This jewel box of a building in New York’s “Ladies Mile” shopping district was built by an actual jeweler

Sixth Avenue above 14th Street is a hodge-podge stretch of Manhattan, with enormous buildings that once housed the great shopping emporiums of the late 19th century interspersed with seen-better-days walkups. And then there’s this curiosity on the northeast corner of West 16th Street. Just four stories high, with a crowning cornice and a floor-to-ceiling show window across the second story, it’s a tender jewel box that managed to survive intact on this stretch of the former Ladies Mile. If you’re a fan of the Gilded Age, you’ve heard of Ladies Mile—an enclave between Broadway and Sixth Avenue and 10th to 23rd Streets where women of means could shop the fashions and furnishings on display in New York’s “palaces of trade” like Arnold Constable, B. Altman, and Stern’s. On an average weekday, hordes of well-dressed women, some accompanied by maids and drivers, would pass this corner on their way to and from these grand emporiums. With so much foot traffic, the corner made for the perfect…