Mortimer C. Merritt · 1890 · New York
Mortimer C. Merritt's dry goods store on the Ladies' Mile.
Hugh O'Neill Building, 655 Sixth Avenue at W 20th St (the white one with gold domes). Mortimer C. Merritt designed it as Hugh O'Neill's Dry Goods Store. It went up in two stages between 1887 and 1890 so the old store could stay open during construction.
It was one of the big department stores on the "Ladies' Mile," the 19th-century shopping strip where women with money and free time bought ready-made goods. The front is cast iron, which made it easy to grow: in 1895 the owners added a fifth floor by lifting the pediment and domes and setting them back on top.
The domes were removed in 1917. During a condo conversion in the 2000s, the architects at CetraRuddy rebuilt them. No original drawings survived, so they worked from old city photos taken to document the Sixth Avenue elevated train next door.