Alexander Turney Stewart
Encyclopedia
Irish American
Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...
entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
who made his multi-million fortune in what was at the time the most extensive and lucrative dry goods
Dry goods
Dry goods are products such as textiles, ready-to-wear clothing, and sundries. In U.S. retailing, a dry goods store carries consumer goods that are distinct from those carried by hardware stores and grocery stores, though "dry goods" as a term for textiles has been dated back to 1742 in England or...
business in the world.
Stewart was born in Lisburn
Lisburn
DemographicsLisburn Urban Area is within Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area and is classified as a Large Town by the . On census day there were 71,465 people living in Lisburn...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, and abandoned his original aspirations of becoming a minister to come to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in the summer of 1823. He spent a short time teaching before returning to Ireland to receive the money his grandfather had left him, purchase some Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
linens and laces, and return to New York to open a store.
He was a business genius, and by 1848 he had built a large marble-fronted store on Broadway
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
between Chambers Street
Chambers Street (Manhattan)
Chambers Street is a bi-directional street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs from River Terrace, Battery Park City, in the west, past PS 234 and Stuyvesant High School to 1 Centre Street, the Manhattan Municipal Building, to the east. In the early 20th century the street...
and Reade Street, which was devoted to the wholesale branch of his business, and the largest retail store in the world at that time. Stewart also had branches of his company in different parts of the world and owned several mills and factories. Stewart had an estimated annual income of $1,000,000 in 1869.
Early years
Alexander Turney Stewart was born in LisburnLisburn
DemographicsLisburn Urban Area is within Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area and is classified as a Large Town by the . On census day there were 71,465 people living in Lisburn...
, Ireland to Scottish Protestant parents on October 12, 1803. The date of his birth has been debated by historians over the years and is still questionable. However, historians have acknowledged this date since this is the one put on his coffin plate.
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.
While raising his only grandson, Torney wanted Stewart to enter The Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
to become a minister, but Stewart wanted to go to Trinity College
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
. At age seven, Stewart was sent to a village school, and then in 1814 he entered Mr. Neely’s English Academy. In 1816, when Stewart’s grandfather died, he was brought into the home of Thomas Lamb, an Irish Quaker
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
.
When finishing up his formal education at Belfast Academical Institute, he decided to further his knowledge of other cultures by writing to his mother, who was in New York City at the time. The more Stewart kept in touch with his mother, the more he desired to further his life in New York. However, before moving, Lamb insisted that Stewart get some experience in business training and earn money as a grocer in Belfast. Weary of prolonging his stay in Ireland, Stewart agreed to take the position recommended by Lamb and began to work at the age of fifteen as a bag boy. In the spring of 1818, shortly after working as a grocer, Stewart packed his bags along with the $500 he had earned and left Belfast for New York City.
After traveling for about six weeks at sea, Stewart arrived at his mother's home in New York City. Upon his arrival in the big city, Stewart became a tutor at Isaac N. Bragg’s Academy, a school for wealthy students located on Roosevelt Street
Roosevelt Street (Manhattan)
Roosevelt Street, in the New York City borough of Manhattan, was a street which existed from the colonial period to the early 1950s,running from Pearl Street at Park Row southeast to South Street....
. Here he earned $300 a year, an honest wage during the early 19th century. After securing a place to live and a job, Stewart joined an Episcopal
Episcopal Church (United States)
The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...
church run by Reverend Edward Mitchell. There Stewart met his future wife, Cornelia Mitchell Clinch, the daughter of Susannah Banker and James Clinch, a wealthy ship chandler
Ship chandler
A ship chandler is a retail dealer in special supplies or equipment for ships.For traditional sailing ships items that could be found in a chandler might include: rosin, turpentine, tar, pitch , linseed oil, whale oil, tallow, lard, varnish, twine, rope and cordage, hemp, oakum, tools A ship...
. Cornelia's brother was Acting Collector of the Port of New York
Collector of the Port of New York
The Collector of Customs at the Port of New York, most often referred to as Collector of the Port of New York, sometimes also as Collector of Customs for the Port of New York or Collector of Customs for the District of New York, was a federal officer who was in charge of the collection of import...
Charles P. Clinch (1797-1880).
Start in business
Historians know little about Stewart’s life between 1818 and 1822, except that he returned to Ireland upon receiving his grandfather’s inheritance of somewhere between $5,000 to $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.
Upon returning to New York City in 1823, Stewart married Cornelia on October 16, 1823. Before marrying, Stewart opened his first store. Located at 283 Broadway, the first in a series of retail locations Stewart established in his future empire of A.T. Stewart and Company, his store sold Irish fabrics along with some domestic calicos, which had been purchased with money from his inheritance and his earnings as a tutor.
The store was just across from City Hall Park, north of Chambers Street on the opposite side of Broadway from where his later successful store, “The Marble Palace
280 Broadway
280 Broadway is the site of America's first department store. It later housed The New York Sun newspaper and is now used for municipal offices for New York City...
” was to be built. The store opened on September 1, 1823. It measured 12.5 feet wide by 30 feet deep, being a rather small store by today’s standards, but average size during the 19th century. Stewart rented out the space for $375 a year. The store was split up into two parts, divided by a thin wall. The larger front section was used for the business and the smaller area in back served as the owner’s residence.
Unlike his other competitors in the dry goods trade who were located along Pearl Street
Pearl Street (Manhattan)
Pearl Street is a street in the Lower section of the New York City borough of Manhattan, running northeast from Battery Park to the Brooklyn Bridge, then turning west and terminating at Centre Street...
, Stewart innovated by placing his establishment several blocks west on Broadway. He acknowledged that customers would travel to buy goods where they could get the best price and the easiest method of buying. Stewart knew that the key to success was not where the store was placed, but rather where “to obtain wholesale trade to undersell competitors".
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.”
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.”
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.” Stewart held that the key to establishing a great business was to make friends with the customers and encourage their return.
Later years
Between 1846 and 1848, the construction and finishing details were completed of one of Stewart’s most famous buildings, the "Marble Palace" at 280 Broadway280 Broadway
280 Broadway is the site of America's first department store. It later housed The New York Sun newspaper and is now used for municipal offices for New York City...
. This establishment, "the cradle of the department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
", sent A.T. Stewart and 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, 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
Italianate architecture
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...
, faced with Tuckahoe marble, featured four floors of pedimented windows, the first commercial building in the United States to display an extravagant exterior. Inside, not only did Stewart want to display his merchandise, but he wanted the structure to emphasize natural light from its 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 1856 Stewart decided to expand his merchandise to include furs, “the best and most natural skins”, as customers were told. In the 1850s, he also followed other retailers such as Macy's
Macy's
Macy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
, Lord and Taylor and B. Altman and Company
B. Altman and Company
B. Altman and Company was a New York City-based department store and chain founded in 1865 by Benjamin Altman which had its flagship store at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan from 1906 until the company closed on December 31, 1989....
to the area which was to be called “Ladies Mile”, on Broadway and Sixth Avenue
Sixth Avenue (Manhattan)
Sixth Avenue – officially Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown"...
between 9th Street and 23rd Street
23rd Street (Manhattan)
23rd Street is a broad thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is one of few two-way streets in the gridiron of the borough. As with Manhattan's other "crosstown" streets, it is divided at Fifth Avenue, in this case at Madison Square Park, into its east and west sections. Since...
.
However, in 1862, Stewart’s “true” department store, referred to as the “Iron Palace”, was built. This six-storey building with its cast-iron front, glass dome skylight and grand emporium, employed up to 2,000 people. The immense structure occupies a major portion of a city block near Grace Church
Grace Church
Grace Church may refer to:United States* Grace Church * Grace Church , listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Habersham County, Georgia...
, from Broadway and Ninth Street to Tenth Street and Astor Place
Astor Place (Manhattan)
__notoc__Astor Place is a short two-block street in lower Manhattan, New York City, which runs from Broadway just below East 8th Street, through Lafayette Street, past Cooper Square and Fourth Avenue, and ends at Third Avenue and St. Marks Place. The name is also used for the neighborhood around...
. The establishment’s nineteen departments included silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
s, dress goods, carpet
Carpet
A carpet is a textile floor covering consisting of an upper layer of "pile" attached to a backing. The pile is generally either made from wool or a manmade fibre such as polypropylene,nylon or polyester and usually consists of twisted tufts which are often heat-treated to maintain their...
s and even toy
Toy
A toy is any object that can be used for play. Toys are associated commonly with children and pets. Playing with toys is often thought to be an enjoyable means of training the young for life in human society. Different materials are used to make toys enjoyable and cuddly to both young and old...
s.
By 1877, it had expanded to thirty separate departments, carrying a wide variety of items. As noted by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, “a man may fit up his house there down to the bedding, carpets and upholstery.”
Mail order business
A.T. Stewart and 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 requests and even paying the postage. Once received, women would send back the money needed to pay for their orders.
Seeing potential for the mail order
Mail order
Mail order is a term which describes the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote method such as through a telephone call or web site. Then, the products are delivered to the customer...
business, by 1876 Stewart had hired twenty clerks to read, respond and mail out the entailed orders. That year he profited over $500,000 from the mailing business alone. Stewart’s mail-order business’ efficiency, convenience and profits gained so much attention from all over the country that other famous businesses such as Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Company
Sears, officially named Sears, Roebuck and Co., is an American chain of department stores which was founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck in the late 19th century...
, Montgomery Ward
Montgomery Ward
Montgomery Ward is an online retailer that carries the same name as the former American department store chain, founded as the world's #1 mail order business in 1872 by Aaron Montgomery Ward, and which went out of business in 2001...
and Spiegel's followed in his footsteps.
Proposed as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
In March 1869, President Ulysses S. GrantUlysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
offered Stewart the position of Secretary of the Treasury
United States Secretary of the Treasury
The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, which is concerned with financial and monetary matters, and, until 2003, also with some issues of national security and defense. This position in the Federal Government of the United...
(after Joseph Seligman
Joseph Seligman
Joseph Seligman was a prominent U.S. banker, and businessman. He has been described as a "robber baron". He was born in Baiersdorf, Germany, emigrating to the United States when he was 18. With his brothers, he started a bank, J. & W. Seligman & Co., with branches in New York, San Francisco, New...
had declined it), but he was not confirmed by the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
. One source reports that a major impediment to Stewart's appointment was a provision in the act of September 2, 1789, which established the Treasury Department. This law provided that the Treasury Department, having the administration of the custom houses under its control, should not have at its head a merchant or importer in active business. Although Grant requested the two houses of Congress to override this provision, upon the objection of Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
this request was not considered in the Senate. Another source attributes Stewart's rejection to his close association with Judge Henry Hilton, his wife's cousin's husband and a member of the corrupt Tweed Ring.
Fifth Avenue mansion
Fifth Avenue (Manhattan)
Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the center of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. The section of Fifth Avenue that crosses Midtown Manhattan, especially that between 49th Street and 60th Street, is lined with prestigious shops and is consistently ranked among...
palaces, on the northwest corner of 34th Street, across from the doyenne of New York society, Caroline Schermerhorn Astor
Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor
Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor was a prominent American socialite of the last quarter of the 19th century. Famous for being referred to later in life as "the Mrs. Astor" or simply "Mrs. Astor", she was the wife of real estate heir William Backhouse Astor Jr...
. His architect, as for the store, was John Kellum
John Kellum
John Kellum was an American architect in practice in New York City.Kellum, born in Hempstead, Long Island, was trained as a carpenter; he was largely self-taught in architecture, and was taken into partnership in 1846 by the well-established New York architect Gamaliel King...
. When all of Fifth Avenue was of brownstone rowhouses, Stewart's fireproof structure in French Second Empire taste was faced with marble.
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 parlour 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 painted in 1891 by Childe Hassam
Childe Hassam
Frederick Childe Hassam was a prolific American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressionism to American collectors, dealers, and museums...
In 1901 Stewart's marble palace was razed, to make way for the new premises of the Knickerbocker Trust Company
Knickerbocker Trust Company
The Knickerbocker Trust, chartered in 1884 by Frederick G. Eldridge, a friend and classmate of financier J.P. Morgan, figured at one time among the largest banks in the United States and a central player in the Panic of 1907. As a trust company, its main business was serving as trustee for...
.
Central Railroad
Stewart incorporated the Central Railroad of Long IslandCentral Railroad of Long Island
Central Railroad of Long Island is a former railroad on Long Island built by Alexander Turney Stewart, who was also the founder of Garden City. The railroad was established in 1871, was merged with the Flushing and North Side Railroad in 1874 to form the Flushing, North Shore, and Central Railroad,...
in 1871 and completed it in 1873, running from Long Island City
Long Island City, Queens
Long Island City is the westernmost neighborhood of the borough of Queens in New York City. L.I.C. is notable for its rapid and ongoing gentrification, its waterfront parks, and its thriving arts community. L.I.C. has among the highest concentration of art galleries, art institutions, and studio...
through his development at Garden City to a brick yard at (Old) Bethpage and docks at Babylon
Babylon (village), New York
Babylon is a village in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 12,615 at the 2000 census.Its official name is The Incorporated Village of Babylon...
. This became part of the Long Island Rail Road
Long Island Rail Road
The Long Island Rail Road or LIRR is a commuter rail system serving the length of Long Island, New York. It is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, serving about 81.5 million passengers each year. Established in 1834 and having operated continuously since then, it is the oldest US...
system in 1876, and the parts that have not been abandoned are the Hempstead Branch
Hempstead Branch
The Hempstead Branch is an electrified rail line and service owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The branch begins at the Main Line at Queens Interlocking, just east of Queens Village station...
and Central Branch
Central Branch (Long Island Rail Road)
The Central Branch is a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York, extending from just east of Bethpage to just west of Babylon. It was built in 1873 as part of the Babylon Extension of the Central Railroad of Long Island , which was owned by...
. The brickyard continued into existence until 1981, variously known as Bethpage Brickworks, Queens County Brick Manufacturing Company, and (after Nassau County split from Queens County in 1899) Nassau Brick Company.
Death and influence
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, 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 he never officially was elected as a New York State officer, he did attend Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
’s funeral as a Chamber delegate.
At the time of Stewart’s death, he was one of the richest men in New York, just behind a Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt family
The Vanderbilt family is an American family of Dutch origin prominent during the Gilded Age. It started off with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthropy...
and Astor. Worth an estimated $40 million, Stewart, unlike New York’s other wealthy men who made their millions through real estate, had earned his wealth in retail trade. Out of the twenty-four clerks who entered A.T. Stewart and Company in 1836, six still worked for the company in 1876. To these long-term employees, Stewart showed his gratitude by leaving them more than $250,000 (equivalent to $ in 2009) in his will.
The Stewart fortune, willed to Mrs Stewart, with Judge Henry Hilton as trustee was the subject of litigation for years, although a swarm of long-lost Turney relatives were quickly dismissed. Litigation was 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.
Mrs Stewart, who lived quietly in New York and at the Grand Union Hotel (Saratoga Springs, New York)
Grand Union Hotel (Saratoga Springs, New York)
The Grand Union Hotel was located on Broadway in Saratoga Springs, New York. The hotel began as a boarding house, built by Gideon Putnam in 1802, but grew into the world's largest hotel, before it was demolished in 1953....
, which she inherited, died suddenly, of pneumonia, 25 October 1886, and ex-Judge Hilton died there 24 August 1899, having previously given $500,000 to the Garden City institutions.
In 1896, the Iron Palace was bought by John Wanamaker
John Wanamaker
John Wanamaker was a United States merchant, religious leader, civic and political figure, considered by some to be the father of modern advertising and a "pioneer in marketing." Wanamaker was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-Biography:He was born on July 11, 1838.He opened his first store in...
and reopened as “Wanamaker’s.” The Philadelphian Wanamaker, had long been an admirer of Stewart and stated that one of his best qualities was his “personal attention to the details of the business... He could have had others to look after the details--they have to be looked after, but few attend to sweeping up, and that’s what Stewart did.” In 1917, the New York Sun
New York Sun (historical)
The Sun was a New York newspaper that was published from 1833 until 1950. It was considered a serious paper, like the city's two more successful broadsheets, The New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune...
newspaper bought out Stewart’s first store for its main offices. In 1966, the building, though known as the "Sun Building", was labeled a landmark structure by the City of New York.
Historians and other retail owners have concluded that it was A.T. Stewart’s awareness and love for details that differentiated him from his competitors and contributed greatly to his success. Today, Sears, K-Mart and Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
have built upon and refined Stewart’s ideas of distribution, merchandising, manufacturing and payment methods, to become some of the most powerful stores in the world.
At the time of his death, Stewart was building at Hempstead Plains
Hempstead Plains
The Hempstead Plains is a region of central Long Island in New York state in what is now Nassau County. It was once an open expanse of native grassland estimated to once extend to about . It was separated from the North Shore of Long Island by the Harbor Hill Moraine, later approximately the route...
, Long Island, the town of Garden City
Garden City, New York
Garden City is a village in the town of Hempstead in central Nassau County, New York, in the United States. It was founded by multi-millionaire Alexander Turney Stewart in 1869, and is located on Long Island, to the east of New York City, from mid-town Manhattan, and just south of the town of...
, with the purpose of affording to his employees comfortable and airy housing at a moderate cost. After his death, his wife Cornelia erected several buildings in memoriam, including St. Paul's School
St Paul's School (Garden City, New York)
St. Paul's School is a 500 room brick edifice in the Village of Garden City, New York, United States. It is not currently used and is under threat of demolition....
and The Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City
Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City
The Cathedral of the Incarnation is an Episcopal church in Garden City, New York, and the cathedral church of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island. The Cathedral was established in 1876 as a memorial to and mausoleum for Garden City founder, Alexander Turney Stewart...
; the latter also served as a mausoleum to both Stewart and his wife. Stewart and his wife had played a large role in the development of Garden City
Garden City, New York
Garden City is a village in the town of Hempstead in central Nassau County, New York, in the United States. It was founded by multi-millionaire Alexander Turney Stewart in 1869, and is located on Long Island, to the east of New York City, from mid-town Manhattan, and just south of the town of...
, developing such landmarks as The Garden City Hotel
Garden City Hotel
The Garden City Hotel is a four-star hotel in Garden City, New York, the only four-star hotel on Long Island. The first incarnation was built in 1874 by A.T. Stewart and the current fourth incarnation was built in 1983 by the late Myron Nelkin. It is famous for having hosted many world leaders and...
(rebuilt in the 1983), St. Paul's School
St Paul's School (Garden City, New York)
St. Paul's School is a 500 room brick edifice in the Village of Garden City, New York, United States. It is not currently used and is under threat of demolition....
and the Cathedral of the Incarnation
Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City
The Cathedral of the Incarnation is an Episcopal church in Garden City, New York, and the cathedral church of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island. The Cathedral was established in 1876 as a memorial to and mausoleum for Garden City founder, Alexander Turney Stewart...
.
Three weeks after his burial at St Mark's Church in the Bowery, Stewart's body was stolen and the remains held for 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 which will cause the bells of the Cathedral to ring if ever disturbed.
Controversy
On May 1, 1890, a notice appeared in the New York Times announcing that Joseph PulitzerJoseph Pulitzer
Joseph Pulitzer April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911), born Politzer József, was a Hungarian-American newspaper publisher of the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the New York World. Pulitzer introduced the techniques of "new journalism" to the newspapers he acquired in the 1880s and became a leading...
, Julius Chambers
Julius Chambers
Julius Chambers, F.R.G.S.,There is disparity about an unused first name. The Americana Vol.4 calls him Charles Julius Chambers, Dictionary of American Biography and The Delta Kappa Epsilon Quarterly call him James Julius Chambers. Regardless of the correct name, he used neither one in...
, et al. had been indicted for posthumous criminal libel against Alexander T. Stewart. The newspaper reprinted a letter to District Attorney Fellows complaining about statements in a series of articles, from the 14th to the 19th of April in the New York World
New York World
The New York World was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers...
, accusing Stewart of "a dark and secret crime", as the man who "invited guests to meet his mistresses at his table", and as "a pirate of the dry goods ocean."
Other stores
- Stewart'sStewart's (department store)Stewart's Department Store in Baltimore, Maryland, took its name in 1901 when Louis Stewart acquired the building of Posner's Department Store on the northeast corner of Howard and Lexington Streets. The chain was a founding member of Associated Dry Goods or ADG. It opened its first suburban store...
is also the name of an apparently unrelated, now-defunct, Baltimore, Maryland-based chain of department stores, and Stewart Dry GoodsStewart Dry GoodsThe Stewart Dry Goods company of Louisville, Kentucky, commonly referred to as Stewart's, consisted of seven department stores in Kentucky and Indiana. It was a division of Associated Dry Goods in New York City....
was a separate now-defunct Louisville, KentuckyLouisville, KentuckyLouisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
chain.
- By curious coincidence, the first successful chain of supermarkets to open in Stewart's native Northern Ireland was also called Stewarts. There was no family relationship however and the chain was absorbed into TescoTescoTesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...
in the 1990s.
- Stewart's home town of Lisburn is also now famous in Ireland for its wide variety of shopping. The City's Bow Street Mall was the largest in Europe for a brief period in 2002.