ON THIS DAY: November 1, 2000, Grand opening of downtown Lord & Taylor department store

PITTSBURGH, Pa. — The grand beaux arts building on Smithfield Street celebrated its grand opening as the Lord and Taylor department store on Nov. 1, 2000.

Built in 1924 by Mellon National Bank, May Co. (Lord and Taylor’s parent company) purchased the building in 1999 for $9.25 million to create their new store.

The project was part of an attempt by the administration of Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy to revive the downtown shopping district along Fifth and Forbes avenues. Tax breaks and incentives worked to entice Lord and Taylor to invest an additional $12 million to convert the vast interior into a multi-level department store, with the majority of those funds coming from an Urban Redevelopment Authority loan.

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Lord & Taylor downtown Pittsburgh store Lord & Taylor downtown Pittsburgh store. Picture taken in October 2000.

The original open banking floor of the building was a spectacular classical space. The vast 200-foot-long and 65-foot-high space featured soaring columns and copious amounts of Italian marble, most of which was demolished despite protests from preservationists. From its original two floors, Lord and Taylor carved out five floors, totaling 125,000 square feet, and installed an escalator and elevators.

The much-touted new downtown department store didn’t last long. It was closed in 2004, just three years after opening as part of a $380 million restructuring of its parent company. The store’s 75 employees were joined by those in 31 other locations in 15 states that were also closed.

Other big downtown department stores followed suit, with Lazarus closing in 2004 and Kaufman’s hanging on until 2015, after a rebranding to Macy’s in 2005.

J.J. Gumberg Co. purchased the building for a mere $2.5 million from May Co. in 2005, but never developed the property. It was estimated that J.J. Gumberg spent $1 million a year to maintain the building but was never able to find a tenant for it. The loss of the neoclassical interior accounted for much of the depreciated value, and the store layout was unsuitable for most commercial interests.

In 2012, PNC Financial Services purchased the long-vacant store for $3.85 million and turned it back into bank offices, calling the new building simply 500 Smithfield Street. The historic building saw many architectural details restored after they were discovered in the building’s sub-basement. Approximately 800 employees of the bank’s call center now enjoy restored windows and four of the original columns that were found underneath a layer of drywall.

Cox Media Group