Marshall Field and Company Building

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Marshall Field Company Building
Marshall Field and Company Building behind Block 37 construction
Marshall Field and Company Building is located in Illinois
Marshall Field and Company Building
Location111 North State Street
Template:City-state
 United States
Built1892
ArchitectBurnham, Daniel H.
Architectural styleChicago, Other
NRHP reference No.78001123
Added to NRHPJune 02, 1978[1]
This article is about the flagship store location. For the Oak Park Marshall Field Store Building, see Marshall Field and Company Store.
A remaining Marshall Field's nameplate (2006)

Marshall Field and Company Building or Macy's at State Street is the former flagship location of the former Marshall Field's department store and the current location of the Chicago flagship of Macy's. The building is located in the Chicago Loop community area in Template:City-state, United States, and it takes up the entire city block bounded by State Street to the west, Randolph Street to the north, Wabash Avenue to the east, and Washington Street to the south.[3] The former department store established numerous important business firsts in this building.[4] Both the building name and and the name of the stores formerly headquartered at this building changed names on September 92006 as a result of the merger of the May Department Stores (Marshall Field's former parent) with the Federated Department Stores which led to the integration of the Marshall Field's stores into the Macy's retailing network.[5]

The building, which is the second largest store in the world,[6] was both declared a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 21978,[2][7][1] and it was designated a Chicago Landmark on November 12005.[8] The building architecture is known for its multiple atria and for having been built in stages over the course of more than two decades.[9] Its ornamentation includes a Tiffany & Co. mosaic ceiling and a pair of well-known outdoor clocks, which serve as symbols of the store.[9]

Business History

Main article: Marshall Field's
Sequence of State & Washington Street corner perspectives

Although the official corporate name of the retail entity based in this building had been Marshall Field & Company (nicknamed Marshall Field's) from 1881 until 2006, the store has had five different names since its inception in 1852 as P. Palmer & Co.[10] In 1868, after bowing out of involvement in day to day operations with his new partners of Field, Palmer & Leiter, Potter Palmer convinced Marshall Field and Levi Leiter to move the Field, Leiter & Co. store to a building Palmer owned on State Street at the corner of Washington Street.[11] After being consumed by the Great Chicago Fire and splitting the wholesale business from the retail operations, the store resumed operations at State and Washington in a building leased from the Singer Sewing Machine Company. This building was consumed in another fire in 1877, and when a new Singer Building was built to replace it at the same location in 1879, Field purchased it. The business has remained there ever since, and it has added four subsequent buildings to form the integrated structure that is now called the Marshall Field and Company Building.[11][10]

Chicago's retailing center was State Street in the downtown Loop after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and this center has been anchored by Marshall Field's and its predecessor companies in this building.[12] However, commuter suburbs began to have significant retail districts by the 1920s.[12] After 1950, suburban development and the Magnificent Mile reduced the role of the Loop's daily significance to many Chicagoans as downtown retail sales slipped.[13] Nonetheless, the Marshall Field and Company Building has survived at this location.

On September 92006, at the time of the store conversion, the name of the building was officially changed to "Macy's at State Street."[14] Around the time of the conversion of Marshall Field's to Macy's the building was the location of picketting and protesting by opponents of the conversion.[15] The Marshall Field & Company corporate entity that survived 125 years was founded by Marshall Field after buying out his various partners and the current building was built to his instructions. The sentimental objections to the conversion that both eliminated the existence of the corporate entity bearing his name and renamed the building bearing his name were widely reported in the national media.[16][17]

Business legend

The store housed a business that established new retailing standards and broke with many business conventions of the day. Before Marshall Field's death in 1906, his company became the largest wholesale and retail dry goods enterprise in the world.[4] The Marshall Field’s & Company offered the first bridal registry, provided the first in-store dining facilities and established the first European buying office. In the early 1900’s, annual sales topped $60 million and buying branches were located in New York City, London, Paris, Tokyo, Stockholm and Berlin.[4]

The building has hosted the first escalators in a department store and continues to be the second largest store in the world.[6] Marshall Field took over the operations of the store in 1881 and became the first merchant to post the price of the goods in plain sight, which eliminated the common practice of haggling and charging whatever the buyer would pay.[4] On top of that, Field stood behind his product with his famous slogan that symbolized his willingness to refund the full price of all merchandise purchased in his store:

Give the lady what she wants.[4]

Building details

Tiffany & Company glass mosaic ceiling.

The 12-story granite building was built in stages between 1892 and 1914.[15][10] The building was built on a six partition block with sections that were added to the building in 1902, 1906, 1907, and 1914.[9][10] The two primary sections along State Street (The north building built in 1902 and the south in 1907) were designed by Charles B. Atwood (before his death) at D. H. Burnham & Company.[18]

The current building has several atria: A Tiffany & Co. mosaic dome caps a 5-story atrium in the southwest corner; the northwest section has a 13-story skylit atrium, and a newer atrium with a fountain in the center is bridged by double escalator banks.[9] The Tiffany Dome is the first iridescent glass dome and it continues to be the largest glass mosaic of its kind.[4] Only Egypt's 3,000-year-old Temple of Karnak, with its 70-foot (21 m) columns rivals the four 50-foot (15 m) Ionic granite columns on the State Street façade.[10]

The building is known for its clocks, which weigh about 7.5 short tons (6.7 long tons) each,[10] on its northwest and southwest corners along State Street at both Randolph and Washington.[9] The southwest clock, known as the Great Clock, was installed on November 261897. Marshall Field envisioned the clock as a beacon for his store which he viewed as a meeting place. The clock was installed after the southwest corner of the store had became a popular meeting place and people began leaving notes for one another on the Marshall Field's windows. The clock was an attempt to end this practice, and encourage punctuality.[10]

Today, the building is located at 111 North State Street within the Loop Retail Historic District of the Chicago Loop across State Street from Block 37, across Randolph Street from the Joffrey Tower, and across Wabash Avenue from The Heritage at Millennium Park.[3] An underground public concourse connects the basement to 25 East Washington, which used to house the Marshall Field's Men's Store.[9] The building is a major hub of the Loop Pedway System.

The building has several Christmas traditions. It is known as the former production cite of Frango and for the Walnut Room Christmas tree. It also hosts an ornate window display at the street level.[19] Annually a three-story tall Christmas tree is brought in for the holiday season.[9] With all the opposition to the conversion, Macy's made a formal statement of their intent to continue the traditions of a 45-foot (13.716 m) Christmas tree, a seventh floor Frango viewing kitchen, and animated holiday window displays.[20][14]

On November 31945, Norman Rockwell drew a picture of one of the Marshall Field Building clocks on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.[4] The Rockwell painting shows a man perched atop a ladder and adjusting one of the Marshall Field's clock to correspond with his own pocket watch. The Oriental Theatre in the background proves this depicts the matching Great Clock at the northwest corner of State & Randolph. In 1948, Rockwell donated the original painting, The Clock Mender, to the store, where it had hung on the seventh floor ever since. After Target Co. sold Field's to May Department Stores, which merged with Federated Department Stores in 2005, the Federated discovered a reproduction on display.[21][22] Federated removed the fake and asked Target to return the original.[10] The painting has been donated to the Chicago Historical Society,[23] which had from February 262000–May 212000 been the second stop of national tour of the first Rockwell career retrospective.[24]

In John Dos Passos' novel The 42nd Parallel (1930), character Eric Egstrom is employed at this building. G.K. Chesterton and Sinclair Lewis met in the building's book department, which resulted in their collaboration on the unpublished play Mary Queen of Scotch.[9]

Notes

  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23.
  2. ^ a b "Marshall Field Company Store". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved 2008-03-09.
  3. ^ a b "National Historic Landmarks in the Chicago Metropolitan Area". Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. 2005. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g "Marshall Field's". PdxHistory.com. 2008-02-09. Retrieved 2008-04-03. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ "Federated Announces Strategic Decisions to Integrate May Company Acquisition; Company to Focus on Building the Macy's and Bloomingdale's Brands While Increasing Profitability". Business Wire. CNET Networks, Inc. 2005-09-20. Retrieved 2008-04-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ a b Hieggelke, Brian (2005-12-06). "Requiem for a Dream". Newcity Communications, Inc. Retrieved 2008-03-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ Ralph J. Christian (March, 1977), Template:PDFlink, National Park Service {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) and Template:PDFlink
  8. ^ "CHICAGO LANDMARKS: Individual Landmarks and Landmark Districts designated as of January 1, 2008" (PDF). Commission on Chicago Landmarks. 2008-01-01. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h "Macy's at State Street". Emporis.com. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Johnson, Geoffrey (2006). "The Annotated: Marshall Field's". Chicago Magazine. Retrieved 2008-04-03. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  11. ^ a b "Marshall Field and Company". Jazz Age Chicago. Scott A. Newman. 2006-05-11. Retrieved 2008-03-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ a b Bennett, Larry (2005). "Shopping Districts and Malls". The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
  13. ^ Danzer, Gerald A. (2005). "The Loop". The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
  14. ^ a b "Macy's Unveils Extensive Plans for State Street Flagship Store; Retailer Plans Series of Enhancements for Legendary Department Store in Chicago". Macy's North. 2006-04-27. Retrieved 2008-03-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ a b "Protesters Mourn Marshall Field's End". cbs2chicago.com. CBS Broadcasting, Inc. 2006-09-09. Retrieved 2008-03-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Heriot, Gail (2006-06-17). "Give the Lady What She Wants" (PDF). Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2008-03-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ Sander, Libby (2007-01-17). "Loss of a Beloved Department Store Breeds a New Kind of Superfan". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2008-03-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ "Marshall Field & Company Store, c.1904-1913". The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. 2005. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
  19. ^ "Marshall Field's State Street Holiday Window Display". AOL, LLC. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
  20. ^ "Federated Reveals Plans For Flagship Marshall Field's On State Street". Nielsen Business Media, Inc./AllBusiness.com, Inc. 2006-05-01. Retrieved 2008-03-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ Aronovich, Hannah (2006-04-20). "Field's, Federated and More Feuds". Gothamist LLC. Retrieved 2008-04-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  22. ^ "Norman Rockwell Of Field's Store Goes Missing". NBC5.com. 2006-04-21. Retrieved 2008-04-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ "Time heals rift over a Rockwell: Tiff between 2 retail chains comes to an end with the donation of the painting `The Clock Mender' to the Chicago History Museum". Chicago Tribune. McClatchy-Tribune Business News. 2006-09-27. Retrieved 2008-04-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  24. ^ Morris, Kelly, ed. (1999). Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People. Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated. p. 4. ISBN 0-8109-6392-2.
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