Ladies' Mile Walking Tour: Gilded Age Department Stores of New York

Some of the most elaborate commercial buildings in Manhattan now sell drill bits, storage boxes and discount handbags. Look up from the Home Depot, the Container Store or the TJ Maxx around Ladies' Mile and you are standing under the ornate facades of the shopping palaces where the Astors and the Vanderbilts once bought their clothes. This two-hour outdoor walk, starting on West 13th Street and ending on Sixth Avenue, tells the story of those stores. Ladies' Mile was the district where women could go out alone and meet other women in public, which fed straight into the suffrage movement. It was also where some of the big names of American retail competed and tried out new ideas: R.H. Macy, a former sailor; A.T. Stewart, whose body was stolen from his grave in a case that is still a mystery; and Isidor Straus, who died on the Titanic. The guide covers how ready-to-wear clothing caught on in the United States, how advertising grew from men shouting on the street to collectible trade cards and then to dazzling shop windows, and what became of each of these buildings afterwards. Along the way you see the Siegel-Cooper store, Hugh O'Neill's dry goods emporium, Lord & Taylor, Arnold Constable & Co. (where Mary Todd Lincoln shopped) and a hidden Macy's annex on 13th Street, as well as the house where Edith Wharton grew up. Everything is seen from the sidewalk: the tour does not go inside the buildings. No food or drink is included, so bring a bottle of water. Bookings take up to 12 travelers, and a moderate level of fitness is recommended.