Marshall Field's (Marshall Field & Company) was an iconic Chicago, Illinois, department
store that grew to become a major chain before being acquired by Cincinnati-based
Federated Department Stores 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 three 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.
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. |
