Marshall Field & Company (Marshall Field's) was a department store in Chicago, Illinois that grew to become a major chain before being acquired by Macy's Inc. on August 30, 2005.

The former flagship Marshall Field and Company Building location on State Street in The Loop of downtown Chicago was officially renamed Macy's on State Street on September 9, 2006, and is now one of four national Macy's flagship stores — one of two within the company's Macy's East retail division alongside its New York store at Herald Square. Initially, the State Street store was the lead store of the Macy's North division, immediately following the merger.

History

Early years

Marshall Field & Company traces its antecedents to a dry goods store opened at 137 Lake Street in Chicago in 1852 by Potter Palmer, eponymously named P. Palmer & Co.. Four years later, in 1856, 21-year-old Marshall Field moved to Chicago from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, finding work at the city's then largest dry goods firm, Cooley, Wadsworth & Co. Just prior to the Civil War, in 1860, Field and bookkeeper Levi Leiter became junior partners in the firm, then known as Cooley, Farwell & Co. In 1864 the firm, then led by senior partner John V. Farwell, was renamed Farwell, Field & Co. only for Field and Leiter to soon withdraw from the partnership when presented with the opportunity of a lifetime.

Potter Palmer, plagued by ailing health, was looking to dispose of his thriving business, so on January 4, 1865, Field and Leiter entered into partnership with him and his brother Milton Palmer. P. Palmer & Co. became Field, Palmer, Leiter & Co., with Palmer financing much of their initial capital as well as his own contribution. After Field and Leiter's success enabled them to pay him back, Palmer withdrew from the partnership in 1867 to focus on his growing real-estate interests on State Street. His brother Milton left at this time as well. The store was renamed Field, Leiter & Co., sometimes referred to as "Field & Leiter".

The buyout, however, did not bring an end to Potter Palmer's association with the firm. In 1868, Palmer convinced Field and Leiter to lease a new, six-story edifice he had built at the northeast corner of State and Washington Streets. The store was soon referred to as the "Marble Palace" due to its costly marble face. The store burned to the ground during the Great Chicago Fire in October 1871, but Field showed his resilience - first by organizing a hurried rescue of some of its best merchandise, and second by establishing a temporary store within weeks in an old street railway barn at 20th and State Streets. In April 1872, Field and Leiter reopened in an unburned building at Madison and Market Streets (today's West Wacker Drive).

After the Great Fire

In October 1873, Field and Leiter returned to State Street, opening in a new five-story store at their old location they leased from Singer Sewing Machine Company, Palmer having sold the 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 at a lakefront exposition hall they leased from the city, located at what is now the site of the Art Institute of Chicago. Meanwhile the Singer company had speculatively built a new, even larger, six-story building on the ruins of their old store, which after some contention, was personally bought by Field and Leiter. Field, Leiter & Co. 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 Levi Leiter out, renaming the business Marshall Field & Co.. As Palmer had before, Leiter retired to tend his significant real estate investments, which included commissioning a department store building at State Street and Van Buren to house Siegel, Cooper & Co.. In 1932, this building was leased to mail-order firm Sears, Roebuck & Co.

In 1887, the landmark seven-story Henry Hobson Richardson-designed Marshall Field's Wholesale Store opened on Franklin Street between Quincy and Adams. Though little remembered today, the wholesale division sold merchandise in bulk to smaller merchants throughout the central and western United States and at that time did six times the sales volume of the retail store. Chicago's juncture at the center 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 former partner John V. Farwell being his largest rival. It was the scale of the profits generated by the John G. Shedd-led wholesale division during this time that made Marshall Field the richest man in Chicago and one of the richest in the country.

State Street store

Following the departure of Leiter, the retail store began to grow in importance. Though it continued to remain a fraction of the size of the wholesale division, its opulent building and luxurious merchandise helped differentiate Marshall Field's from the other wholesale dry goods merchants in town. In 1887, Harry Gordon Selfridge was appointed to lead the retail store and headed it as it evolved into a modern department store. That same year, Field personally obtained Leiter's remaining interest in the 1879 Singer building and in 1888 started buying the buildings adjoining his for additional floor space.Marshall Field also had a child at this time. In 1892, the structures between the 1879 building and Wabash Avenue to the east were demolished and D.H. Burnham & Company was commissioned to erect a new building in anticipation of the influx of visitors from the World's Columbian Exposition. The nine-story "Annex" at the northwest corner of Wabash and Washington was opened under the direction of Burnham associate Charles B. Atwood 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 Great Clocks was installed at the corner of Washington and State Streets on November 26.

In 1901, Marshall Field & Company was incorporated, converting from a private partnership. Spurred on by Selfridge, Marshall Field razed the three buildings north of it which had been occupied since 1888, as well as the Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan-designed 1879 Central Music Mall at the southeast corner of State and Randolph in 1901. In their place rose a massive, twelve-story building fronting on State Street in 1902, including a grand new entrance. In 1906, a third new building opened on Wabash Avenue north of the 1893 structure, which by then had become the oldest part of the store.

In the midst of all this work to build the State Street retail store, Selfridge resigned abruptly from the company in 1904, buying rival Schlesinger & Mayer, before selling it only three months later. Interestingly enough, Schlesinger & Mayer in 1899 had commissioned the Louis Sullivan-designed building now known as the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building, which is the firm to which Selfridge sold the business. After trying retirement, he 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. The board of Marshall Field and Company appointed John Shedd, whom Field had once called "the greatest merchant in the United States", to serve as the company's new president. Shedd became president of a company that employed 12,000 people in Chicago (two-thirds of them in retail) and was doing about $25 million in yearly retail sales in addition to nearly $50 million wholesale. Under Shedd's leadership, Marshall Field & Co. continued the rebuilding of its store, fulfilling plans approved by Field himself to pull down the 1879 structure later in 1906. In its stead rose a new south State Street building with a continuation of the 1902 facade. Opened in September 1907, it included a Tiffany Ceiling that is both the first and largest ceiling ever built in favrile glass, containing over 1.6 million pieces. With completion of the 1907 building, Marshall Field's momentarily claimed the title of "world's largest department store" over John Wanamaker & Co. in Philadelphia and R.H. Macy & Co. in New York.

In 1912, the 16-story Trude Building at the southwest corner of Wabash and Randolph, was acquired and demolished, an act that was considered to be one of the first if not the first demolition of a high-rise. In its place rose the 1914 building by Graham, Burnham & Co., completing the present-day store and encompassing the entire square city block bounded by Washington, State, Wabash, and Randolph Streets.

Also, in 1914, Graham, Burnham 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, its many restaurants and separate men's and women's lounges becoming an important social destination for Chicago.

Shedd continued to expand 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 retained only a ten percent stake. John Shedd retired in late 1922.

First branch stores and the Frango brand

James Simpson was appointed president following Shedd's retirement. Though considered to have favored the declining wholesale division, he did expand its retail operations, first buying A. M. Rothschild & Co. at State Street and Jackson Boulevard in December 1923, which Field's operated as a discount store called "The Davis Store." 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, Illinois in May 1928. In September 1928, its first branch in Evanston, Illinois followed, later relocating to a French Renaissance-style building at Sherman Avenue and Church Street in November 1929. The Oak Park, Illinois store opened in September 1929 in a building similar to the Evanston store.

Starting in the early twentieth century, Field's clientèle consisted of white middle to upper class people. Unlike other Chicago department stores, Field's did not advertise in the ethnic and one-cent newspapers. High prices deterred working-class shoppers from visiting the store or kept their patronage to a minimum. Amongst African-Americans, Field's was known as one of the least-inviting department stores. Black Chicagoans were often denied service or at the very least steered to the close-out department in the bargain basement. One white reporter acknowledged in 1929 that "Marshall Field's... are emphatic upon the point that they do not wish Colored patronage. One seldom finds a Colored person in the store, and never have I seen one on the upper floors.... Occasionally, I have run across a Colored woman or two in the basement, but even there they are given scant attention."

Frederick & Nelson, a Seattle, Washington-based department store founded in 1890, was also acquired in 1929, with its own 1914 building at Pike Street and Fifth Avenue. Frederick & Nelson retained its name, though their logo was soon rewritten in Field's iconic script. But more importantly for Field's history, Frederick & Nelson also brought with it the now famous Frango mints brand that became so closely identified with Marshall Field's and Chicago. Field's candy kitchen at the State Street flagship store soon began producing the confections.

Marshall Field & Co. became a public company in 1930 just as the Great Depression hit. The retailer needed capital due to the expense of opening the Merchandise Mart to house its flagging wholesale division. Ground was broken in 1927 during the boom years; when the Mart opened in 1930, it was the largest building in the world. The 1887 Wholesale Store was closed and demolished at this time. But the new building, faced with a change in retail distribution and wholesale patterns in addition to the 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 brought in to clean up the company. The wholesale division, once the core of the company was liquidated by 1936. The Davis Store was closed in 1936 as well, and its building was sold to Goldblatts. In 1939, the land underlying the main store was acquired from the Marshall Field Trust. Meanwhile, McKinsey also reorganized the company's vertically integrated operations, notably by merging the company's varied textile operations under the Fieldcrest name.

Suburban expansion

Following World War II, the Merchandise Mart building was sold to Joseph P. Kennedy in 1945, significantly improving the company's finances and enabling the store to cope with the post-war suburban boom. Marshall Field's presciently followed its customers to their new homes; a store at pioneering developer Philip M. Klutznick's Park Forest Plaza opened in 1950.

In 1956, Klutznick and Field's jointly opened Old Orchard Shopping Center in Skokie, Illinois, a center 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 in the Mayfair Mall in suburban Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and stores at later Klutznick-led shsopping enters opened at Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook, Illinois in 1962 and River Oaks Center in Calumet City, Illinois in 1966.

Marshall Field's acquired The Crescent department store in Spokane, Washington in 1962 and in 1970 bought Halle Brothers Co., a leading department store in Cleveland, Ohio. Field's also continued to expand its hometown base, opening a store at Woodfield Center in Schaumburg in 1971.

CherryVale Mall in Rockford and Hawthorn Center in Vernon Hills followed in 1973, and stores at Water Tower Place in Chicago and Fox Valley Center in Aurora opened in 1975. The suburban expansion continued in 1976 with a location at Orland Square in Orland Park, followed by the Louis Joliet Mall store in Joliet in 1978. In 1979, Marshall Field's expanded into Texas with a store at The Galleria in Houston.

The year 1980 saw the acquisition of J.B. Ivey Co., a department store chain with roots in Charlotte, North Carolina and Jacksonville, Florida, 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, but after initially merging The Union with its Halle's unit, Field's 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 added - one in October 1980 at Spring Hill Mall in West Dundee, and one in 1981 at Stratford Square Mall in Bloomingdale. Another Texas store opened at the Dallas Galleria, in Dallas, Texas in 1982.

BATUS

In 1982, Marshall Field & Co. ceased to be a public company, being acquired by B.A.T. British-American Tobacco. As part of BATUS Retail Group, the American retailing arm of B.A.T., 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, however, BATUS scaled back its retail operations in 1986, selling Field's former subsidiaries 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.

BATUS closed its Gimbels division in 1986 and transferred five former Gimbels locations in Wisconsin to its Marshall Field's division: downtown Milwaukee, Northridge Mall and Southridge Mall in suburban Milwaukee, Hilldale Shopping Center in Madison and in downtown Appleton. The former Gimbels Northridge and Southridge locations were retained within Field's for only three years; following poor performance, they were sold in 1989 to H.C. Prange Co. of Sheboygan.

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 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

After Dayton-Hudson Corporation acquired the Marshall Field's chain, the corporation decided to rename some of its Dayton's and Hudson's stores as Marshall Field's; however, these stores were outside of Field's existing markets and never adopted either the corporate culture or the higher-end merchandise for which Field's had become famous. Then in 2000, Dayton-Hudson renamed itself Target Corporation, having determined that Target was where more of its future growth would be and the more nationally visible division to stockholders. Target then merged the remaining Dayton's and Hudson's department stores into Marshall Field's. Some saw this as the beginning of a downward slide for Marshall Field's as Target Corporation focused more on its rapidly growing discount stores and introduced some of the brands carried there to the Marshall Field's stores, displacing some of Field's more expensive merchandise.

Finally, in 2004 Target Corporation sold the Marshall Field's chain to May Co., thereby exiting the department store business entirely. It was hoped that separating from discounter Target would improve Marshall Field's retail prospects, and that May Stores would "let Field's be Field's" and allow it to recapture its former cachet and upper-class customer base. However, May owned Field's for barely a year before it agreed in the Fall of 2005 to be acquired by Federated Department Stores, Inc.. Federated announced in February 2005 that it would use the acquisition of May, including the Field's stores, to create the nation's second-largest department store chain, with 1,000 locations.

Federated outrages Chicago fans leading to consumer boycott

After Federated's acquisition of May Co. they announced that all Marshall Field's stores would convert to the Macy's nameplate in fall 2006. This touched off a firestorm of protest that continued long after the changeover was complete.

On February 1, 2006, the Marshall Field's corporate division was renamed the Macy's North Division of Federated Department Stores. On September 9, 2006, all its operating stores were renamed Macy's and absorbed into that chain. Although the conversion officially occurred on September 9, 2006, it was implemented gradually and in effect by early August, as signified by such events as Macy's cars entered in the Bud Billiken Day Parade, and Macy's displays in store windows.

In Chicago, Macy's move into the Marshall Field's building on State Street infuriated many residents. Dozens of protesters gathered under Marshall Field's famous clock the day the name change was implemented and a few dozen more gathered once again to mark the one year anniversary of the Marshall Field's name change. Macy's reported in December 2006 slowed sales in stores that once were Marshall Field's. In November 2007, Macy's announced that it would no longer try to lure angry and upset former Marshall Field's shoppers to their stores and instead would now be trying to lure new customers into the State Street Store. Macy's hopes to do this by adding an FAO Schwarz floor and a wine bar to the Walnut Room, as well as having Martha Stewart decorate the Christmas Tree in the Walnut Room.

On May 16, 2008 there were three Marshall Field's customers who were so outraged by Macy's decision to eliminate Marshall Field's that they attended the Macy's annual shareholder meeting and sharply questioned Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren over that move. Mr. Lundgren was told by one loyal Marshall Field's customer who was tired of being ignored, "You are pushing for 'my Macy's', but for me and most of my Chicago neighbors, I want my Marshall Field's."

A protest two years after the change from Field's to Macy's was held at the State Street store on September 9, 2008, and protesters appeared at the company's annual meeting that year in Cincinnnati. Field's supporters still maintain their efforts through websites such as FieldsFansChicago (http://www.fieldsfanschicago.org/).

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, costing $115 million, was begun; the last of the renovation was completed after the May acquisition. The 2004 renovations included the installation of new lower-level shops, 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 (Selfridge's was 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).

On April 27, 2006, Macy's announced that the Marshall Field name would not be retained on the State Street store, instead renaming it "Macy's on State Street", a specialized divisional flagship store with some features unique to this single location, including the continuation of certain Marshall Field's traditions under the Macy's name. However, Macy's could not change everything: because of the building's history and landmark status, it will forever be known as the Marshall Field and Company Building, regardless of which company occupies it.

Firsts, noted events, community leadership

Among the "firsts" by Marshall Field's was the concept of the department store tea room. In the 19th century, ladies shopping downtown returned home for lunch; having lunch at a downtown restaurant unescorted by a gentleman was not considered ladylike. But after a Marshall Field's clerk shared her lunch with a tired shopper (a chicken pot pie), Field's hit on the idea of opening a department store tea room, so that women shoppers would not feel the need to make two trips to complete their shopping. To this day, the Walnut Room serves the traditional Mrs. Herring's chicken pot pie.

That is just one among many innovations by Marshall Field's. Field's had the first European buying office, which was located in Manchester, England, and the first bridal registry. The company was the first to introduce the concept of the personal shopper, and that service was provided without charge in every Field's store, right up to the chain's last days under the Marshall Field's name. It was the first store to offer revolving credit and the first department store to use escalators. Marshall Field's book department in the State Street store was legendary; it pioneered the concept of the "book signing." Moreover, every year at Christmas, Marshall Field's downtown store windows were filled with animated displays as part of the downtown shopping district display; the "theme" window displays became famous for their ingenuity and beauty, and visiting the Marshall Field's windows at Christmas became a tradition for Chicagoans and visitors alike, as popular a local practice as visiting the Walnut Room with its equally famous Christmas tree or meeting "under the clock" on State Street.

Marshall Field was famous for his slogan "Give the lady what she wants." He was also famous for his integrity, character, and community philanthropy and leadership. After his death, the company remained to the very end a major philanthropic contributor to its Chicago-area community.

Field, the store he created, and his successor John G. Shedd, helped establish Chicago's prominence throughout the world in business, art, culture, and education. The Art Institute of Chicago, the Field Museum of Natural History (as renamed in 1905 for its first major benefactor), the Museum of Science and Industry, the John G. Shedd Aquarium, and the University of Chicago all have been aided by the philanthropy of Marshall Field's. Marshall Field was also a major sponsor of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

References

1. PDX History of Marshall Field's, accessed August 20, 2006
2. Encyclopedia of Chicago History - John V. Farwell & Co., accessed August 19, 2006
3. Encyclopedia of Chicago History - Marshall Field & Co., accessed August 20, 2006
4. Jazz Age Chicago, accessed August 20, 2006
5. Chicago Architecture Info, accessed August 20, 2006
6. MeetinChicago.com, accessed August 20, 2006
7. Emporis/Trude Building, accessed August 20, 2006
8. Evanston Galleria, accessed August 20, 2006
9. Jazz Age Chicago - Field's Branches, accessed August 20, 2006
10. Jazz Age Chicago Marshall Field and Company, accessed September 28, 2007
11. Field's trades up stripes for Macy's stars, abc7chicago.com, August 9, 2006
12. Macy's set to build on basics, http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com, May 16, 2008.
13. Macy's Unveils Extensive Plans for rebranding of State Street Flagship Store; Retailer Plans Series of "Enhancements" for Legendary Department Store in Chicago, Federated Department Stores Press Release, April 27, 2006.
14. Give the Lady What She Wants! The Story of Marshall Field & Company (1952), Cited in The Encyclopedia of Chicago, ISBN 0-226-31015-9, original source reference book.
15. FieldMuseum.org
16. FieldFoundation.org The Field Foundation of Illinois
17. [1]

External links

• 1905 Magazine Article with photos
• Jazz Age Chicago (2006) Marshall Field and Company history
• Encyclopedia Britannica Comprehensive article on Marshall Field's
• Jazz Age Chicago (1997) Main store history
• Dan Skoda and his colleagues are bringing new sparkle to Marshall Field's #148, September 1995, Illinois Retail Merchants Association, April 23, 2003
• One last stroll down memory lane before big change, KARE11.com, April 5, 2006
• Field's last days Chicago Tribune series
• FieldsFansChicago.org Marshall Field's fans blog and Macy's boycott site
• Darrid.Com A Tribute to Marshall Field's
• Bring Back Marshall Field's Desiring a Return of Marshall Field's