as Macy's, Lord and Taylor and B. Altman and Company to the area which was to be called "Ladies' Mile", on Broadway and Sixth Avenue between 9th Street and 23rd Street. However, in 1862, Stewart's "true" department store, referred to as the "Iron Palace", was built. This six-story building, with its cast-iron front, glass dome skylight and grand emporium, employed up to 2,000 people. The immense structure occupied a major portion of a city block near Grace Church, from Broadway and Ninth Street to Tenth Street and Astor Place. The establishment's nineteen departments included silks, dress goods, carpets, and toys. By 1877 it had expanded to thirty departments, carrying a wide variety of items. As noted by The New York Times, "a man may fit up his house there down to the bedding, carpets and upholstery." The Iron Palace building was taken over in 1882 by Hilton, Hughes & Co. (who were associates of Stewart), then by Wanamaker's department store in 1896, ultimately burning down in 1956. Drawings of the interior from the Hilton, Hughes era. Mail order business A. T. Stewart & Company did not go unnoticed throughout the country. Along with his successful retail store in New York City, Stewart also established himself as one of the wealthiest men in the United States by allowing women all over the country to purchase and order items from his wholesale department store. Beginning in 1868, Stewart began receiving letters from women in rural parts of the United States requesting his merchandise. Stewart promptly replied to these letters and orders by sending out the requested products and even paying the postage. Once their orders were received, women would send back the payment for them. Seeing potential for the mail order business, by 1876 Stewart had hired twenty clerks to read, respond and mail out the entailed orders. That year he profited by over $500,000 from the mailing business alone. Stewart's mail-order business' efficiency, convenience and profits gained so much attention from all over the country that other famous businesses such as Sears, Montgomery Ward and Spiegel's followed in his footsteps. Defeated for Secretary of the Treasury In March 1869 President Ulysses S. Grant offered Stewart the position of Secretary of the Treasury (after Joseph Seligman had declined it), but he was not confirmed by the United States Senate. One impediment to Stewart's appointment was a provision in the 1789 law which