Lord & Taylor history

The year 1845 brought a change in partnership.

1860 The retailer opens its third location at Grand Street and Broadway after opening a second location at Grand and Chrystie Streets seven years earlier.

Lord’s estate sold the site on Grand Street in 1901.

By the time it opened its location at Fifth Avenue and West 38th Street in 1914, Lord & Taylor was already billed as “America’s Oldest Store.”

1916 Lord & Taylor is a founding member of Associated Dry Goods Co., a group of independent department stores.

She joined the store’s comparison shopping bureau in 1924 and worked her way up the ranks until she became the industry’s first female executive.

1932 To promote fashion designers in the United States, Shaver devises a program she calls “The American Look,” including creative and fashion awards, which historians say helped move the world’s fashion capital from Paris to New York City.

1938 During an unseasonably warm November, Lord & Taylor replaces merchandise in window displays with sound and “wind” that blows bleached cornflakes to simulate a blizzard, a controversial move that launches a longstanding tradition of animated window displays at the holidays.

1945 Shaver becomes president of Lord & Taylor, the first woman to lead a major retailer.

1952 Lord & Taylor introduces a personal styling service.

It was a far cry from the location’s September 1959 gala opening celebration when First Lady Mamie Eisenhower and Nina Meyers, wife of Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, snipped the ribbon and welcomed the first New York fashion department store to the Washington retail scene.

When May Department Stores purchased Lord & Taylor in 1986, it embarked on an aggressive expansion program that took the retailer to distant markets and midsize communities.

When May Co. was bought by Federated in 2005 its new owners were smart enough to realize there was no place in the Macy’s M /Bloomingdales structure for it.

2006 Federated sells Lord & Taylor to real estate investment firm NRDC Equity Partners, led by real estate mogul Richard Baker, for $1.2 billion in cash.

2008 NRDC buys Canadian department store Hudson’s Bay Co. for an undisclosed sum, and consolidates its ownership of several companies, including Lord & Taylor, under a holding company called the Hudson’s Bay Trading Company.

2013 Hudson’s Bay Co. buys United States luxury department store Saks Fifth Avenue for $2.9 billion, including debt.

2017 Lord & Taylor opens a digital storefront on Walmart.com.

2018 Hudson’s Bay Co. executives won’t confirm whether they are looking into options for Lord & Taylor.

There was a sense that Lord & Taylor’s days were numbered after its Fifth Avenue flagship closed in January 2019.

Lord & Taylor and Le Tote filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on August 2, 2020.