Early years Marshall Field & Company traces its antecedents to the
P. Palmer & Company, a
dry goods store opened at 137 Lake Street in 1852 by
Potter Palmer. In 1856, 21-year-old
Marshall Field, from
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, moved to Chicago on the southwest shores of
Lake Michigan, and found work at
Cooley, Wadsworth & Company, then the city's largest dry goods firm. In 1860, just before the
American Civil War, Field and bookkeeper
Levi Z. Leiter became junior partners in the firm, then known as Cooley, Farwell & Company. In 1864, the firm, then led by senior partner
John V. Farwell, Sr., was renamed Farwell, Field & Company. only for Field and Leiter to soon withdraw from the partnership with Farwell when presented with the opportunity of a lifetime. Potter Palmer, plagued by ailing health, was looking to dispose of his thriving business; thus, on January 4, 1865, Field and Leiter entered into partnership with Palmer and his brother Milton. The firm of P. Palmer & Company became known as
Field, Palmer, Leiter & Company, with Palmer financing much of their initial capital, as well as his own contribution. After Field and Leiter's immediate success enabled them to pay him back, Palmer withdrew from the partnership in 1867 to focus on his own growing real-estate interests on one of the burgeoning city's important thoroughfares,
State Street; Milton Palmer left at this time as well. The store was renamed
Field, Leiter & Company, sometimes referred to as "Field & Leiter". The buyout, however, did not bring an end to Potter Palmer's association with the firm. In 1868, he convinced Field and Leiter to lease a new, six-story edifice he had just built at the northeast corner of State and Washington Streets. The store was soon referred to as the "Marble Palace", owing to its costly
marble stone face.
The Chicago Fire When the
Chicago Fire broke out on October 8, 1871, news reached company officials Henry Willing and Levi Leiter, who decided to load as much of their expensive merchandise as possible onto wagons and take it to Leiter's home, which was out of the path of the fire. The company's drivers and teams were ordered out of the barns. Horace B. Parker, a young salesman, rushed to the store's basement, broke up boxes, and built a fire in the furnace boiler so the steam-powered elevators could be operated. These employees worked feverishly through the night to move vital records and valuable goods to safety. At one point, the gas tank exploded, which put out the store's gaslights. The men worked on by candlelight and the glow from the approaching flames. The employees got enough steam up to operate the store's powerful pumps in the basement, and volunteers went to the roof and used the store's fire hoses to wet down the roof and the wall on the side of the oncoming fire. Early the following morning, however, the city's waterworks burned, thus ending the water supply and making further efforts useless. The last employee had scarcely exited the building when it burst into flames, shooting fire from every window. The store burned to the ground, but so much merchandise was saved that the store was able to reopen in only a few weeks (first the wholesale department on October 28, then the retail department on November 6), albeit temporarily relocated to a horse-streetcar barn of the
Chicago City Railway Co. at State & 20th Streets. In April 1872, Field & Leiter reopened at a building at Madison and Market Streets (the location of present-day West Wacker Drive). Salesman Parker stayed with the company for 45 more years, rising to the level of General Sales Manager.
After the Great Fire In October 1873, Field and Leiter returned to State Street at Washington, opening a new five-story store at their old location, which they now leased from the
Singer Sewing Machine Company; Palmer had sold the land site to finance his own rebuilding activities. This store was expanded in 1876, only to be destroyed by fire again in November 1877. Ever tenacious, Field and Leiter had a new temporary store opened by the end of the month, this time at a lakefront exposition hall which they temporarily leased from the city, located at what is now the site of the
Art Institute of Chicago. Meanwhile, the Singer company had speculatively built an even larger, six-story building on the ruins of their old 1873 store, which, after some contention, was personally bought by Field and Leiter. Field, Leiter & Company then reclaimed their traditional location at the northeast corner of State and Washington for the last time in April 1879. In January 1881, Field, with the support of his junior partners, bought out
Levi Leiter, renaming the business
Marshall Field & Company. As Palmer had before, Leiter retired to tend his significant real estate investments, which included commissioning the
Second Leiter Building at State Street and Van Buren in 1891 to house
Siegel, Cooper & Company. In 1932, this building (known as one of the earliest steel-framed commercial buildings built and still standing in the U.S., along with the
Equitable Building in
Baltimore) was leased to the later famous nationwide mail-order firm
Sears, Roebuck & Company. In 1887, the seven-story,
Romanesque-styled Marshall Field's Wholesale Store, designed by
Henry Hobson Richardson, opened on Franklin Street between Quincy and Adams. The wholesale division sold merchandise in bulk to smaller merchants throughout the central and western United States, and did six times the sales volume of the local retail store. Chicago's location at the nexus of the country's railroads and
Great Lakes shipping made it the center of the dry goods wholesaling business by the 1870s, with Field's largest rival being
John V. Farwell, Sr., his former partner from before the war. It was the scale of the profits generated by the
John G. Shedd-led in August 1893, towards the end of the Exposition. In 1897, the old 1879 store was rebuilt and had two additional floors added, while the first of Marshall Field's iconic Great Clocks was installed at the corner of State and Washington Streets on November 26. In 1901, Marshall Field & Company, previously a private partnership, was incorporated. Spurred on by Selfridge, Marshall Field razed the three buildings north of it that had been occupied since 1888, as well as the
Central Music Hall at the southeast corner of State and Randolph Streets.A massive, twelve-story building fronting State Street opened in their place a year later, including a grand new entrance. In 1906, a third new building opened on Wabash Avenue north of the 1893 structure, then the oldest part of the store. In the midst of the construction, Selfridge abruptly resigned from the company in 1904, buying rival store
Schlesinger & Mayer, only to sell it three months later to
Carson Pirie Scott. Schlesinger & Mayer had commissioned the
Louis Sullivan-designed Carson Pirie Scott Company Building (now known as the
Sullivan Center) in 1899. After trying retirement, Selfridge went on to establish
Selfridges in
London.
Shedd era Marshall Field died on January 16, 1906, in
New York City. On the day of his funeral, all the stores along State Street, big and small, closed and the
Chicago Board of Trade suspended afternoon trading in his honor. In its place rose the 1914 building designed by
Graham, Burnham & Company, completing the modern-day Marshall Field's store and now encompassing the entire square city block, bounded by Washington, State, Wabash, and Randolph Streets. Also in 1914, Graham, Burnham & Company supervised the opening of a new twenty-story Marshall Field Annex across the street at 25 East Washington, which housed "Marshall Field's Store for Men" on its first six floors. These buildings recaptured its status as the world's largest department store, with its many restaurants and separate men's and women's lounges making it a popular social destination in upscale Chicago. Shedd continued to expand Marshall Field's wholesale business and grew its manufacturing business, buying textile mills in the South in 1911 (see
Cannon Mills Company), as well as overseeing the purchase of the Marshall Field Trust's interest in the business in 1917. The Field family eventually retained only a ten percent stake. Shedd retired in late 1922.
1913 Illinois State Senate investigation In 1913, representatives of Carson Pirie Scott and Marshall Field's were called to the
state capital of
Springfield, Illinois for the
State Senate's investigation of the low wages of female employees at major department stores. At Marshall Field's, women were not only typists or other types of clerical workers, but also had a major role in the sales department. Female sales clerks were trained in etiquette and acquired a thorough understanding of the merchandise. The presence of saleswomen was a crucial part of the success of Marshall Field's, as they made female customers more comfortable and therefore made shopping at the store more enticing. The opportunities available for women at Marshall Field's created a subculture of working women. During the early and middle decades of the 20th century, many women migrated into the labor force, often becoming adrift in a new city with new opportunities. Many of these women lived apart from family and relatives, were young and single and came from varied backgrounds and ethnicities. This subculture of women was greatly affected by wages and opportunities offered through Marshall Field's. However, the wages of the female employees were not representative of their role in the company, and therefore became the subject of the 1913 Illinois Senate investigation. Women were paid very low wages, the average being $5 to $8 per week. The "testimony at an Illinois Senate investigation in 1913 from spokesmen for the
Illinois Manufacturers' Association; banks;
Sears, Roebuck; and Marshall Field's revealed that most major employers paid women workers as low as $2.75 (~$ in )." Even in 1913, that was not a living wage. During the hearing, Marshall Field's revealed that it could double the women's salaries, but refused to do so. Furthermore, women faced more mistreatment within the company, such as sex segregation, which limited their mobility within the company.
First branch stores and the Frango brand , the last of the company's suburban stores until
Macy's closed it in 2008 and was replaced with
bluemercury and a few other stores
James Simpson was appointed president following
John G. Shedd's retirement. Despite being considered to have favored the declining wholesale division, Simpson expanded its retail operations, first buying
A. M. Rothschild & Co., which Field's operated as a discount store called "The Davis Store", in December 1923. In 1924, the 1893–1914 buildings that the store occupied were acquired from the Marshall Field Trust. The first branch of Marshall Field's itself opened at
Market Square in
Lake Forest in May 1928. The
Oak Park location opened at a building similar to the Evanston store in September 1929.
Frederick & Nelson, a
Seattle, Washington-based department store founded in 1890, was also acquired by Marshall Field's in 1929, with its own 1914 downtown Seattle building at Pine Street and Fifth Avenue. Frederick & Nelson retained its name, although its logo was soon rewritten in Field's iconic script. Frederick & Nelson created
Frango mints, a Seattle tradition. The mints were later also produced in the candy kitchen in the State Street store and became popular in Chicago as well. Marshall Field & Company became a public company in 1930, early in the
Great Depression. The retailer needed capital due to the expense of opening the massive new
Merchandise Mart to house its flagging wholesale division. Ground was broken in 1927 and the Mart, then the largest building in the world, opened in 1930. The 1887 Wholesale Store, designed by
Richardson at Franklin between Quincy and Adams Streets, was closed and demolished at this time. The new building, faced with a change in retail distribution and wholesale patterns in addition to the deepening Great Depression, could not save Field's wholesale division. Simpson left the company, and
James O. McKinsey, a
University of Chicago professor and founder of the
McKinsey and Company consulting firm, was hired to reform Marshall Field's. The wholesale division, once the core of the company, was liquidated by 1936. The Davis Store was closed in 1936, and its building was sold to
Goldblatts. In 1939, the land underlying the main State Street store was acquired from the Marshall Field Trust. Meanwhile, McKinsey also reorganized the company's vertically integrated operations, notably by merging its varied textile operations under the
Fieldcrest name.
Suburban expansion In 1945, the
Merchandise Mart building was sold to
Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., significantly improving Marshall Field's finances and enabling the store to cope with the suburban residential and commercial boom following
World War II. Marshall Field's presciently followed its customers to their new homes outwards to the suburbs, including opening a store in 1950 in partnership with pioneering suburban developer
Philip M. Klutznick (a famous Jewish leader and later
U.S. Secretary of Commerce) at his new
Park Forest Plaza, which utilized revolutionary new concepts in land use and architecture. In 1956, Klutznick and Field's jointly opened
Old Orchard Shopping Center in
Skokie, Illinois, which Klutznick developed on land that Field's already owned; the development included a new Field's store. This was followed by the 1959 opening of a Field's store at the
Mayfair Mall in
Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, and stores at later Klutznick-led shopping centers opened at
Oakbrook Center in
Oak Brook in 1962 and
River Oaks Center in
Calumet City in 1966. Marshall Field's even expanded further in the
Pacific Northwest, acquiring
The Crescent department store in
Spokane, Washington, in 1962. In 1970, it moved east with the purchase of
Halle Brothers Co., a leading department store in
Cleveland,
Ohio. Field's also continued to expand its hometown base in Illinois, opening a store at
Woodfield Mall in
Schaumburg in 1971. Marshall Field's locations at
CherryVale Mall in
Rockford and
Hawthorn Mall in
Vernon Hills followed in 1973, and stores at
Water Tower Place in Chicago and
Fox Valley Mall in
Aurora opened in 1975. The suburban expansion continued in 1976 with a location at
Orland Square Mall in
Orland Park, followed by the
Louis Joliet Mall in
Joliet in 1978. In 1979, Marshall Field's expanded south into
Texas with a store at
The Galleria in
Houston. 1980 saw the rapid acquisition of
J.B. Ivey Co., a department store chain with roots in
Charlotte, North Carolina, and
Jacksonville, Florida, as well as
The Union Co. in
Columbus, Ohio; the
Lipman's stores in
Portland, Oregon; and several
Liberty House stores in
Washington state. Field's existing
Frederick & Nelson unit in
Seattle absorbed the Lipman's and Liberty House stores under its name, but after initially merging The Union with its earlier
Halle's stores from Cleveland, it decided to sell the combined chain in November 1981; the new owners quickly liquidated it. The early 1980s saw slower expansion, with just two store locations in Illinois added: one at
Spring Hill Mall in
West Dundee in October 1980, and one at
Stratford Square Mall in
Bloomingdale in 1981. Another Texas store opened at the
Dallas Galleria in 1982.
BATUS In 1982, Marshall Field & Co. ceased to be a public company, being acquired by
British-American Tobacco (BAT). As part of
BATUS Retail Group, the American retailing arm of BAT, Field's and its Frederick & Nelson, Ivey's and
The Crescent department stores and the John Brueners home furnishings stores joined retailers
Gimbels,
Saks Fifth Avenue and
Kohl's. Field's continued to expand under BATUS, adding stores at Houston's
Town & Country Mall in 1983 and at the
North Star Mall in
San Antonio in 1986. Only four years after buying Marshall Field's, BATUS scaled back its retail operations in 1986, selling Frederick & Nelson and The Crescent to a local investor group. Frederick & Nelson quickly deteriorated and became defunct in 1992. Its 1914 building, the one acquired by Field's in 1929, was eventually bought by
Nordstrom; the structure was renovated and reopened in 1998 as a replacement for Nordstrom's own Seattle parent store. In 1986, BATUS closed its
Gimbels division and transferred five of its Wisconsin locations to its Marshall Field's division: downtown Milwaukee,
Northridge Mall and
Southridge Mall in Milwaukee,
Hilldale Shopping Center in Madison, and in downtown
Appleton. The former Gimbels locations in Northridge and Southridge were retained by Field's for only three years; due to poor performance, they were sold to H.C. Prange Co. of Sheboygan in 1989. The Evanston and Oak Park stores were closed in 1986, their 1929 buildings deemed out of date and too costly to operate. A major restoration and renovation of the State Street flagship store led by Director of Construction and Maintenance Bill Allen commenced in 1987. BATUS initially kept Saks Fifth Avenue, Marshall Field's, and Ivey's. However, it sold all its remaining U.S. retail assets in 1990, with Saks going to Bahrain-based
Investcorp, Ivey's sold to
Dillard's, and Marshall Field's sold to then Dayton-Hudson Corporation (now
Target Corporation).
Dayton-Hudson, Target, and May Dayton-Hudson Corporation renamed itself
Target Corporation in 2000, and converted its
Dayton's and
Hudson's department stores (which were outside of Field's existing markets) to Marshall Field's locations in 2001. Target Corporation introduced some of the brands carried there to the Marshall Field's stores, displacing some of Field's more expensive merchandise. In 2004, Target Corporation sold the Marshall Field's chain to
May Co., exiting the traditional department store business entirely. It was hoped that aligning with the May Company instead of the discounter Target would "let Field's be Field's" and allow it to recapture its former cachet and upper-class customer base. However,
Federated Department Stores, Inc. acquired the May Company in 2005.
Federated acquisition, renaming and protest in
Vernon Hills, converted to a
Macy's in 2006 After the Federated purchase, Marshall Field's stores joined
L. S. Ayres and existing
Macy's stores in the new
Macy's North Division. On September 9, 2006, all Marshall Field's stores, most
Filene's and all the stores of nine other May-owned chains were converted to Macy's locations. Many Chicagoans resented Macy's, based in
New York City, for replacing their local brand. Hundreds of protesters gathered under Marshall Field's famous clock that day, and returned a year later on September 9, 2007. Dozens attended "Field's Fans" rallies each anniversary from 2008 to 2012. Many Chicagoans felt betrayed by Macy's takeover of Marshall Field's when the company began to change its aesthetics and customer service standards, and demoted many Chicago-based brands. In December 2006, Macy's reported 30% slower sales in former Marshall Field's stores; the focus shifted to promoting the State Street location in 2007.
Renovations The
Marshall Field and Company Building at State and Washington Streets in Chicago was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and is part of the Loop Retail National Historic District. The building was designated a
Chicago Landmark on November 1, 2005. With approximately two million square feet of available floor space, the building is the second-largest department store in the United States. In 1987, while under BATUS ownership, Field's State Street store underwent significant restoration. In 2004, while Field's was still owned by Dayton Hudson/Target, another extensive restoration of the landmark State Street store began, costing $115 million (~$ in ); the renovation was completed after the May acquisition. The 2004 renovations included the installation of new lower-level shops, the removal of steel grates from the upper portions of the store's historic light wells, and the addition of an eleven-story atrium in what had been an alley and mid-store light shaft. In 2004, Field's also introduced significant upgrades to merchandise and the introduction of luxury vendor relationships, in which 10% of the floor space was leased to outside vendors in a manner similar to
Selfridge's in London (founded by former Field's executive Harry Selfridge, who based his business model on Marshall Field's; likewise, the Selfridge's building in London was based on the architecture of the Marshall Field's store). ==Firsts, noted events, community leadership==