Bonwit, Rothschild & Company
Paul Bonwit | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Template:Birth date |
| Died | December 11, 1939 (aged 77) New York City, US |
| Occupation | Founder of Bonwit Teller department store |
| Spouse | Sarah Woolf |
Paul Joseph (also known as Josef) Bonwit (born September 29, 1862 – died December 11, 1939) was an American businessman originally from the Kingdom of Hanover. He founded the Bonwit Teller department store in New York City and led the company from its inception in 1895 until its sale in 1934.
Personal life
Born near Hanover, Kingdom of Hanover, Paul was the son of Bernard Bonwit. At sixteen, he relocated to Paris where he secured employment as a clerk at a local export firm while continuing his education during evenings. In 1883, at twenty-one years old, he emigrated to the United States, initially settling in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he worked in a department store. Subsequently, he moved to New York City to join Rothschild & Company; after becoming a partner, the firm was renamed Bonwit, Rothschild & Company. He eventually made New York his permanent home. In 1893, he married Rebecca Woolf Bonwit (1869–1934), with whom he had two sons: Harold Woolf Bonwit (1896–1950) and Walter B. Bonwit (1901–1984).
Bonwit Teller
Aspiring to establish his own enterprise, Bonwit launched a retail store in New York at Sixth Avenue and Eighteenth Street in 1895. Two years later, together with Edmund D. Teller, they moved their business—then known as Bonwit Teller—to Sixth Avenue and Twenty-third Street. The partners incorporated their company as Bonwit Teller & Company in 1907 and relocated again in 1911 to the corner of Fifth Avenue and Thirty-eighth Street.
In 1930, the store moved further uptown on Fifth Avenue into the former A.T. Stewart & Company building at Fifty-sixth Street. The following year, prominent financier Floyd Odlum made a substantial investment in the business. In 1932, Bonwit consented to Hortense Odlum—Floyd’s wife—joining as a consultant. Two years later, facing declining health and grieving his wife’s passing, Bonwit sold the enterprise to Odlum’s Atlas Corporation. Hortense Odlum was appointed president—the first woman to hold such a position in New York—while Bonwit's son Walter remained vice president and general manager.
Under the leadership of the Odlums, the company prospered. In May 1979, developer Donald Trump purchased and subsequently demolished the Fifth Avenue location to construct Trump Tower. Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, ownership of Bonwit Teller changed hands multiple times. In 1989, its then-parent company filed for bankruptcy protection, resulting in liquidation of much of the business by 1990.
Throughout his career, Bonwit served on the boards of Harriman National Bank and A. Sulka & Company while actively supporting philanthropic causes and the arts.
Paul J. Bonwit passed away in Manhattan in 1939 following a brief illness and was laid to rest in a private mausoleum located at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.