A prime shopping district in Manhattan, New York City at the end of the 19th century
Designated to preserve an irregular district of 440 buildings on 28 blocks and parts of blocks, from roughly 15th Street to 24th Street and from Park Avenue South to west of the Avenue of the Americas.
The Ladies' Mile Historic District contains mostly multi-story store and loft buildings.
Before becoming a shopping district, this area was residential and included rows of identical brownstone townhouses.[
The architectural style of this district shifted to Beaux-Arts, Neo-Renaissance, Romanesque Revival, and Queen Anne.
The area first came to prominence in 1860, when the Prince of Wales stayed at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, located on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street, signaling to New York's high society that the neighborhood was acceptable to royalty.