The iconic Herald Square Macy's sign is down, laying history bare

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The iconic red-bag-shaped Macy’s billboard on the corner of 34th Street and Broadway came down over the weekend, exposing the old “holdout” building beneath.

It’ll soon be replaced with two new LED signs, according to the Department of Buildings.

The department issued two permits to the owners of the small building on the southeast corner of the Macy’s block last month — one for the removal of the Macy’s sign, and another for the installation of two new LED signs, according to agency records. The old sign came down over the weekend, while the new one was still not installed on Tuesday, leaving the building behind it bare for the first time in years. The facade of the five-story building, dating back to the early 1900s, was filthy and its windows were boarded up.

The building is one of the “holdouts” of New York City — a term used to describe buildings whose owners didn’t sell the plots of land they stand on to major developers, and remain as small carveouts embedded within larger projects. The holdout on the Macy’s block is a reminder of the retail wars of the 20th century.

“It's kind of like a little snaggletooth in a big urban development that is truly like an owner holding out on selling to the developer, and I love these because I think that as you move through the city and you become aware of them, you start seeing them all the time,” said Lilly Tuttle, senior curator of the collection at Museum of the City of New York. “And so the Macy's holdout is one of the most iconic and notable examples of this phenomenon in New York City.”

According to the book “Holdouts! The Buildings That Got in the Way,” by Andrew Alpern and Seymour Durst, the 30-foot-by-50 foot parcel of land was owned by the Rev. Alfred Duiane Pell in the late 19th century — his father had bought it for $30,000 decades earlier. Durst and Alpern write that around the turn of the century, the owners of R. H. Macy & Company, Jesse and Percy Straus, were seeking to buy the block between 34th and 35th streets and between Broadway and Seventh Avenue one parcel at a time, with plans of moving their store there from 14th Street.

Pell initially agreed to sell it to them for $250,000. But an agent working on behalf of Harry Siegel, the owner of competitor store Siegel-Cooper Dry Goods Store, offered Pell $375,000, and then sold the parcel to Siegel, according to the book. Siegel’s plan had been to use the land as leverage to buy Macy’s old 14th Street location, but the Strauses refused and built their building around the plot of land instead, the authors said. Siegel’s initial plan was foiled.

Instead, a cigar company leased the small building there, then razed it, and built a five-story building in its place. Defeated, Siegel sold the building, according to “Holdouts!”

“It was just kind of a little bit of like dirty dealing in real estate among these huge competitors in the retail marketplace, and it has been part of New York's iconography for over 100 years,” Tuttle said. “Macy's did a very creative workaround from having this funny little building that they couldn't get rid of and put a big sign on top of it.”

Most of the hundreds of people walking past didn’t pay much attention to the exposed building Tuesday. But some, including Texas resident Elizabeth Daffin, who was visiting the area with her son, stopped and snapped photos of the rare sighting of the bare building.

“It's kind of a thing you come to 34th Street to see, right? You see the Macy's building, and you see the red bag, just like their Christmas windows — it's a staple,” she said of the now-removed signage. ”Right now it looks pretty awful. … It could be really cool if they went in there and fixed whatever is there, 'cause that looks really old.”

Lifelong New Yorker Amy Mosedale, 69, said she was passing through the area with her husband and decided to take a slight detour to check out the facade.

“It was an iconic thing for so long,” she said. “I just wanted to see it 'cause I'm sure they're gonna cover it up.”

Isabella Sapio, 25, said she used to see the sign almost every day when she worked at Macy’s a few years ago.

“I mean, it's iconic! I have family from overseas, so bringing them here, they're like, 'Oh, that's Macy's, the Thanksgiving Day parade,’” she said. “It's just such an iconic feature, so to see it down with its skeleton is kind of crazy. …. It looks like it needs a lot of work, to be honest, I guess that's why the red bag was there, to cover this, 'cause it's a bit of an eyesore right now.”

It’s unclear what exactly will be advertised on the new LED signs. The company listed as the building’s owner on the work permit and a spokesperson for Macy’s didn’t return messages Tuesday seeking comment.

This comes as New York City is under a flood watch amid a stormy Tuesday night forecast.

The NYPD detective killed in last year's Midtown mass shooting was remembered on Tuesday during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Bronx precinct where he served.

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