Marshall Field's
Retailing | |
Founded | 1852, in Chicago |
---|---|
Defunct | September 9, 2006 |
Fate | Acquisition |
Successor | Macy's |
Key people | |
Parent |
|
Subsidiaries |
Marshall Field & Company (commonly known as Marshall Field's) was an upscale department store in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in the 19th century, it grew to become a large chain before Macy's, Inc acquired it in 2005. Its founder, Marshall Field, was a pioneering retail magnate.
The company's flagship
History
Early years
Marshall Field & Company traces its antecedents to a
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. So the firm of P. Palmer & Company became 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 two years later 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.[4] His brother, 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, Palmer convinced Field and Leiter to lease a new, six-story edifice[5] 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 Great Chicago Fire
When the Great Chicago Fire broke out on October 8, 1871, news of this, one of the worst conflagrations to ever strike an American city, 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 that the steam-powered elevators could be operated. These employees worked feverishly through the night to remove 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 in 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.[6]
The store burned to the ground. However, as a result of the employees' herculean efforts, so much merchandise was saved that the store was able to reopen in only a few weeks (the Wholesale Department on October 28, and the Retail Department on November 6) in a temporary location (a horse-streetcar barn of the Chicago City Railway Co. at State & 20th Streets). Six months later, in April 1872, Field & Leiter reopened in an unburned building at Madison and Market Streets (today's West Wacker Drive). Salesman Parker stayed on with the Company for 45 more years, rising to the level of General Sales Manager.[7]
After the Great Fire
Two years later, in October 1873, Field and Leiter returned to State Street at Washington, opening in a new five-story store at their old location they now leased from the
In January 1881, Field, with the support of his junior partners, bought out
In 1887, the landmark seven-story Henry Hobson Richardson-designed, (1838–1886), Romanesque-styled, Marshall Field's Wholesale Store opened on Franklin Street between Quincy and Adams (razed c.1930). 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 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 former partner from before the war, John V. Farwell, Sr., (1825–1908), being his largest rival. It was the scale of the profits generated by the John G. Shedd-led[5] 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 grew in importance. Though it remained a fraction of the size of the wholesale division, its opulent building and luxurious merchandise differentiated Marshall Field 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 on State Street and Wabash Avenue to the east were demolished and the famous influential architect
In 1901, Marshall Field & Company, previously a private partnership, was incorporated. 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 Hall at the southeast corner of State and Randolph Streets in 1901. In their place rose a massive, twelve-story building fronting 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 was then the oldest part of the store.
In the midst of the construction, Selfridge abruptly resigned from the company in 1904, buying a rival store
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.[5] The board of Marshall Field and Company appointed John G. Shedd, (1850–1926), whom Field had once called "the greatest merchant in the United States", to serve as the company's new president.[5] Shedd became head 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 in wholesale.[3]
Under Shedd's leadership for the next 16 years, Marshall Field & Co. continued to rebuild 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 street façade. Opened in September 1907, it included a
In 1912, the 16-story
Also in 1914, the same 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, its many restaurants and separate men's and women's lounges becoming an important social destination for upscale Chicago.
Shedd continued to expand Field's wholesale business and grew its manufacturing business, buying textile mills in the South in 1911 (see
1913 Illinois State Senate investigation
In 1913, representatives of Carson Pirie Scott and Marshall Field's were called to the
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.[12]
However, the wages of the female employees were not representative of their role in the company and, therefore, became the subject of the 1913
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.[5] 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.[14] The Oak Park, Illinois store opened in September 1929 in a building similar to the Evanston store.[15]
Marshall Field & Company became a public company in 1930, early in the "
Suburban expansion
Following
In 1956, Klutznick and Field's jointly opened
Marshall Field's even expanded further in the Pacific Northwest, acquiring The Crescent department store in Spokane, Washington, in 1962 and in 1970, 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.
The year 1980 saw the rapid acquisition of
The early 1980s saw slower expansion, with just two store locations in Illinois added, one in October 1980 at
, in 1982.BATUS
In 1982, Marshall Field & Co. ceased to be a public company, being acquired by B.A.T.
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
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
In 2004 Target Corporation sold the Marshall Field's chain to
Federated acquisition, renaming and protest
After the Federated purchase, Marshall Field's stores joined
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.[23]
Renovations
The
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 (~$178 million in 2023), 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
Firsts, noted events, community leadership
Among the "firsts" by Marshall Field's was the concept of the department store
Marshall Field's had the first European buying office, which was located in
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.[25]
Field, the store he created and his successor
References
- ^ PDX History of Marshall Field's. Retrieved August 20, 2006.
- ^ Encyclopedia of Chicago History – John V. Farwell & Co.. Retrieved August 19, 2006.
- ^ a b Encyclopedia of Chicago History – Marshall Field & Co.. Retrieved August 20, 2006.
- ^ "Field (Marshall) & Co.". The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. 2005. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
- ^ a b c d e Jazz Age Chicago Archived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved August 20, 2006.
- ^ Twyman, Robert W., "History of Marshall Field & Co. 1852–1906," pp. 38–42, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1954.
- ^ Brewer, Wilmon, "A Life of Maurice Parker," pp. 11–12, Marshall Jones Company, Francestown, New Hampshire, 1954.
- ^ Chicago Architecture Info. Retrieved August 20, 2006.
- ^ MeetinChicago.com Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved August 20, 2006.
- ^ Emporis/Trude Building. Retrieved August 20, 2006.
- ^ Weiner, Lynn W., "Work Culture", Encyclopedia of Chicago, Chicago Historical Society, 2005, December 5, 2013
- ^ Meyerowitz, Joanne J. Women Adrift: Independent Wage Earners in Chicago, 1880–1930. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1988. Print.
- ^ Cornelius, Janet, Martha LaFrenz Kay. Women of Conscience: Social Reform In Danville, Illinois 1890–1930. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 2008. Print.
- ^ Evanston Galleria. Retrieved August 20, 2006.
- ^ Jazz Age Chicago – Field's Branches Archived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved August 20, 2006.
- ^ Field's trades up stripes for Macy's stars Archived 2007-03-11 at the Wayback Machine, abc7chicago.com, August 9, 2006
- ^ Yerak, Becky (21 September 2005). "Field's no more". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
- ^ Chicago Tribune, Sept. 10, 2006 & Chicago Sun-Times, Sept. 10, 2006.
- ^ Chicago Tribune, September 10, 2007; Chicago Red Eye, Sept. 10, 2007
- ^ "Marshall Field's forever [Caption text only.]". Chicago Tribune. September 10, 2008.
- ^ "More grieving in store [Caption text only.]". Chicago Tribune. September 14, 2009.
- ^ "Chicago Wants Marshall Field's!". Retrieved 2010-11-30.
- ^ "Macy's turns up the charm to court Chicagoans". NBC News. 2007-11-08. Retrieved 2010-11-30.
- ^ "CHICAGO LANDMARKS: Individual Landmarks and Landmark Districts designated as of January 1, 2008" (PDF). Commission on Chicago Landmarks. 2008-01-01. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 27, 2008. Retrieved February 17, 2008.
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(help) - ISBN 0-226-31015-9, original source reference book.
- ^ "The Field Museum Information". Retrieved 2010-11-30.
- ^ FieldFoundation.org Archived 2007-04-08 at the Wayback Machine The Field Foundation of Illinois
- ^ "World's Columbian Exposition". Retrieved 2010-11-30.
Further reading
- Goddard, Leslie (2011). Remembering Marshall Fields. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-8368-6.
- ISBN 978-9997500496.
- Kozak, Nadine I. "‘Enlightenment on all subjects under the sun’: department store information bureaux in Britain and the United States in the first half of the twentieth century." Library & Information History 38.3 (2022): 210-231.
- Laermans, Rudi. "Learning to consume: early department stores and the shaping of the modern consumer culture (1860-1914)." Theory, Culture & Society 10.4 (1993): 79-102.
- Madsen, Axel (2002). The Marshall Fields: The Evolution of an American Business Dynasty. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-02493-4.
- Rosen, Renee (2014). What the Lady Wants: A Novel of Marshall Field and the Gilded Age. Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 9780451466716.
- Soucek, Gayle (2010). Marshall Field's: The Store That Helped Build Chicago. History Press. ISBN 978-1-59629-854-5.
- Twyman, Robert W. History of Marshall Field and Co., 1852-1906 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1954).
- Wendt, Lloyd; Kogan, Herman (1952). Give the Lady What She Wants: The Story of Marshall Field & Company. Chicago: Rand, McNally.
External links
- Official website (Archive)
- Map: 41°53′02″N 87°37′38″W / 41.88389°N 87.62722°W
- 1905 Magazine Article with photos
- Jazz Age Chicago (2006): Marshall Field and Company history
- Encyclopædia Britannica: Comprehensive article on Marshall Field's
- 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
- Darrid.com: A Tribute to Marshall Field's
- FieldsFansChicago.org: Marshall Field's fans blog and Macy's boycott site
- Bring Back Marshall Field's
- Marshall Field's Last Day, Friday, Sept. 8, 2006
- Chicago Tribune: "Field's green fades to red" — September 9, 2006