Thursday, November 28, 2013
The New York Times examined the history and work of the Altman Foundation and spoke with its president, Jane B. O'Connell, who is the daughter and sister of the last two presidents of the store and the foundation.
There was a time when shoppers would crowd into B. Altman & Company on the Friday after Thanksgiving. That imposing Fifth Avenue department store still had a certain specialness as it aged gracefully, perhaps too gracefully — by the 1970s, it seemed almost fusty. And then, after a listless going-out-of-business sale that began on the day after Thanksgiving in 1989, it closed. Most shoppers figured that was it for B. Altman....