The Great Stores

The Great Stores. , Most of the buildings you see along Fulton Mall went up in the years (1888 to 1940) that the "el" rumbled high over Fulton Street., The south side of Fulton Mall between Gallatin Place and Hoyt Street is dominated by the massive retail complex that was originally Abraham and Straus, the most famous name in Brooklyn retailing. Wechsler and Abraham, formed in 1865, moved in 1883 into the two cast-iron-fronted buildings on the block. (These buildings, illustrated here, were built in the 1870s.) The store's first new construction on the site occurred in 1884, with architect George L. Morse's Romanesque Revival building at the northeast corner of Livingston Street and Gallatin Place., In 1893, Isidor and Nathan Straus purchased Joseph Wechsler's interest in the store, which became Abraham and Straus. In 1929, Abraham and Straus constructed its "main building," the high-rise Art Deco structure, designed by Starrett and Van Vleck, that dominates the complex. Abraham and Straus became Macy's in 1995., At the southeast corner of Fulton Mall and Hoyt Street is the 1924-25 building (expanded in 1928-29) of A.I. Namm and Son, a famous department store. Polish Jewish immigrant Adolph Namm opened a store on this site in 1891. Namm's son built the present building, a designated New York City landmark. The architects were Robert D. Kohn and Charles Butler. In 1952, Namm's acquired Loeser's department store, at the northeast corner of Livingston Street and Elm Place. The combined store was renamed Namm's-Loeser's, and closed in 1957., On the north side of Fulton Mall between Bridge and Duffield streets stands a designated New York City landmark called the Offerman Building, erected in 1890-91 and designed by Lauritzen and Voss. The Fulton Mall facade is in an exuberant Romanesque Revival style. The facade along Duffield Street is also Romanesque Revival, but in a more restrained and elegant mode. The building is also known as the Wechsler Brothers Building, as it housed the Wechsler Brothers department store that was formed after Joseph Wechsler retired from Wechsler and Abraham. Later, the building housed Martin's, a famous department store that closed in the 1980s.