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",[1] designed by Whitney Warren and Charles Wetmore,[2] and opened on October 16, 1929, with Eleanor Roosevelt in attendance.

It was described by The New York Times as a 12-story emporium of "severe, almost unornamented limestone climbing to a ziggurat of setbacks"—as an "antithesis" of the nearby "conventional 1928 Bergdorf Goodman Building.

The entrance was "like a spilled casket of gems: platinum, bronze, hammered aluminum, orange and yellow faience, and tinted glass backlighted at night".

"[1] Originally, the "interior of Stewart & Company was just as opulent as the entrance: murals, decorative painting, and a forest of woods: satinwood, butternut, walnut, cherry, rosewood, bubinga, maple, ebony, red mahogany and Persian oak."

Over time, the 15-foot tall limestone relief panels, depicting nearly nude women dancing, at the top of the Fifth Avenue facade, became a "Bonwit Teller signature".

"[5] In addition to the relief panels, the huge Art Deco nickel grillwork over the entrance to the store, which had also been promised to the museum, disappeared.

Bonwit Teller, which had developed a cutting-edge reputation promoting a young Christian Dior and other prominent American designers, gained momentum in its fashion and sales during the mid-1960s following the acquisition by Genesco.

[13] By the 1960s, there were stores operating in New York, Manhasset, White Plains, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Cleveland, as well as small resort shops in Miami and Palm Beach.

In the mid-1980s branches were located in Oak Brook, Illinois; Troy, Michigan; Palm Desert, California; Beverly Hills, Bal Harbour, Kansas City, Buffalo, and Columbia, South Carolina.

[14] From the mid-1970s to late-1980s, Bonwit competed head-on with peer Saks Fifth Avenue,[15] retaining a role on the development of fashion and design, most notably helping to launch the career of Calvin Klein.

[16] In 1964 Bonwit Teller had branch store in a two-and-a-half-story building in downtown White Plains, where it had operated since April 1941, on the current site of the Westchester One tower.

Pepe went to landlord Archie Davidow and bought the property, including the remainder of the lease, thus permitting Bonwits to move; it ceased operations at White Plains at the close of business on April 13, 1967.

Guests included actress Arlene Francis (member of the company's board of directors), Princess Marcella Borghese and Mildred Custin, president of Bonwit Teller.

[18] Designed by Copeland, Novak & Israel, it consisted of 36 fashion departments, and featured a 7,900 sq ft (734 m2) center court of Italian marble, with a crystal chandelier hanging above.

The venerable institution filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2000 after heightened debt, the last store open was the Carousel Center location.