Hugh O’Neill was an Irish-born retailer who eventually ran one of the biggest dry goods emporiums on Sixth Avenue at 21st Street.
His was the impressive domed building in the district once known as Ladies Mile, a late 19th century enclave of fancy emporiums and more middle class department stores roughly between Broadway and Sixth Avenue and 10th to 23rd Streets.
Like any smart store owner, O’Neill happily celebrated the consumerism that took hold in late 19th century New York, and this card gets his sentiments across in a cheeky way.
The O’Neill store is now a high-end condo called The O’Neill Building—apparently some lucky owners get to live in those corner domes!
Tags: defunct department stores NYC, holiday cards New York City, Hugh O'Neill Dry Goods Store, Hugh O'Neill Ladies Mile, Ladies Mile Historic District, Merry Christmas cards New York City stores
Ephemeral New York 
December 24, 2018 at 8:34 am |
[…] Source: FS – NYC Real Estate A Christmas card from a defunct Ladies Mile store […]
December 24, 2018 at 9:33 am |
[…] Source: FS – NYC Real Estate A Christmas card from a defunct Ladies Mile store […]
December 24, 2018 at 1:55 pm |
I come across conversations about how Christmas has “become “ so stressful and commercial since tv and other modern media. It seems that the aforementioned has had little to do with the perception that this is a 20th century phenomena.
December 24, 2018 at 6:24 pm |
Yes, the commercialism of the holiday appears to have been at full tilt by the late 19th century. Christmas was “the money-changing season,” as James McCabe put it.
December 24, 2018 at 8:57 pm |
That’s very cute, but yes, it does point up that Christmas has been commercialized for a century and a half.
But it’s VERY CUTE!
December 26, 2018 at 6:04 am |
Cute and clever, yes! It’s interesting to see a Christmas card even back then with no snow or Santa.
December 26, 2018 at 4:11 pm
Yes. It wasn’t “Santaclause-mas” yet at least until Madison Ave. got hold of the holiday.
January 1, 2019 at 3:12 pm |
There is a common thread pulling recent EphemeralNY posts together: Clean Water.
The latest post about manhole covers reminds us how fresh water from the Croton Reservoir flowed into Manhattan in the mid 1800s. The wonderful Sweat Tea post described who drank what where when and why. Alcohol produced from impure water brought drunken revelries at previous Christmas. The advent of Clean Water has drastically changed society on so many levels.
Now the lack of it will change our future.
Too serious … Happy New Year.
January 1, 2019 at 7:36 pm |
You’re right about that common thread, though it was purely an accident…or maybe it’s just that the city’s success comes from its supply of clean water. Happy 2019 to you too!
September 30, 2022 at 3:16 am |
[…] Avenue and 122nd Street. He hired Mortimer C. Merritt—an independent architect who designed Hugh O’Neill’s Sixth Avenue department store, with its signature beehive domes—to draw plans for an apartment […]