Thread by @drorpoleg

What do WeWork, Karl Marx, the Prince of Wales, a goat, and fancy bathing suits have in common? A special Black Friday THREAD: 1/x

In 1877, Benjamin Altman, the son of Jewish-German immigrants, decided to leave the Lower East Side and open a new departments store on the corner of 18th St and 6th Avenue. (Corner photo from @nypl) 2/x

A few years later, the Prince of Wales stayed a a hotel on nearby 23rd Street and signaled to the local gentry that the area was legit. (Photo: NYC Firemen parading in front of the Prince: oldprintshop.com/product/90949?…) 3/x

The area, now named “Ladies’ Mile” became a popular shopping destination, focused on the “Carriage Trade” — selling goods to rich people who traveled by carriage. (Photo: Altman Bathing Suit catalog: library.duke.edu/rubenstein/scr…) 4/x

And while conspicuous consumption was booming, so was socialism. Back in the Lower East Side, a group of workers united to establish a new Yiddish Magazine to promote socialism among new immigrants. 5/x

The Jewish Forward became popular, and in 1912, the publication moved to a towering new building on East Broadway. (Photo: forward.com/culture/lookin…) 6/x

The building was designed by George A. Boehm, and included reliefs of Socialist luminaries such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Ferdinand LaSalle. (Photo: daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2011/06/1912-f…) 7/x

The 10-story Forward was the tallest building in the area. But not for long! Two years later, the dreaded Jarmulsky Bank erected a 12-story building around the block. The buildings symbolized the battle between Capitalism & Socialism. (Photo: bedfordandbowery.com/2013/12/the-te…) 8/x

The Jewish Forward building was recently converted to a luxury apartment building. The Jarmulsky building is now the Nine Orchard boutique hotel. But I digress… 9/x

Back uptown, Altman’s department store business was growing. Astute as ever, the company decided to move to a fancier location on the corner of 5th Avenue, diagonally across from the future Empire State Building. (Altman on Fifth, photo nyc-architecture.com/MID/MID161.htm) 10/x

Meanwhile, the old Altman building on 6th Ave changed hands and uses. In 1929-1931, it was merged with an adjacent building on 18th St. That building was designed by George A. Boehm, the same architect who put Marx and Engels on the Forward Building (thanks @MarketUrbanism) 11/x

Fast forward 85 years, a young immigrant from Israel chooses the building on 18th Street as the HQ of his new company — @WeWork.

Finally, the old struggle between Socialism and Capitalism is resolved: “Sharing” or “Profiting”? In NYC, you can do both!

(Photo from @trdny) 12/x

The Altman department store shut down, but the AltmanFoundation.org still supports hundreds of NYC nonprofits to this day. But what about Karl Marx? As they say in Yiddish: "A goat with a beard, is still only a goat"

THE END

(More yiddish idioms: yiddishwit.com/gallery/goat-b…)