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Endpoint: Bonwit Teller



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Videos (8)
created on: 12/02/2026
by: bob (10589)
 
 

Brand properties

General info :
Bonwit Teller was the business name used by Bonwit Teller & Co., an American luxury department store in New York City, founded by Paul Bonwit in 1895 at Sixth Avenue and 18th Street, and later a chain of luxury department stores.

In 1897, Edmund D. Teller was admitted to the partnership and the store moved to 23rd Street, east of Sixth Avenue.

Bonwit specialized in high-end women's apparel at a time when many of its competitors were diversifying their product lines, and Bonwit Teller became noted within the trade for the quality of its merchandise as well as the above-average salaries paid to both buyers and executives.

The partnership was incorporated in 1907 and the store moved to the corner of Fifth Avenue and 38th Street.

Throughout much of the 20th century, Bonwit was one of a group of upscale department stores on Fifth Avenue that catered to the "carriage trade". Among its most notable peers were Lord & Taylor, and Saks Fifth Avenue.

The Bonwit Teller's flagship uptown building at Fifth Avenue and 56th Street, originally known as Stewart & Company, was a women's clothing store in the "new luxury retailing district", designed by Whitney Warren and Charles Wetmore, and opened on October 16, 1929, with Eleanor Roosevelt in attendance.
Two more floors were added to the main building in 1938 and a twelve-story addition was made to the 56th Street frontage in 1939.

The company, in need of capital, partnered with noted financier Floyd Odlum. Odlum, who had cashed in his stock holdings just prior to the stock market crash of 1929, was investing in firms in financial distress and in 1934 Odlum's Atlas Corporation acquired Bonwit Teller. Odlum's wife, Hortense, who had already been serving as a consultant, was named president of Bonwit Teller in 1934, making her the first female president of a major department store in the United States.

Floyd and Hortense Odlum would sell their investment in Bonwit Teller to Walter Hoving's Hoving Corporation. With Bonwit Teller, Hoving would establish a strong retail presence on Fifth Avenue that would also include Tiffany & Co.

The company would undergo another ownership change just ten years later with the acquisition of Bonwit by Genesco in 1956. At the time, Genesco was a large conglomerate operating 64 apparel and retail companies.

By 1960, the company operated these stores as well as Manhasset; Wynnewood and Jenkintown, Pennsylvania and the small resort shops in Miami and Palm Beach.

The chain expanded to Beverly Hills in 1972, Bal Harbour; Palm Desert in 1983;[25] Kansas City in 1984;[26] Buffalo, and Columbia, South Carolina.

In 1979, Allied Stores Corporation acquired the company.
In 1987, Allied Stores Corporation sold Bonwit Teller for $101 million to Hooker Corporation, an Australian business.
In 1989, Bonwit was put on the auction block after the LJ Hooker filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Under the bankruptcy two stores in Cincinnati & Columbia continued to be operated by Hooker Corp under a license whilst five stores (Boston, Buffalo, Manhasset and Short Hills) and the Bonwit Teller name were purchased by The Pyramid Company.
After The Pyramid Company purchased Bonwit Teller from Hooker in 1990 and opened a store at the Carousel Center complex in Syracuse, New York. During the mid-1990s, a Manhattan branch was shopped around. The venerable institution filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2000 after heightened debt, the last store open was the Carousel Center location.

In 2005, River West Brands, a Chicago-based brand revitalization company, announced it had formed Avenue Brands LLC to bring back Bonwit Teller this venture never materialized.
In March 2020, NBT Holdings, a subsidiary of Sugar23, announced it had acquired the rights to the brand and announced that it was planning to bring the store back.
Relations :
Founded by [1895] : Paul Bonwit
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Business name of : Bonwit Teller & Co.
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Source :
Copied Wikipedia parts under license :
ENA's Bonwit Teller's

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Item number : 72029

Submitted by : bob (10589)
on : 12/02/2026
Refined by : bob (10589)
Last updated on: 12/02/2026