Cartier Building

The Cartier Building at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifty-second Street is famously known for a transaction that sounds like a piece of fiction. In 1917, the French jeweler Pierre Cartier acquired this six-story Italian Renaissance-style mansion from the railroad magnate Morton Plant. The purchase price was a mere one hundred dollars and a double-strand natural pearl necklace valued at one million dollars. The necklace was chosen by Plant's wife, Maisie, who had fallen in love with the jewels while visiting the Cartier showroom. At the time, the trade was considered a brilliant strategic move, securing a permanent and prestigious flagship location for the brand as the neighborhood transitioned from a residential enclave for the ultra-wealthy into a commercial corridor.