Macy's Herald Square

Macy's Herald Square occupies a full city block on Broadway in Manhattan, its original section completed in 1902 and expanded in stages over the following decades until it became, by floor area, one of the largest department stores in the world. Its facade combines Beaux-Arts detailing with cast iron and terracotta ornament typical of major American commercial buildings of the early twentieth century, and its scale was intended to project the ambition of a retailer built around the promise of enormous variety under one roof. The store retains a set of wooden-tread escalators dating largely from the 1920s through 1930s, among the oldest such escalators still in operation in the United States, preserved as both a functioning convenience and a historical curiosity. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978 in recognition of its architectural and commercial significance.