B. Altman and Company Building

The B. Altman and Company Building sits on an entire city block, serving as a physical transition point in the history of Fifth Avenue. When it opened in 1906, the avenue was primarily a quiet, prestigious residential corridor filled with private mansions and churches. Benjamin Altman chose this location to establish his flagship store, a move that surprised his contemporaries and effectively signaled the end of the area as a strictly elite residential enclave. By introducing a massive, limestone-clad commercial structure into this neighborhood, Altman acted as the catalyst for the avenue's total transformation into the world-famous luxury shopping boulevard it became in the following decades.