La Belle Jardinère: le magasin de la rue de la Cité pendant sa demolition, Paris

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

The department store was located on the Ile de la Cité in the Seine in the middle of Paris. In 1864, as part of the renovation of the city, the government ordered that the store be replaced with a new building for the country’s oldest hospital. While there are numerous photographs of new structures and broad streets that resulted from Baron Haussmann’s urban renewal plan, views of the demolition of the old structures are rare. Founded in 1824, La Belle Jardinière (The Beautiful Gardener) department store pioneered the sale of ready-to-wear clothing for those of modest means.