AT Stewart was born in Ireland. His father died when Stewart was a child and his mother remarried and emigrated to New York. He first visited her in 1918 for a few years. He returned to Ireland, received about $10,000 from his grandfather's will and used the money to buy Irish linens which he sold in his first store. Even though his store was on Broadway a few blocks west of what was then the main shopping district, he turned out to have a natural talent. He prided himself on customer service and good prices. Innovations included an organized layout of his merchandise on multiple floors, separate departments for women. He was extremely successful, so much so that 10 years later he was able to open the Marble Dry Goods Palace, the largest store in the world to be followed by the Iron Palace a few years later.
By 1863 he had become one of the wealthiest people in the world with an annual income of $1,843,637 (equivalent to $30.9 million in 2019). This enabled him to build a 5th Avenue mansion across the street from Caroline Schermerhorn Astor. He assembled a million dollar art collection and invested heavily in real estate coming to own the Metropolitan and Park Hotels, the Globe Theatre, Niblo’s Garden, the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga, 7120 acres in Long Island which became Garden City and “more New York City real estate than any man except William Astor".
By the end of the Civil War, Ulysses Grant wanted him to be Treasury Secretary but he was not confirmed as Congress prohibited a merchant or importer from occupying the position in the Act of 1789 establishing the Treasury Department.
Unfortunately the bulk of his vast fortune was mainly dissipated with a large portion ending up with the lawyers who were fighting off long lost squabbling relatives and other claimants.
