Marshall Field's
This article is about a department store chain. For the White House intruder, see Marshall Fields (White House intruder).Marshall Field's is an iconic
Chicago,
Illinois department store that grew to become a major chain most recently acquired by
Cincinnati-based
Federated Department Stores on
August 30,
2005, with its
headquarters in
Minneapolis,
Minnesota. The flagship Marshall Field's store is on
State Street in
The Loop of downtown Chicago, which will be renamed "
Macy's on State Street" in
September 2006.
Beginning
|
Marshall Field's State Street store interior around 1910. |
The founder,
Marshall Field, first obtained employment at a
dry goods store in
Chicago in 1852. Field rose to become a partner in the company. In 1865, Field with partner,
Levi Leiter moved to an old store of
Potter Palmer's on Lake Street. In 1868, the two partners joined Potter Palmer in his new store on
State Street and ran the store known as Field, Palmer, and Leiter. Shortly thereafter, Palmer retired from retailing and the store became known as Field & Leiter. The store burned to the ground during the
Great Chicago Fire in 1871, and under Field's leadership a temporary store was re-opened within weeks. In 1879 a new store was built that would grow to cover an entire city block on State Street. In
1881 Field bought out his remaining business partner and changed the store's name to Marshall Field and Company. (Leiter opened his own department store further south along State Street.) The architect of the store,
Daniel Burnham (of "make no small plans" fame) was the planner of the Beaux-Arts rebuilding of Chicago and a leading figure in the planning of the 1893
World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and Field's store first reached national prominence at this time. In 1907 a new 12-story building replaced the older store, and in 1914 another new 20-story Store for Men was built across Washington Street. It was the largest department store in the world. The
Tiffany Ceiling is the first ceiling ever built in
favrile iridescent glass. With its restaurants and separate men's and women's lounges, this store became an important social destination. The company built the
Merchandise Mart in 1930, which still claims to be the largest commercial building in the world.
Marshall Field's was the first American department store to open a buying office in Europe, which was located in
Manchester, England. It was also the first department store to open a
sit-down restaurant and the first to offer a
bridal registry. The Great Clock at the corner of State and Washington streets is a common symbol of the company and the area.
|
The clock at Marshall Field's State Street store. |
The store's legendary iconography parallels the company's close relationship to Midwestern identity. The green shopping bags adorned with the company's signature script and the famous clock were the source of controversy following the chain's purchase by the (then) Dayton-Hudson Corporation in 1990 - new bags in (cheaper) brown paper received a storm of protest from the store's notoriously loyal following, leading the parent company to reinstate the green bags in short order. Every year at Christmas
Marshall Field's downtown store windows are filled with animated displays as part of the downtown shopping district display.
The State Street flagship was renovated in 2003 to great fanfare, with the store opening 10% of its floor space to outside vendors in a manner similar to
Selfridge's in London, a store founded by a former Field's executive whose building was based on the architecture of the Marshall Field's store. It is the second largest department store in the United States. Only
Macy's in New York is larger.
Expansion in the 1990s
In the 1910s and 1920s Marshall Field & Company built branches in three suburban downtowns:
Evanston, Oak Park and Lake Forest (at Market Square). Then the Great Depression and World War II halted expansion until the postwar growth of suburban shopping malls: Park Forest Plaza opened in 1950, Old Orchard Shopping Center in Skokie in 1956,
Mayfair Mall in suburban
Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1959, Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook, Illinois in 1962, and
River Oaks Center in
Calumet City, Illinois in 1966. The 1970s saw stores added in
Woodfield Center in Schaumburg, Hawthorn Center in Vernon Hills, CherryVale Mall in Rockford, Fox Valley Center in Aurora,
Water Tower Place in Chicago, Orland Square in Orland Park and Louis Joliet Mall in Joliet.
The early 1980s was a slower growth period for Chicago area stores, with just two locations added, one in October 1980 at Spring Hill Mall in West Dundee and in 1981 at Stratford Square Mall in Bloomingdale. But the 1980s did see further expansion into Texas with stores opened at
The Galleria in Houston (actually opened in 1979; the former facility is the current home of
Saks Fifth Avenue), the
Dallas Galleria in 1982, Town & Country Mall in Houston in 1983, and
North Star Mall in
San Antonio in 1986, and the acquisition of five former
Gimbels locations in Wisconsin: downtown Milwaukee, Northridge Mall and
Southridge Mall in suburban Milwaukee, Hilldale Shopping Center in Madison and in downtown Appleton.
The 1990s saw stores opened at Columbus City Center in Ohio and The Mall at Tuttle Crossing in suburban Dublin, Ohio and the newest Chicagoland store in Northbrook Court. The Evanston and Oak Park stores were closed in 1986, the Northridge and Southridge stores were sold after less than three years of operation in 1989, the Appleton store was closed in 1991, the Park Forest store in 1996, and the downtown Milwaukee store (incorporated into The Grand Avenue shopping Center) was closed in 1997. The 4 Texas stores were sold in 1997 and the Columbus, Ohio stores in 2003.
In
1929, Marshall Field & Co. purchased
Frederick & Nelson, a Seattle-based retailer, which brought along the famous
Frangos chocolate brand. Along with Frederick's, Field's eventually also owned
The Crescent in
Spokane, Washington and
Halle Brothers in
Cleveland, Ohio. In 1980 it acquired
J.B. Ivey Co., a department store chain with roots in Charlotte, North Carolina and Jacksonville, Florida. In the early 1980s Field's began to open stores in the Texas market but this initiative faltered with the collapse of oil prices and a stalling Texas economy. In 1981, soon after acquiring The Union Co. in Columbus, Ohio and merging it into Halle's, it sold the enlarged
Halle Brothers unit to the Schottenstein family of Columbus, Ohio, which shuttered the operations the following year.
|
The name plaque at the State Street store in Chicago. |
In 1982 ownership of Field's and its subsidiaries passed to
BATUS Retail Group, the American retailing arm of B.A.T.
British-American Tobacco. BATUS held a number of well-known stores, among them
Gimbels,
Saks Fifth Avenue and
Kohls, but badly hurt in the volatile economy of the 1980s, retrenched its retail operations in 1986, selling Field's former subsidaries Frederick & Nelson and The Crescent to a Washington state investor group which almost immediately ran into difficulties leading to the extinction of that chain by 1992 (the former flagship was renovated and reopened by Nordstrom as a replacement for their own Seattle parent store in 1998). When BATUS Retail closed its mid-range Gimbels chain in 1986, five former Gimbels stores in Wisconsin were purchased by corporate sibling Marshall Field's but by 1989 Field's had sold the former Gimbels Northridge and Southridge locations in Milwaukee to H.C. Prange Co. of Sheyboygan after poor performance under the higher-end Field's division. In 1991 they closed the former Gimbels in downtown Appleton, Wisconsin when its then sister division Dayton's opened a mall-based store there. Finally in 1997 Field's shuttered the former Gimbels flagship in Milwaukee after negotiations to rehabilitate it collapsed. Only the former Gimbels store at Hilldale Shopping Center in Madison, Wisconsin remains from the 1986 Gimbels acquisition.
BATUS initially retained Saks Fifth Avenue, Marshall Field's and Ivey's, but subsequently sold all of its remaining U.S. retail endeavors in 1990 with Saks being acquired by Bahrain-based Investcorp, Ivey's being sold to and absorbed into Dillard Department Stores and Marshall Field's being sold to Dayton Hudson Corporation.
Post-1990 History
In 1990 Marshall Field's was purchased by the Dayton Hudson Corporation (later renamed
Target Corporation) which merged the stores operations with
Dayton's stores and the
Hudson's stores under the Dayton Hudson Department Store Company. Although each divisions retained its own name in their respective markets, operations were shared and all were headquartered in Minneapolis.
In 1997 Marshall Field's pulled out of the
Texas market selling its four locations at
Houston Galleria, Houston Town & Country Mall,
Galleria Dallas and
San Antonio's
North Star Mall. The Houston and Dallas stores were sold to
Saks Fifth Avenue and the San Antonio location to
Macy's. All locations were renovated and reopened under the nameplate of their new owners, although Saks closed the Houston Town & Country Mall location less than a year after opening it.
In 2001 Dayton's and Hudson's stores were renamed Marshall Field's, an event that was received with mixed emotion in Dayton's hometown of Minneapolis and Hudson's hometown of Detroit. In 2003 Marshall Field's sold its two Columbus, Ohio, locations to May Department Stores Company, which reopened them as
Kaufmann's.
On July 30, 2004, the Marshall Field division (with property from nine shuttered Minneapolis-area locations from
Mervyn's, another unit of
Target Corporation) was sold to the
May Department Stores Company. The then 62 Marshall Fields stores went for US$3.25 billion, a price that financial analysts considered high.
Prior to its acquisition by
May Department Stores Co., Marshall Field's had about 25,000 employees in 62 stores. It operated in the states of
Illinois,
Indiana,
Michigan,
Minnesota,
North Dakota,
Ohio,
South Dakota, and
Wisconsin.
May Company divested stores at Kirkwood Mall in
Bismarck, North Dakota and Glenbrook Square in
Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Federated Department Stores acquired May Department Stores in 2005. On
February 1,
2006, Marshall Field's became the nexus of the newly formed
Macy's North Division of Federated Department Stores. As a part of a national branding strategy, Macy's announced it will retire the name
Marshall Field's on the weekend of
September 9,
2006. All Marshall Field's stores will be renamed
Macy's. The re-branding decision was greeted with largely negative reactions, particularly in
Chicago. Newspaper articles and editorials reported concerns of many customers that particular traditions, services, and products unique to a store or region would be lost. More than 59,000 signed an online petition [
1] to retain the Marshall Field name. Following the 2005 Christmas shopping season,
WLS-TV in Chicago reported particularly strong sales at the chain's State Street flagship. Due to the strong holiday sales in the division, as well as the strong negative reaction to the name change, Federated examined the possibility of retaining some active use of the Field's name, including retaining the Marshall Field name on the Flagship, State Street store. [
2]
| The Former Dolce & Gabbana Collection Space | | August 2006 dissassembly of the Dolce & Gabbana Collection at State Street. |
| August 2006 dissassembly of the Dolce & Gabbana Collection at State Street. |
|
On
April 27,
2006, Macy's announced that the Marshall Field name would not be retained on the State Street store [
3], instead rebranding it as Macy's on State Street, a highly specialized divisional flagship store with many features unique to this single location, including celebration of the Marshall Field's legacy. In spite of the rebranding, Federated will be required to keep the iconic Marshall Field nameplate and the famous Field's clocks, due to the landmark status of the building. [
4] Among the attractions promised at the State Street location, Federated announced that limited demonstration production of Frango Mints would resume at the State Street store. The supermajority of the production would remain in non-unionized facilities outside of Illinois.
Marshall Field's continues to be a purveyor of Marshall Field's brand name apparel, Field's Marketplace foods and
Frango confections. With landmark status, the State Street flagship store is known for its bronze plaque signage and its trademark clocks. The merger remains controversial among Chicagoans. Many are merely nostalgic while others note that in certain departments Macy's will not carry the same brands that Marshall Field's carried. In clothing,
Armani,
Prada, and
Dolce & Gabbana are vendors that supplied Marshall Field's, but do not supply Macy's. Of course, in some departments the conversion will upgrade the inventory of suppliers. Housewares says that they will carry all brands formerly carried and stock many brands such as
All-Clad more extensively. Also, these decisions are made on a department by department basis. Although
Prada's clothing will no longer be carried,
Prada recently released a fragrance line at the Chicago Flagship location.
Although it was announced that the conversion would officially occur in September 2006, it was implemented, as a practical matter, by the first week of August, as signified by the removal of exterior signs at Field's suburban locations, an advertisement for a "Marshall Field's Macy's One Day Sale" on August 12, placing Macy's shopping bags in Marshall Field's State Street display windows, entering Macy's cars in the
Bud Billiken Day Parade, and a notice on
fields.com: "We're moving to
macys.com," with an active link.
*
Chicago MSA
**
State Street (Chicago flagship),
Chicago (founded 1868) â€" soon to be the future flagship store of the new Macy's North division of Federated (becoming Macy's on State Street)
**Water Tower Place, Chicago (opened 1975)
**Westfield Fox Valley (formerly Fox Valley Center)
, Aurora (opened 1975)
**Stratford Square, Bloomingdale (opened 1981)
**River Oaks Center, Calumet City (opened 1966)
**Westfield Louis Joliet (formerly Louis Joliet Mall)
, Joliet(opened 1978)
**Market Square, Lake Forest (opened 1931)
**Northbrook Court, Northbrook (opened 1995)
**Oakbrook Center, Oak Brook (opened 1962)
**Oakbrook Area Home Store (freestanding), Oak Brook (opened 1996)
**Orland Square, Orland Park (opened 1976)
**Woodfield Center, Schaumburg (opened 1971)
**Woodfield Area Home Store (freestanding), Schaumburg (opened 1996)
**Westfield Old Orchard (formerly Old Orchard Shopping Center)
, Skokie (opened 1956)
**Westfield Hawthorn (formerly Hawthorn Center)
, Vernon Hills (opened 1973)
**Spring Hill Mall, West Dundee (opened 1980)
*Rockford MSA
**CherryVale Mall, Cherry Valley (opened 1973)''
*
South Bend/Mishawaka MSA
**
University Park Mall,
Mishawaka (opened 1980 as Hudson's, closed 3/2006)*
Detroit MSA
**
Fairlane Town Center,
Dearborn (opened 1976 as Hudson's)**
Eastland Center,
Harper Woods (opened 1957 as Hudson's)**
Twelve Oaks Mall,
Novi (opened 1977 as Hudson's)**
Northland Center,
Southfield (opened 1954 as Hudson's)**
Lakeside Mall (2 locations),
Sterling Heights (opened 1978 as Hudson's, home store opened 2000)**
Birchwood Mall,
Port Huron (opened 1997 as Hudson's)**
Southland Center,
Taylor (opened 1970 as Hudson's)**
Oakland Mall,
Troy (opened 1968 as Hudson's)**
The Somerset Collection, (
Detroit),
Troy (opened 1996 as Hudson's)**
Summit Place,
Waterford Township (opened 1962 as Hudson's)**
Westland Center,
Westland (opened 1965 as Hudson's)*
Ann Arbor MSA
**
Briarwood Mall,
Ann Arbor (opened 1974 as Hudson's)*
Battle Creek MSA
**
Lakeview Square Mall,
Battle Creek (opened 1983 as Hudson's)*
Flint MSA
**
Genessee Valley Center,
Flint (opened 1970 as Hudson's)*
Grand Rapids MSA
**
RiverTown Crossings,
Grandville (opened 1999 as Hudson's)**
Woodland Shopping Center,
Kentwood (opened 1975 as Hudson's)*
Kalamazoo MSA
**
The Crossroads,
Portage (opened 1980 as Hudson's)*
Lansing MSA
**
Lansing Mall,
Lansing (opened 1979 as Hudson's)**
Meridian Mall,
Okemos (opened 1982 as Hudson's)*
Saginaw MSA
**
Fashion Square Mall,
Saginaw (opened 1976 as Hudson's)*
Traverse City MSA
**
Grand Traverse Mall,
Traverse City (opened 1992 as Hudson's)*
Minneapolis/St. Paul MSA
**
Nicollet Mall (
Minneapolis flagship),
Minneapolis (opened 1902 as Dayton's)**
Minnesota World Trade Center (Downtown St. Paul),
St. Paul (opened 1963 as Dayton's)**
Brookdale Center,
Brooklyn Center (opened 1966 as Dayton's)**
Burnsville Center,
Burnsville (opened 1977 as Dayton's)**
Southdale Center,
Edina (opened 1956 as Dayton's, replaced 1990)**Southdale Area Home Store (freestanding),
Edina (opened 1978 as Dayton's)**
Maplewood Mall,
Maplewood (opened 1996 as Dayton's)**
Ridgedale Center (2 locations),
Minnetonka (opened 1974 as Dayton's, home store opened 1995 in former Carson Pirie Scott location)**
Rosedale Center,
Roseville (opened 1969 as Dayton's, replaced 1991)**Rosedale Area Home Store (freestanding),
Roseville (opened 1976 as Dayton's)*
Rochester, Minnesota MSA
**
Apache Mall,
Rochester (opened 1972 as Dayton's)*
St. Cloud MSA
**
Crossroads Center,
St. Cloud (opened 1976 as Dayton's)*
Fargo MSA
**
West Acres Shopping Center,
Fargo (opened 1973 as Dayton's)*
Grand Forks MSA
**
Columbia Mall,
Grand Forks (opened 1978 as Dayton's)*
Toledo MSA
**
Westfield Franklin Park (formerly Franklin Park Mall),
Toledo (opened 1971 as Hudson's)*
Sioux Falls MSA
**
Empire Mall,
Sioux Falls (opened 1977 as Dayton's)*
Appleton MSA
**
Fox River Mall,
Appleton (opened 1991 as Dayton's)*
Eau Claire MSA
**
Oakwood Mall,
Eau Claire (opened 1991 as Dayton's)*
La Crosse MSA
**
Valley View Mall,
La Crosse (opened 1980 as Dayton's)*
Madison MSA
**
Hilldale Shopping Center,
Madison (opened 1962 as Gimbels)*
Milwaukee MSA
**
Mayfair Mall,
Wauwatosa (opened 1959)* Pridmore, Jay. Marshall Field's, a building from the Chicago Architecture Foundation. 2002
* Wendt, Lloyd. Give the Lady what she Wants... the story of Marshall Field & Company, 1952.
* Tebbel, John. The Marshall Fields, A study in wealth. 1948.
*
Fields.com Official store website
*
Jazz Age Chicago (2006) Marshall Field and Company history
*
Jazz Age Chicago (1997) Main store history
*
FieldsFansChicago.org Marshall Field's blog site
*
KARE 11 TV One last stroll down memory lane before big change
