Boston Retail History: Bonwit Teller Part Two

March 20, 2013

In response to our post, Local Dailies Disappear Bonwit Teller from Boston’s Retail History, splendid commenter Rick in Duxbury sent this to the hardreading staff:

If memory serves, the thing that really killed Bonwit’s was the boneheaded real estate department employee who forgot to exercise the renewal option in their lease, thus putting the iconic building on the market in the first place.

 

(First, full disclosure: Regarding all things retail, we routinely defer to the Missus who, as it happens, worked for Bonwit Teller as an executive shopping consultant throughout the 1980s.)

So, Rick: We think you’ve confused Bonwit’s with the boneheaded Lord & Taylor employee who forgot to renew the Boylston Street store’s lease in 2002.

The Bonwit Teller story is something else again.

The upscale retailer occupied 234 Berkeley Street (former home of the New England Museum of Natural History) from 1947 to 1987. At which point Louis Boston resided across Boylston Street, where they had a 20-year lease.

But The New England insurance company wanted to raze the block and build what became 500 Boylston Street. Louis said they’d only move if they could have Bonwit’s location.

So Bonwit Teller, conveniently motivated by a sweetheart lease, moved into the New England’s new building across the street.

From the (1988) New York Times:

The new Boston Bonwit’s is on Boylston Street in the city’s affluent Back Bay neighborhood, the location for several big stores and an increasing number of specialty shops and boutiques. It replaces a store shut down in 1987 after 30 years in a distinctive nearby building.

The new store is in a recently opened $150 million, 25-story office building designed by Philip Johnson for the New England, an insurance company. The first two floors house retailers and restaurants. Bonwit’s, which declined to say how much it had spent on the store, has 33,000 square feet of selling space, as against 24,000 in its former site.

 

Regardless, Bonwit Teller soon went out of business, a victim of changing retail times and shaky management.

But that doesn’t mean it should be erased from Boston’s retail history, as the local dailies have done in reporting its latest successor at 234 Berkeley, Restoration Hardware.

Better to restoration Bonwit’s into the record books, yes?

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Local Dailies Disappear Bonwit Teller from Boston’s Retail History

March 19, 2013

There’s been lots of hubbub the last two weeks over Restoration Hardware’s botched opening (Worst. Party. Ever.) in its new home at 234 Berkeley Street.

Including yesterday’s Boston Globe front page piece:

hardwareAfter packed debut, store at a standstill

Restoration Hardware has buzz, goods, but no permit

On March 5, Gary Friedman, the silver-haired CEO emeritus of Restoration Hardware, was warned that a party in Boston the next night to celebrate the opening of his enormous store could get seriously overcrowded.

“We can ask for forgiveness [afterward],” he told the group, according to people who were there.

Friedman denies saying that, but 24 hours later, police and fire officials were indeed summoned to the former Louis Boston building at 234 Berkeley St. to block a horde of smartly dressed men and women trying to shoehorn themselves through the store’s gaping steel-and-glass doors.

Now, forgiveness isn’t all Friedman needs. The 40,000-square-foot home goods store selling $279 duvet covers and $895 riveted mesh chandeliers still doesn’t have an occupancy permit. Even after the over-the-top party and a photo-op ribbon-cutting, the lavish store in the heart of the trendy Newbury Street shopping district isn’t open. And it’s not clear when it will be.

 

Further on:

It was nearly two years ago that Restoration Hardware — now branded simply as RH — announced plans to move into the historic Berkeley Street building, the 150-year-old former home of the New England Museum of Natural History and, more recently, the luxury emporium Louis Boston.

 

That’s the keystroke version of “the historic Berkeley Street building,” repeated in the Boston Herald’s coverage:

The party, to celebrate the opening of the new Restoration Hardware, an upscale furniture and fixture boutique in the old Louis Boston building, quickly became the hottest ticket of the year.

 

What both papers have missed are the glory years of the historic Berkeley Street building when it was occupied – beautifully – by Bonwit Teller.

Representative image:

bonwit_teller_1

 

The Louis Boston renovation was an abomination, and the hardreading staff – which was decidedly not invited to the Restoration Hardware meltdown – doubts the latest incarnation is much better.

But, as the historic Berkeley Street building is repeatedly demeaned, let’s at least remember when it was historically honored.

 

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