Gilded Age NYC Shopping Palaces - Outdoor Walking Tour

Hiding in plain sight is some absolutely *stunning* architecture in NYC that has been turned into...a Home Depot, a Container Store, a TJ Maxx - once majestic marvels of the Gilded Age in NYC where the Astors and Vanderbilts would shop for finery! Learn about Ladies' Mile, the historic district where women could finally travel solo and gather with other women, bolstering the movement for suffrage. Hear all about the rivalries and new ideas of historic retail icons like R.H. Macy (seafarer turned entrepreneur), A.T.Stewart (whose grave robbery is still a big mystery) & Isidor Straus (who died on the Titanic). Explore how ready-to-wear fashion took hold in the US, how advertising matured from street barkers to collectible cards to dazzling window displays, and what happened to all of these grand palaces of consumerism. **This is an outdoor walking tour - we will be viewing buildings from outside.**