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An illustration, announcing the store's September 15, 1924
opening only hinted at the beauty and grandeur of Saks Fifth Avenue's new building next to St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue. |
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Saks Fifth Avenue's landmark store became an
icon for luxury retailing.
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Another illustration, this time from above, shows
how the building steps back like a wedding cake above the seventh floor. |
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Saks Fifth Avenue remains to this day
one of the best and most remarkable retail structures and has uniquely retained some of the atmosphere of the golden days
of department store retailing.
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Saks Fifth Avenue (1924)
Fifth Avenue, 49th to 50th Streets
New York City, New York
PLaza 3-4000
Street Floor
Fine Jewelry Collections • Fashion Jewelry Collections • Handbag Collections • Small Leather Goods Collections • Glove Collections • Accessories Collections • Ciani Boutique • Ferragamo Accessories Boutique • Hosiery Collections • Hat Collections • Scarf Collections • Rainwear Collections • Blouse Collections • Cosmetics Collections • Fragrance Collections • Pulse Points • Stationery Collections • La Boutique
9 E. 49th Street
Dog Toggery
15 E. 49th Street
The Linen Pavilion • Bath Shop • Carlin Comforts
10 E. 50th Street
Store for Men Men's Furnishings • Men's Jewelry Collections • Men's Sportshirt Collections • Men's Sweater Collections • Men's Robe Collections • Men's Active Sportswear
12 E. 50th Street
La Chocolaterie • Gourmet Gallery
14 E. 50th Street
Guest and Gift Shop • Fauchon at Saks Fifth Avenue
16 E. 50th Street
The Active Sports Shop • Ski Shop • Sand and Sea Shop
Second Floor
Juniorette Shop • Young Circle for Young Juniors • Young Accessories • Boys' Shop • Rannoch Shop • Alligator Shop • Girls' Shop • Girls' Lingerie Collections • Baby Boutique • Children's Collections • Maternity Boutique • Toy Collections
Third Floor
Sportdress Collections • Sport Separates Collections • Sportcoat Collections • Sport Suit Collections • Rainboutique • Potpourri Collections • Anne Klein Corner • VIP Jeans • Active Sportswear Collections • Calvin Klein Boutique • Revillon Fur Boutique
Fourth Floor
Shoe Collections • Shoe Salon • Millinery Salon • Lingerie Collections • Sleepwear Collections • Corset Salon • Robe Collections • Easy Living Collections • Inner Circle • Lingerie Luxe • Beauty Circle
Fifth Floor
Fifth Avenue Shop • Park Avenue Shop • Regency Room • Evening Collections • Import Boutique • 12 Plus • Salon Paulette • Revillon Fur Salon
Designer Gallery Adolfo • Boutique Donald Brooks • Beene Bazaar • Oscar de la Renta Boutique • Missoni Boutique • Chloé Boutique
Sixth Floor
Store for Men Men's Clothing Collections • Men's Sportswear Collections • Country Gentlemen's Shop • Passport Collections • 611 Shop • University Shop • Men's Shoe Collections • Men's Hat Collections • Emilio Pucci Shop • Vantage Point • Early On • Men's Boutique
Seventh Floor
Young Elite Shop Young Elite Dress Collections • Young Elite Sportswear Collections • Young Elite Coat Collections • Young Elite Shoe Collections • Young Elite Hat Colections • Young Elite Lingerie Collections • Jag Boutique
Eighth Floor
Espresso Bar Restaurant
(400,000 s.f.)
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Palm Beach, FL
300 Worth Avenue
1926
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Chicago, IL
669 North Michigan Ave
1929
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Greenwich, CT
E. Putnam Ave at Millbank Ave.
1937
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Beverly Hills, CA
9600 Wilshire Boulevard
April, 1938
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Miami Beach, FL
Lincoln Road
1939
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Detroit, MI
New Center Building
4740 Second Avenue
1940
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Pittsburgh, PA
Sixth Avenue
20,000 sq. ft.
1949
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San Francisco, CA
Geary Avenue
1952
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Philadelphia, PA
Chestnut Street
34,000 sq. ft.
1952
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Fort Lauderale, FL
Sunrise Shopping Center
30,000 sq. ft.
1954 |
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White Plains
Bloomingdale Road at Grren Place
70,000 sq. ft.
August, 1954
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St. Louis, MO
Maryland Street and York Avenue
48,000 sq. ft.
1956.
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Springfield, NJ
Millburn and Short Hills Avenues
67,000 sq. ft.
August, 1957
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Skokie, IL
Old Orchard Shopping Center
58,000 sq. ft.
November, 1958
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Palm Springs, CA
Palm Canyon Drive
1958
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Garden City
Franklin Avenue
100,000 sq. ft.
March, 1962
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Palo Alto, CA
Stanford Shopping Center
1962
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Phoenix, AZ
2500 E. Camelback Road
September, 1963
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La Jolla, CA
7600 Girard Avenue
December, 1963
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Chevy Chase, MD
Wisconsin Avenue
102,000 sq. ft.
August, 1964
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Troy, MI
Somerset Mall
1967
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Atlanta, GA
Phipps Plaza
148,000 sq. ft.
August, 1968
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Bala-Cynwyd, PA
2 Bala Plaza
335 E. City Avenue
August, 1969 |
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Boston, MA
Prudential Center
August,1971
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Monterey, CA
Del Monte Center
1972
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Woodland Hills, CA
Woodland Hills Promenade
July, 1973 |
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St. Louis
Plaza Frontenac
1973
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Houston
Center of Fashion
1800 S. Post Oak Road
1974
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Bal Harbour, FL
Bal Harbour Shops
1976
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Bergen, NJ
Riverside Square
February, 1977
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Cleveland, OH (1978)
Beachwood Place
Costa Mesa, CA (1979)
South Coast Plaza
105,000 sq. ft.
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The Esplanade (1979)
Palm Beach, FL
172 Worh Avenue
30,000 sq. ft.
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Coming in due course.
I believe that the downtown Pittsburgh location (unfortunately, now slated for closure in 2012) moved to its present location out of the Gimbel's building in 1976 or 1977 at Smithfield Street and Oliver. It was also much larger, at about 85k sf.
ReplyDeleteExcellent exhibit...thank you.
ReplyDeleteSaks started at 34th street and Herald Square between both Gimbel's and Macy's.
Saks also has a location in Huntington NY and Southamton NY. Other locations include Stamford. CT (which replaced the Greenwich store). Later a smaller store opened on Greenwich Avenue in Greenwich CT. There is also a store in Bal Harbour Florida which replaced a smaller store down the street.
Saks still has that old charm you can't find anywhere else today!
ReplyDeleteAn old jingle from the 80's....tv and radio
ReplyDeleteWe are all the things you are
Gifts just right for you
We are all the things you are
AT Saks Fifth Av EN UE
Good memory...slight correction, it lasted only between 1978-1980> I left Bamberger's and went to Saks as a Buyer during that time period when they used that slogan (although those of us who worked there had a different take on it, which I will not add to this site). Then I went back to Bamberger's and then back to Saks by 1986.
DeleteSaks also operated a separate more moderately-priced chain in the New York City are called Saks 34th, which closed in the mid-60s. This is a similar picture between the Bullock's and Bullocks Wilshire chains, except that the latter was more luxurious.
ReplyDeleteGo to NYC and visit Saks & Company on Fifth Avenue. The best decorated store for the Christmas season anywhere!
ReplyDeleteA Saks opened at Dadeland Mall in the 80's, I believe. I remember the green marble Guerlain section, and my mom in a shopping frenzy over Louis Vuitton.
ReplyDeleteThe Jacobson's store in Indianapolis is now a Saks. Indy is now big time! Sure miss Ayres, though.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1960s and 70s there was a small store on Nassau St., Princeton, NJ. I believe it sold only mens sports wear.
ReplyDeleteI worked for S.F.A. for 50 years. Met my wife there. Children still work there.
ReplyDeleteSaks has been very good to my family.
My grandmother and great aunt both worked for Saks as seamstresses. I believe my grandma worked there for 25 years.
ReplyDeleteThere was a Saks at Oakbrook (suburban Chicago), but it is now closed.
ReplyDeleteThe SAKS in Garden City closed some years back...it was quite small but it was nice to have one so close by.
ReplyDeleteAs a adolescent/teen in the 50's/60's, the "Degas shoe bar" was the best!
ReplyDeleteSaks is closing many stores (Garden City, Lajolla, etc.) and asking customers to go to larger more centrally located areas to shop. Its all about shopping on-line. What a shame
ReplyDeleteI worked at Saks in NYC from 2005-2010 as a customer service representative. It was my first (and only) taste of working in NYC but I will never forget it. Saks has long had a reputation, but when I was there for five years in rather recent times, I saw a store try desperately to look and feel "inclusive"--and fail at it.
ReplyDeletePrior to the couture floor (3rd) makeover right around the time I left, both the 3rd and the menswear floor on 6th were my favorite floors. They inspired me and still carried a sense of elegance (even if the majority of the customers weren't). The restaurant (Café SFA) was a nice eatery on the 8th floor but it was renovated and relocated and was no longer the same. 2005-2008 saw the opening of two additional, smaller eateries which were equally disappointing. Perhaps the biggest letdown was the mishandling of the gifts department on 9th. In 2005-2006 its Christmas department was one side of the floor, a beautiful array of gifts, cards, toys and ornaments. In the last two years I worked there, that department was reduced to a nook and cranny on the 8th floor housewares section (which too had seen its changes).
Elegance and sophistication weren't visible by the time I left in 2010; many associates I came to be very good friends with had left Saks for other venues. Their fragrance and cosmetic department was nice, but when they made the grave mistake of terminating all of the associates and only leaving the vendors present the customer complaints were justifiable. Another wrong move which was done around the time I left Saks was moving the fur salon to the second floor (RTW) when it had been on the third floor (couture) for a long time. Sad to say, but it cheapened the salon in the process.
I could go with more but I'll stop here. I wonder if anyone else here worked at Saks as well.
My late ex-husband bought me a beautiful ski outfit in their Ski Shop on East 50th St.for our anniversary I was a cute ski bunny! This was in the late 60's. The store has changed but the Walt Whitman store on Long Island is the best department store and the only real place to buy beautiful clothes.
ReplyDeleteI love Saks! My late ex husband bought me a gorgeous ski outfit in the east 50th st. ski department. This was in the late 60's or early 70's. Saks is THE only place to buy beautiful clothes.
ReplyDeleteSFA @ Rockfeller Center... I LOVE YOU! I made note of OneLifeinLlanview comments and I tend to agree to a point. However, even with it's flaws, SFA gets it right in NYC/Boston.
ReplyDeleteYes, it always busy and bustling with tourists and the first floor makes you crazy but it is my FAVORITE NYC/Boston department store! Service, presentation, merchandise is tops. They are constantly remodeling to keep the store fresh and clean from the thundering herd of shoppers.
End of season sales can reward you price wise.
SFA NYC/Boston I LOVE YOU!
I just stumbled on to this site and had to add some history to the various SFA stores and their locations. I worked for Robert J. Bridges Architects in NYC. Mr. Bridges was the architect of many of the stores over the years from the 50's to 1999 when SFA was bought yet again and the new owners had their own ideas on construction (my opinion cheap).
ReplyDeleteMy first project was the escalators for the 5th Avenue store., then the Dadeland Mall Fl, building along with Houston, Tx and Cincinnati, Ohio store with the skywalk. That building had been designed to be clad in Marble but for budget reasons was changed to brick. Those round brick columns were a challenge.
Along the way I became the project architect/manager for Tulsa Ok, San Antonio Tx (North Star Mall and the boots) Orlando, Fl; Sarasota, Fl; Boca Raton, Fl; Short Hills, NJ; My last new building was Huntington, NY. Other new stores included Palm Springs, Vegas, Sunrise Mall Ft Lauderdale, San Deigo. We did a number of renovations, additions including South Hampton Long Island, Troy, Michigan; Boston, Bala-Cynwyd, Palo Alto. I know I have skated over a number of projects such as Santa Barbara. The store opening parties were always the a huge event, The San Antonio store had circus animals and Carol Burnett.
Saks bought the Beverly Hills building when it was just the left wing, the wing on the right in the photo above was an addition by Paul Revere Williams an African American Architect. He later added the third addition. We added escalator tower and one story addition in the 90's and studies for a parking deck behind the store as Barneys was building a new store next store. About that time Saks purchased the adjacent department store and created the Mens store.
The number of buildings and the travel I am afraid is lost to another era. Our firm was small but the staff was great and proud of our projects. Turn over was nearly non existent. Arnold Lezdkalns AIA was the project architect under Mr. Bridges for the Chevy Chase store in the late 50's early 60's and would pull out those gorgeous hand drawn drawings for the store once in awhile so that we could pour over the level of details, we added an escalator years later under Edward Whitfleet with Arnold' s help. Mr. Bridges made Don Lavin his partner and the firm name changed to Bridges and Lavin Architects. Other department store clients included B. Altmans, WJ Sloane, Lord and Taylor, Thalheimers, Gimbels, Bergdorf Goodman (I meet Mr. Goodman while working on one of the numerous departments. He lived on the top floor looking at the park later turned into a Spa).
The Saks planning and construction staff were first rate to work with and the stories are warm and numerous including a cross country flight from Beverly Hills to NY, detoured due to a north east snow storm to Boston and the electrical contractor was also on the flight and came down with the flu. Everyone snowed in the weekend watched over John. They then memorialized the fated trip with an annual lunch.
The Saks of yore was a wonderful company/client, a tremendous adventure at the start of my career, one which I will never forget!!!!