are sold, for example, a semi-circular alcove is paneled in dark brown wood. Slender black columns are capped with a band of silver.

 

Steward and Company Evening Salon

Stewart and Company’s Evening Salon advertisement from the November 9, 1929 Vogue.

This atmosphere of intimacy is carried out still further on the second and third floors, also designed by Mr. Whitman. On the second floor, entering the section in which women’s shoes are displayed, one is not confronted with the usual shelves stacked with boxes. Paneled walls of satinwood trimmed with metal form the background. Tall pilasters reach from the floor to the high ceiling. There are handsome metal grills. Informally placed chairs and settees in the modern style further the suggestion of a smart metropolitan club.”

 

Stewart's women shoes department.

Artist rending of the Stewart women’s shoe department. Vogue, November 9, 1929

The Storey article continues –

“. . . the fourth floor – which, together with the sixth, seventh and eighth floors, was planned by Eugene Schoen – one sees the color scheme soften from black and cream to gray.  At the far end definite colors lure the eye. Opening  off the centre space are intriguing places for the showing of sports apparel; a ‘Winter’ and a ‘Summer’ room, each with walls appropriately decorated. Appropriateness has been studied  with such care that once finds dressing rooms lined with blue for blonde and with tan for the brunette.

Mr. Schoen makes much use of open show windows, placed in strategic positions. These, with their effective illumination and their exotic woods, plainly paneled, provide congenial  accents – not failing, at the same time to serve as a practical vehicles for display of merchandise.

One of the most interesting of the several floors is the eighth, where bronzes, ceramics, glass and small pieces of furniture are displayed. Here the architect has created a number of small alcove shops which surround the octagonal central floor space. In the furniture designed for his settings Mr. Schoen has developed graceful chairs and sofas in African mahogany and queen’s wood. Pastel upholstery harmonizes unobtrusively with the various interiors or sections.”

 

Stewart and Company The Gift Floor

Stewart and Company, the Gift Floor. Vogue Magazine advertisement, November 23, 1929.

 

“More luxurious is the decoration of the fifth floor by Carlu & Boyle. Here, as a setting for furs a salon in gray harewood has been installed. The smartness of sophistication hovers over the interior with its black pilasters set along the walls, its silver metal work around the doorways and its black rug. In the center portion of the floor are huge wall mirrors. Smaller salons provide various backgrounds, from an intimate one in powder blue with white bas-relief decoration, to a formal long salon where metal and glass combine with new architectural details of cornices and pilasters to produce a distinctly modern setting.”

                            – Walter Rendell Storey, New York Times, November 3, 1929

 

Schoen, Inc. New York Times advertisement.

Eugene Schoen, Inc. advertisement for the opening of Stewart’s & Company. New York Times October 21, 1929.

 

The individual shop concept of Stewart’s separated it from every other store in the city. Stewart and Company was the very epitome of modern. It opened with a gala luncheon attended by notables in art and industry. The guests included  Harvey Wiley Corbett, Frank Crowinshield, Whitney Warren, Grover Whalen, Raymond Hood and Eleanor Roosevelt. Unfortunately the timing could not have been worse, thirteen days after the luncheon the stock market crashed. Stewart’s, a small company had become over extended and with the onset of the depression never attained the customers it needed to survive. By the spring of 1930 Stewart and Company filed for bankruptcy and went out of business.

 

 

 Bonwit Teller

Bonwit Teller show window

Bonwit Teller, 1930. Store window. Sigurd Fischer photograph, Museum of the City of New York.

On September 15, 1930 Bonwit Teller opened in the former Stewart Building. This marked 35 years of progress, from the opening of their first store on Sixth Avenue and 18th Street in 1895. Two more shops followed in 1896 and 1898. Consolidation of the three stores into one location at Fifth Avenue and 38th Street occurred in 1911. And like Stewart’s the year before, now Bonwit’s moved up to the new fashionable shopping district around 57th Street.

 

Remodeled 5th Avenue Entrance, Bonwit Teller.

Bonwit Teller, Ely Jacques Kahn’s remodeled 5th Avenue entrance, 1930. Sigurd Fischer photograph, Museum of the City of New York.

 

Before moving into the Stewart Building, Bonwit’s hired one of the best architects in New York, Ely Jacques Kahn to redesign the store. The New York Times reported on September 14, 1930:

“In taking over the Stewart Building Bonwit  Teller found it necessary to reconstruct the interior and to make radical external changes to fit the physical necessities of their organization. The general layout of the shop has been so changed as to achieve twice the space on the main floor obtainable under the original plan. Lighting and ventilation facilities also have been increased.

 

 

The changed front of the building presents a facade in a combination of Benedict metal and glass. The facade runs to the second floor and has a vestibule of similar treatment.”

 

 

The New York Herald-Tribune reporting on October 5, 1930  said this of Bonwit Teller’s new store:

“Except on the main floor  the lighting arrangement consists of  a suspended ceiling fixture casting an indirect light.

Of the eight floors of the building devoted to merchandise, the fourth is perhaps the most beautiful. It is finished in harewood and is soft grey in tone. This floor is devoted to the special order department, furs and a French corner in which are assembled such boudoir accessories as pillows, lamps and other things.”

 

Bonwit Teller found the success that eluded Stewart and Company, initially. In 1934 during a period of financial difficulty Bonwit Teller partnered with Floyd Odlum, and well known financier. His Atlas Corporation acquire the store chain. This new management proved to be one of the most forward thinking and cutting edge of any department store in Manhattan. They proved this at the close of 1936 when The Museum of Modern Art presented an exhibit entitled Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism. Fourteen works by Salvador Dali were featured in the show. This inspired Bonwit Teller to commission Dali to design a window for the store. For the 1936 Christmas season and into 1937 5th Avenue shoppers viewed the first surrealist art ever featured in a department store showcase window. In total eight windows were presented, one based on a Dali sketch with the others drawing inspiration from it.

 

Bonwit Teller Salvador Dali ad.

Bonwit Teller advertisement in the New York Herald-Tribune. December 20, 1936.

 

 

Dali designed window at Bonwit Teller. 1936.

“She was a Surrealist Woman like a Figure in a Dream.” The window based on a sketch by Salvador Dali. December 1936. Worsinger Photo, Museum of the City of New York.

Below are Bonwit Teller’s art department designed surrealist windows.

In 1938 Odlum’s wife Hortense became president of Bonwit Teller. The store underwent an expansion during this period, too. In 1938 saw the addition of two floors and construction began on a twelve story 56th Street annex that opened in 1939.

 

Bonwit Teller 1945.

Bonwt Teller ca. 1945, around the time of its sale to the Hoving Corporation. Wurts Bros. photograph, Museum of the CIty of New York.

Through the next couple of decades Bonwit Teller remained one of the most popular department stores in Manhattan. Ownership transferred to the Hoving Corporation in 1946 and then to Genesco in 1956. Genesco a large conglomerate operated more than 60 apparel and retail companies, that included stores like Henri Bendel, but was basically a shoe retailer. With this change in ownership in the mid-1950’s Bonwit Teller’s slow decline began. Bonwit Teller had developed a cutting edge fashion reputation with such designers as Christian Dior. Now as a result of the new management they began to lose both their fashion and sales momentum.

 

Bonwit Teller in the mid-1950's.

Bonwit Teller in 1956. Photograph from Pinterest.

 

The decline of Bonwit Teller continued through the 1970’s. And in 1979 ownership passed to a new parent company, Allied Stores Corporation. Allied retained all the stores in the chain, except for the flagship 5th Avenue location. Judith Cummings reported in The New York Times on May 20, 1979:

“49 Years of Elegance Ends At Bonwit’s 5th Ave. Store –                                                                     Bonwit Teller closed its Fifth Avenue retail operation for the last time yesterday, passing the way of the Savoy Plaza Hotel as an enduring standard of elegance on the avenue. What was left of such an era ended yesterday, amid emptied racks and tag-end reductions for last-day shoppers at the 49-year-old specialty store next to Tiffany’s. A Manhattan real-estate developer, Donald Trump, who paid $15 million for the Bonwit property, has proposed tearing the store down to erect in its place a $100 million, 60 story skyscraper, with a mix of apartments, offices and shops.”

Demolition of the building began the following March. Yet all would not be lost. According to Suzanne Daley in The New York Times, March 16, 1980:

“The bronze grill work above the main entrance and the two relief sculptures high up on the façade will be offered to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. If the donation is approved by the Board of Trustees of the museum, and if they survive the move, the developers will receive a tax deduction.”

 

Rene Paul Chambellan relief.

Demolition of Bonwit Teller’s flagship store, 1980. One of the two Rene Paul Chambellan Dancing Lady bas-reliefs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 But this never happened. Robert D. McFadden in The New York Times, June 6, 1980:

“Developer Scraps Bonwit Sculptures –

Two stone bas-relief sculptures high on the façade of the Bonwit Teller Building under demolition on Fifth Avenue – pieces that had been sought with enthusiasm by the Metropolitan Museum of Art – were smashed by jackhammer yesterday on the orders of a real estate developer.

The destruction of the Art Deco panels stunned some art appraisers and elicited expressions of surprise and disappointment from officials of the Met, where they were to have been installed by the department of 20th-century art. One appraiser placed their value at several hundred thousand dollars.

Donald J. Trump, the developer, who is razing the structure to make way for a $100 million 62-story bronze-color glass tower of apartments, offices and stores, had said several months ago that he would give the white stone panels to the museum if the cost of removing them did not prove prohibitive.

But John Baron, a vice president of the Trump Organization, said after the demolition yesterday that the company had decided not to preserve the sculptures because ‘the merit of these stones was not great enough to justify the effort to save them.’

Mr. Baron said the company had got three independent appraisals of the sculptures. These, he said had found them to be ‘without artistic merit’ and worth less than $9,000 in ‘resale value.’ He said it would have cost $32,000 to remove them carefully and would have delayed demolition by a week and half.

‘How extraordinary’,  said Ashton Hawkins, vice president and secretary of the board of trustees of the Met, when told of the Trump decision. ‘We are certainly very disappointed and quite surprised. Can you imagine the museum accepting them if they were not of artistic merit? Architectural sculpture of this quality is rare and would have made sense in our collections. Their monetary value was not what we were interested in.’

Demolition of Bonwit Teller

Destruction of the Rene Paul Chambellan bas-reliefs on June 5, 1980. New York Times photograph.

Peter M. Warner, a researcher at an architectural firm opposite the Bonwit building, had seen the panels from his 12th-floor windows for years and watched yesterday as they were destroyed. ‘I really couldn’t believe my eyes,’ said Mr. Warner, who described himself as a student of historical architecture. ‘I had read that they were probably going to the Metropolitan.’ Instead, he recalled: ‘I looked out the window and saw they had cut the left-hand panel in half horizontally and were proceeding to do the same to right-hand panel.  It’s very regrettable to see the destruction of these important artifacts.”

And what happened to the huge metal grill also promised to the Metropolitan Museum of Art? It never made it to the museum. According to an article by Josh Barbanel in The New York Times, June 7, 1980:

“The real estate developer who ordered the destruction of two bas-relief sculptures that adorned the partly-demolished façade of the Bowit Teller building he does not know what has happened to a rare bronze grillwork that is no longer in the same building.

The glided 20-by-30 foot grillwork of interlocking geometric designs built into the main entrance of the Fifth Avenue building on the northeast corner of 56th Street was offered to the museum last February by the Trump Organization, along with the two Art Deco sculptures if they could be successfully ‘

The grillwork, attributed to the decorative designer, Ely Jacques Kahn, was successfully removed from the building several weeks ago, but later disappeared.

‘We don’t know what happened to it,’ said John Baron, a vice president of the Trump Organization, when asked about the grillwork.”

Grillwork over the Bonwit Teller entrance.

“Benedict nickel” grillwork, designed by Otto J. Teegen over the 5th Avenue entrance to Bonwit Teller. 1930 Wurts Bros. photograph. NYPL Digital Collection

 

Robert D. McFadden in another article on the destruction of the Bonwit’s building exterior art wrote in The New York Times, June 8, 1980:

“Designer Astonished by Loss of  Bonwit Grillwork

A prominent architect who 50 years ago designed the huge Art Deco grillwork over the main entrance of the Bonwit Teller Building, expressed astonishment yesterday that a real estate developer had lost track of the elaborate solid nickel ornament.

The 15-foot by 25-foot grillwork, which apparently vanished from the demolition site several weeks ago, and the 15-foot sculpture panels, which were smashed by jackhammers on Thursday afternoon, had been sought by curators of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Asked about the grillwork, John Baron, a vice president of the Trump Organization said: ‘We don’t know what happened to it.’

Otto J. Teegen said he designed the grillwork in 1930, a year after the building was erected. When P.J. Bonwit took it over in 1930, he asked the architectural firm of Ely Jacques Kahn to redesign much of the interior and exterior.

Mr. Teegen, who at that time was employed by Ely Jacques Kahn, was commissioned to do the grillwork and many items of the interior. He said that the grillwork, a large panel of interlocking geometric designs was made of ‘Benedict nickel’. It was extremely heavy and would have required cranes and trucks to remove and could not merely have been mislaid or stolen. It’s not a thing you could slip in your coat and walk away with. It might have been stolen, although it would not have been worth much as salvage. But you don’t judge something like that by an amount of money.”

By 1981 nothing remained of Warren & Wetmore’s monolithic limestone building. New high-rise glass towers were replacing established 5th Avenue landmarks. And on the site of the former Stewart’s / Bonwit Teller building rose a monument to ego, the 58-story Trump Tower.

 

Construction of Trump Tower.

The corner of 5th Avenue & 56th Street and the construction of Trump Tower, 1981. File photo.

 

Trump Tower.

Trump Tower at the corner of 5th Avenue & 56th Street. Completed in 1983.

Gone was one of the most elegant and best examples of Art Deco department store architecture of the 20th-century. Completed in the fall of 1983 Trump Tower is no equal in class and style to the old Stewart / Bonwit Building at 721 5th Avenue.

 

Bonwit Teller 1946.

Bonwit Teller looking Northeast across 5th Avenue. May 9, 1946. Wurts Bros. photograph, Museum of the City of New York.

 

Anthony & Chris (The Freakin’, Tiquen Guys)

 

If you enjoyed this article you might like these earlier Driving Deco Posts –

Vanished New York City Art Deco: The Airlines Terminal

Happy 85th Birthday, Empire State Building!

The Central Park Casino, Joseph Urban’s long, lost New York City Night Club

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