Rowland Macy founded his eponymous dry goods store in 1858 on 14th Street at Sixth Avenue, in the heart of the district that would soon take shape and be known as “Ladies’ Mile.” Born on Nantucket in 1822, Macy was the son of a merchant ship captain. At age 15, Macy went to sea on a whaling ship just two years before Herman Melville made his first sea voyage; Macy spent four years at sea, meaning he worked on a whaler at the same time that Melville labored on the Acushnet, which provided the model for the Pequod in “Moby-Dick.”

At 19, Macy settled in Boston. Four times he attempted to run his own dry goods store, and each time his store failed. He also failed repeatedly in other lines of work. That he had the perseverance to try yet again – in New York to boot – is inspiring. His 14th Street store did, shall we say, succeed. Often Macy is credited with pioneering retail practices, like selling all merchandise at a low fixed price, that I think other merchants had already begun. No matter. He was one of the first true department store merchants, and he moved as far north as 14th Street before anyone else. He also hired a woman, Margaret Getchell, to manage his store, which was unprecedented in retailing.

Fatefully, Macy in 1874 brought in the brothers Isidor and Nathan Straus to run the china and glassware section in the store’s basement. Macy died in 1877, and 10 years later the Straus brothers became partners in the store. In 1896, they became the sole owners. (This was shortly after the Strauses had formed a Brooklyn store with Abraham Abraham.)

The Strauses were Bavarian Jews who exemplified both the business genius and philanthropic goodness with which we associate many 19th-century German Jews in New York. Isidor, who had made himself an expert on economics, advised President Cleveland and served in the House of Representatives. He also founded the American Jewish Committee and was president of the Educational Alliance, among much else. He and his wife, Ida, died on the Titanic in 1912. Straus Park, with its lovely sculpture “Memory,” at Broadway and 106th Street, is dedicated to them.

The Strauses moved Macy’s uptown in 1902, hiring the department store architects DeLemos and Cordes to design a beautiful store on Broadway, facing Herald Square between 34th and 35th Streets. In the 1920s, the store expanded west to Seventh Avenue. One may study Macy’s fine facade at leisure from Herald Square, so beautifully refurbished by the 34th Street Partnership. But for me the best part of Macy’s is its principal 34th Street entrance. The caryatids by J. Massey Rhind, the lamps, and the stylized period lettering – all vintage 1902 – are a joy that few who scurry along that busy street stop to savor. The holiday season, when you’re out gazing at store windows, is the perfect opportunity to look.

fmorrone@nysun.com