Macy’s giant shopping bag sign is removed, revealing 100-year-old building hidden for decades
The iconic Macy’s shopping bag sign was removed. Photo © Devin Gannon / 6sqft
The giant shopping bag sign proclaiming Macy’s Herald Square as “The World’s Largest Store” was removed over the weekend, revealing a 100-year-old building that had been hidden for decades. The red-and-white billboard, which had wrapped around the corner of the building on 34th Street and Broadway for 60 years (through several iterations over the years), will be replaced with something more modern, as the New York Post first reported, but it’s unclear exactly what will be displayed. For a short time, though, the 240,000 pedestrians who pass the corner every day will get a peek for the first time at what was behind the iconic sign: a five-story building that is one of the city’s most famous “holdouts” in real estate.
As Herald Square shifted to a retail corridor, Macy’s moved to the neighborhood from 14th Street in 1900, and started buying plots of land around Broadway and 34th to build, as the New York Times noted, a “mammoth store.”
Apparently, Macy’s reached a verbal agreement to acquire the corner plot, but Henry Siegel of Siegel-Cooper, a rival department store, bought the building. It’s been reported that Siegel outbid the company to hold the corner plot hostage until Macy’s sold him the 14th Street building.
But Macy’s never surrendered and just built the store around the structure. As 6sqft previously reported, Siegel demolished the original corner structure and constructed the five-story building that can be seen today. In 1911, the building at 1313 Broadway sold for $1 million, a record at the time, which led to it being known as the “Million Dollar Corner.”
According to Ephemeral New York, Macy’s has leased billboard space on the facade since the 1920s, including the four-story shopping bag sign.
Last month, Kaufman Realty, which owns the building and billboard space, told the Post the firm and Macy’s were still “in discussions” over the corner sign.
Macy’s told the Post: “As the neighborhood continues to evolve, the current sign – while beloved – is outdated and will be removed as part of broader updates by the billboard owner to modernize the space.”
The city’s Department of Buildings issued a permit for the sign’s removal on June 12.
Macy’s sued Kaufman in 2021 after it thought the real estate developer would allow Amazon to advertise on the corner, claiming the negative effect of allowing a competing retailer to promote itself on the department store.
According to Macy’s, terms set in 1963 prohibit Kaufman from allowing a competitor to advertise on the billboard. The Macy’s shopping bag remained up for another five years.
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