This was the Third Largest Department Store Building in the World

Marshall Field Company Store, Chicago Illinois

Date added: September 01, 2025

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At the time of Marshall Field's death in 1906, he was widely hailed as the "greatest merchant of his day." After purchasing Potter Palmer's wholesale and retail dry-goods firm in 1865, Field rapidly expanded the scope of its wholesale division until by the 1880s, says historian Robert W. Twyman, "its customers were being drawn from an ever-expanding area that eventually stretched from the Appalachians to the Pacific Coast and from border to border." In an era when manufacturing and transportation facilities tended to be confined to limited areas, gigantic firms like Marshall Field & Company played a vital role in distributing goods to retailers and supplying the needs of consumers. In fact, by 1906, Field's firm, according to Twyman, was "the largest importer in the United States" and "was at one and the same time the largest single distributor in America in both the wholesale and retail fields" with sales of $50 million and $25 million, respectively.

Field is particularly noted for his activities in retailing, especially in the development of the department store. According to marketing expert James L. Palmer, Field "probably had as much to do with the development of the customer service concept of retailing as any merchant in America," and such familiar phrases as "give the lady what she wants" and "give the customer what he wants" are attributed to him. Field's insistence on courteous attention to potential customers and on doing almost everything humanly possible for their comfort and convenience made his department store one of the most famous institutions of its kind in the world. The store's "fame for its treatment of customers," says Twyman, "has come from its unique ability to give masses of people the feeling they have been served individually." In recognition of Field's contributions, his statue, says historian Philip J. Reilly, has been placed "with those of John Wanamaker; George H. Hartford, founder of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company; and Frank W. Woolworth, founder of the five-and-ten-cent store chain" in the Retailing Hall of Fame in the Chicago Merchandise Mart.

Since its completion in 1907, the Marshall Field & Company Store, occupying the block bounded by Washington, State, and Randolph Streets and Wabash Avenue in Chicago's Loop, has been one of the world's largest and most famous department stores. Designed by noted architect Daniel H. Burnham and constructed in four stages between 1892 and 1907, this gigantic edifice, measuring 340 by 385 feet, fulfilled a building program planned by Field himself as part of an effort to put increased emphasis on retail operations. Still serving its original purpose, the 12-story granite structure (the 1892 section rises only 9 stories) shows little exterior alteration and exhibits an interior which has retained much of its original vitality. The store is the oldest known Marshall Field structure still extant, and its site has housed Field stores since 1868. Both Field's mansion on Prairie Avenue and a wholesale building designed by H.H. Richardson and located on the block bounded by Adams, Quincy, Wells, and Franklin Streets have been demolished.

Marshall Field was born on August 18^th, 1834, on a farm near Conway, Mass., to John and Fidelia N. Field. Although his family's circumstances were rather modest, young Marshall received a good basic education in local public and private schools. In 1851 he took his first job, a clerkship in the dry-goods store of Henry G. (Deacon) Davis in the nearby village of Pittsfield. Although his salary was only $10 per week, he gained invaluable experience in retailing and a knowledge of the dry-goods trade. Four years later, Davis offered him a partnership in the store, but Field, determined to go west where he believed opportunities were greater, refused.

In 1855, Field, who had managed to save nearly $1,000 from his salary, moved to Chicago. Desirous of starting his own dry-goods business but lacking the necessary capital, Field, with the assistance of his brother Joseph obtained a position as clerk with Cooley, Wadsworth and Company, the largest dry-goods wholesaler in the city. His first year with the firm he slept in the store and managed to save nearly half of his $400 salary. He did such an excellent job in his position that he was soon promoted to traveling salesman. Again, he was successful, winning new customers wherever he went and causing a contemporary to remark that "he carried the trade of the Northwest in his pocket."

When the firm was reorganized as Cooley, Farwell and Company in 1860, Field became a junior partner. Two years later, he became a partner by investing $15,000 of his own funds, and in 1864, after another reorganization, the firm became Farwell, Field and Company. This arrangement proved to be short-lived, however, due to sharp personality clashes between Field and partner John V. Farwell, and by the end of the year, Field had sold his interest in the firm.

While Field was settling his affairs with Farwell, Potter Palmer, perhaps Chicago's leading merchant, offered to sell him his wholesale-retail dry-goods business for $750,000. Because Field lacked this much capital, Palmer worked out an arrangement that enabled Field and Levi Leiter, who had been a junior partner at Farwell, Field and Company, to become the senior partners in the largest dry goods firm in the West. On January 4^th, 1865, an agreement was signed which brought into being the firm of Field, Palmer & Leiter, capitalized at $750,000. Potter Palmer contributed $330,000 of this, Field, $250,000, Leiter, $120,000, and Milton Palmer, whose name was on the company masthead, $50,000.

Despite some financial difficulties when the Civil War ended, the firm generally prospered and continued to grow. By 1867, Field and Leiter were able to buy out Milton Palmer and change the company's name to Field, Leiter & Company. During these early years, management of the wholesale and retail divisions, both in one building, was left to Leiter while Field handled purchasing, spending much of his time in New York City.

By 1868, however, Field had returned to Chicago to stay, marking the beginning of a period of rapid expansion, not to be slowed by natural disasters like fire or financial dislocations. Soon, he managed to buy out Potter Palmer's interest, and in 1881 he bought Leiter's share of the business, giving the firm its present name of Marshall Field & Company. By the 1880s, the wholesale division, which accounted for nearly 80 percent of net sales, was drawing customers, says Twyman, "from an ever-expanding area that eventually stretched from the Appalachians to the Pacific Coast and from border to border." To supply the needs of its customers, the firm established a network of buying offices in the United States and western Europe, and Field buyers traveled to all parts of the globe to seek out fine goods. In an era when manufacturing and transportation facilities tended to be confined to limited areas, gigantic firms like Marshall Field & Company played a vital role in distributing goods to retailers and supplying the needs of consumers.

Although the wholesale division was the lifeblood of his firm, Field became increasingly interested in retail operations, and he is generally considered by scholars to be one of the leading figures in the development of the department store. According to marketing expert James L. Palmer, Field "probably had as much to do with the customer service concept of retailing as any merchant in America," and such familiar phrases as "give the lady what she wants" and "give the customer what he wants" are attributed to him. Field's insistence on courteous attention to potential customers and on doing almost everything humanly possible for their comfort and convenience made his department store one of the most famous institutions of its kind in the world.

Field achieved this pinnacle of success, says his biographer Edward A. Duddy, because of "his thorough grasp of detail, his ability to hire able managers, and a skillful handling of employees." In the 1880s, he proved this indemonstrably when he picked John G. Shedd to head wholesale and Harry G. Selfridge to head retail. Under Shedd, wholesale continued its remarkable expansion, its methods of operation were improved, and a program to manufacture certain goods was launched. Selfridge was largely responsible for upgrading the retail operation, which had fallen behind the trend set by stores like Macy's and Wanamaker's. The number of departments was increased from 50 to 150, advertising was increased, and the store became a department store in the modern sense of the term. In 1885, under Selfridge's direction, Field's contributed several important innovations to the department store concept. According to retail historians Tom Mahoney and Leonard Sloane, Field's "was the first to establish an underprice basement and to use the basement for selling. It was the first to offer a personal shopping service and was among the first to offer a delivery service."

By the time of Field's death in 1906, the company, says Twyman was "the largest importer in the United States" and "was at one and the same time the largest single distributor in America in both the wholesale and retail fields" with sales of $50 million and $25 million respectively. John G. Shedd succeeded Field as president, and for some years afterward, the firm continued its remarkable growth. "In order to control the quality of merchandise and to increase the earnings of the company," Shedd, according to his biographer Edward A. Duddy, "embarked on a manufacturing program which led successively to the development of textile mills in North Carolina and Virginia, a rug-making factory in Philadelphia, and a lace-making industry at Zion City, Illinois."

By the late 1920s and early 1930s, Field's wholesale division found itself in deep financial trouble. Although construction costs of the gigantic Merchandise Mart contributed somewhat to the problem, new trends in product distribution had emerged, which reduced the need for large general wholesalers like Field's. As a result, wholesale was liquidated in 1935, and its manufacturing facilities were sold.

Retail remained profitable, however, and gradually, starting in the late 1920s, the scope of operations was expanded from the downtown store to the Chicago suburbs and beyond. For the fiscal year ending January 21^st, 1976, Marshall Field & Company reported total sales of nearly $574 million.

Marshall Field moved his dry goods business to State Street in 1868. Originally, the firm operated under several different names, including Field Leiter & Company, and emerged as Marshall Field & Company in 1881. The first State Street location was at the northeast corner of Washington Street, where the firm rented a store building, constructed by Potter Palmer, at a reported rental of $50,000 per annum. There were two subsequent structures on this site after the original Palmer store burned in the Fire of 1871. One was destroyed by fire in 1877 and the second was replaced in 1907 by a portion of the present structure. The earliest building, which still comprises a portion of the State Street store, was constructed as an annex in 1892-3. It is nine stories tall on spread foundations and, as with all the other buildings of the current store, was designed by D. H. Burnham. It is of steel, granite, terra cotta tile, and marble fire-resistant construction. Originally, only the four lowest floors were devoted to retail use in connection with the adjacent State Street Building. Of the remaining five floors, two were occupied by the Crerar Library and three offered for rent to outside tenants. Marshall Field & Company eventually expanded to all floors.

The next building addition adjoined the original corner store to the north and extended to Randolph Street. This building set the height and design for all subsequent additions. It is twelve stories high, on caissons, and was immediately followed by two further additions, one in the middle of the Wabash Avenue frontage (1906) and the northeast corner of Washington Street (1907) which replaced the earlier main structure. In 1914 the remainder of the block was improved with the last addition at the southwest corner of Randolph Street and Wabash Avenue. These buildings were originally separated by Holden Court, a 40-foot wide north/south alley running the length of the block. Floors above the first floor were bridged except for a light court. Thus the buildings are interconnected throughout above the first floor.

Remodeling

This store was constructed to conduct a retail trade much different than today. Buying habits and merchandising techniques have changed to a great extent in the intervening years. For example, vertical transportation was entirely by elevator or stairway when the store was built. Now there are three escalator runs, and the passenger elevators are automatic. The lighting has been remodeled as standards have changed, and especially with the advent of the fluorescent fixture. Heating and electrical systems have been altered and replaced to keep pace with modern appliances and requirements. Air-conditioning has been installed to the point that the basement to the tenth floor is 100 per cent air-conditioned. These floors contain the selling space, which is 47 per cent of the total gross area of the building. Other areas are partially air-conditioned.

Obsolescence

Few multi-story stores are built today; most are one or two stories. This enables horizontal movement, saves on construction costs, and conforms to current shopping center designs, which are located on large parcels of land with ample free parking in outlying areas. Such stores are also designed to meet the modern design requirements. In the case of old, multi-story, downtown department stores, dependent to a large extent on public transportation and having no free parking due to historically high land values, designs represent earlier technology, and the addition of such innovations has been done at great cost and with resulting loss of efficiency. In the case of this store, a large portion of the area is not devoted to selling space, which is its most productive use. Open interior light courts, once considered desirable for natural light and movement of air, now represent expensive waste space as they must be heated and air-conditioned, and they also cut up floor space. Decorative detailing such as wood paneling, ornamental plaster, and stone trim has become exorbitant in maintenance cost and places older structures at a competitive disadvantage. Continuing modernization efforts are therefore required to retard the obsolescence process and maintain a competitive position as the gap widens between modern construction and the design of this store. The alternatives are remodeling to another use such as took place at Chicago's former Boston Store, now the State & Madison office building, or demolition.

State Street and Retail Use

State Street was originally a narrower residential street. Potter Palmer effected its widening to its present 100 feet and constructed a hotel, which he operated, and a retail store, which Marshall Field occupied. Other merchants quickly followed, as Field Leiter & Company was already Chicago's leading merchant. State Street then gained preeminence among retail locations. Front foot values near State and Madison Streets, for example, increased from $150 in 1862 to $2,000 in 1871. The 1871 Chicago Fire did not change the retail character of State Street. During the latter part of the 19^th Century, development of the city tended to follow public transportation routes, which, in turn, were oriented toward downtown. There were few cross-town lines, and thus downtown, and State Street, was the most convenient of access. A map of horse car lines in 1880 indicates that only Halsted Street, a north/south artery one mile west of State Street, had a line not specifically leading toward the center of town.

Railroads had begun operation of suburban service at this time and their routes converged upon downtown. During the late 1880s, the growth patterns of the city changed. Cable transportation increased the speed of transit and encouraged people to live farther out. Cross-town lines multiplied and led to the appearance of the new phenomenon of the transfer corner. At intersections of cable, horse, or early electric car lines, one transfer was allowed on the five-cent fare. Businesses developed at these early transfer points. Their growth developed land values in excess of any heretofore outside downtown, but their continued expansion was checked for a period of approximately twenty years by the development of a new and important public transportation mode; the elevated railway. During the 1890s the elevated system in Chicago was built to all sides of the city. All these lines were radial; all converged on downtown. To this day, there are no cross-town rapid transit lines in Chicago. All enter or pass through the central business district.

The impact of these lines was tremendous. The severe economic depression of the mid-1890s had no effect on State Street, but it did on outlying business and retail centers. Those with retail locations on State Street circa 1895 were very fortunate; the city's transportation system had favored them for twenty years, and a constant stream of shoppers was herded downtown first by the early horse and cable lines and later in ever-increasing numbers by the elevated. It was during these years, from 1895 to 1915, when outlying districts were in eclipse and State Street enjoyed preeminence, that the present Marshall Field department store was designed and built. Even as the last section of it was completed, in 1914, new trends were beginning that would have an adverse effect on State Street. The streetcar system by this time, no longer revealed a lack of cross-town lines and, with the continued outward growth of the city, it was becoming increasingly difficult to ride downtown without transferring at least once Greatly increased real estate values in the central district were also causing manufacturing and business concerns to seek out less expensive sites for their operations. Chain stores found they could rent a number of stores outside the State Street district for what one could cost downtown. New retail department store establishments, such as Wieboldt's and Goldblatt's, opened their department stores outside the central business district in competition with State Street stores.

During the 1920s, this trend expanded until, in 1929, there were over 200 intersections with values of over $1,000 per front foot and nine with values of $5,000 to $10,000 per front foot. Between 1910 and 1930, all types of real estate advanced substantially but, in terms of percentages, the central business district advanced least, an average of 3.3 percent per annum. Outlying business districts, on the other hand, advanced at an annual average of 28.3 percent. Recognizing the outward expansion and changed habits of its customers, Marshall Field & Company opened branch stores in Oak Park and Evanston by 1930.

The depression and World War II froze most growth patterns in Chicago. After the war, however, the modern age of automobile-dependent suburban life began, and with it the completion of the decentralization pattern. Close-in neighborhoods were abandoned to less prosperous economic groups, and new outlying shopping centers effectively intercepted retail trade bound for downtown. The belt of prosperous city dwellers along the lake shopped on Michigan Avenue, which eventually became so important that in 1976, Field's opened an outlet there, a mile from its main State Street store.

The preeminence of State Street ended with the advent of the suburban shopping center, but its decline began much earlier with the decentralization of the city.

Property Description

Since its completion in 1907, the Marshall Field & Company Store, occupying the block bounded by Washington, State, and Randolph Streets, and Wabash Avenue in Chicago's Loop, has been one of the world's largest and most famous department stores. Designed by noted architect Daniel H. Burnham and constructed in four stages between 1892 and 1907, this gigantic edifice, measuring 340 by 385 feet, fulfilled a building program planned by Field himself as part of an effort to put increased emphasis on retail operations. Still serving its original purpose, the 12-story granite structure (the 1892 section rises only 9 stories) shows little exterior alteration and exhibits an interior which has retained much of its original vitality. The store is the oldest known Marshall Field structure still extant, and its site has housed Field stores since 1868. Both Field's mansion on Prairie Avenue and a wholesale building designed by H. H. Richardson and located on the block bounded by Adams, Quincy, Wells, and Franklin Streets have been demolished.

When Marshall Field, Milton Palmer, and Levi Leiter formed their partnership in 1865, the firm occupied Potter Palmer's old dry-goods store at 112-116 Lake Street, and the entire wholesale retail operation was quartered in the four-story structure located there. In 1868, shortly after the firm had become Field, Leiter & Company, wholesale and retail operations were transferred to a six-story building owned by Potter Palmer at the corner of State and Washington. Three years later, however, this edifice was destroyed in the Chicago Fire. At this time, Field and Leiter decided to separate wholesale and retail, and a wholesale building was constructed at the corner of Market and Madison Streets, while retail was temporarily quartered in a converted street railway barn at State and 20^th Streets. In 1873, retail returned to State and Washington, occupying a building owned by the Singer Sewing Machine Company. In 1877, fire struck again, and the firm relocated, first to East Adams Street and then to 133-155 South Wabash. When the new Singer Building was completed in 1879 on the old site, Field purchased it and relocated his retail operations here permanently.

A few years after Field bought out Levi Leiter, he launched a building program for the wholesale and retail divisions. A new wholesale building designed by H. H. Richardson was erected in 1887 on the block bounded by Adams, Quincy, Wells, and Franklin Streets, and by the 1890's plans were afoot to enlarge the retail store. In 1893, an annex to the State Street store, designed by Daniel H. Burnham, was completed, giving retail frontage on State, Washington, and Wabash. No further construction occurred until 1900, however, due to the critical state of the economy. In that year, Field received a building permit to erect a 12-story building on State Street north of his old retail store and extending to Randolph Street. Designed by Daniel H. Burnham and erected at a cost of $1,750,000, the store was opened to the public in 1902. Two years later, an addition, based on Burnham's design, connected the new State Street store with the 1893 annex. Shortly before his death in 1906, Field approved plans for the demolition of the Singer Building and the construction of an addition in its place, which when completed, would give Marshall Field & Company command of the entire block bounded by State, Washington, Wabash, and Randolph.

Finally, on September 30^th, 1907, the completed retail store, valued at $8 million and containing nearly 35 acres of floor space, was opened to the public.

Except the 1893 Annex, the Marshall Field & Company Store is based on Daniel H. Burnham's design of 1900. Designed in a somewhat modified Commercial style, the structure follows the traditional Renaissance division of a building into base, body, and top. The three-story base rests on a series of 200-ton concrete caissons, each capable of bearing over 1 million pounds of weight. The first two stories of the base feature smooth granite pilasters that separate the bays, cover the steel support piers, and provide a sense of underpinning for the entire structure. Granite spandrels with recessed panels separate the first and second stories, while the third story is separated from the upper and lower levels by stone entablatures at the top and bottom, which pass around the building to the 1893 annex. Stories 4 through 10 form the body of the building. They are faced with smooth granite and display the regularly spaced triple windows typical of the Chicago School. The vertical piers of this section rise uninterrupted to the top of the 10^th story, where they culminate in an entablature featuring a dentiled cornice. The crown consists of stories 11 and 12. Windows in this section are somewhat recessed, and the granite-faced piers are replaced by regularly placed fluted Ionic columns that span the two floors and support the heavy cornice that caps the structure.

Burnham's 1893 Annex, located along the southernmost and easternmost halves of the firm's frontage on Wabash and Washington respectively, is an excellent example of Italian Renaissance style architecture, and his later designs for Field were probably influenced by a desire to make them compatible with this structure. Much more ornate than the later additions, this nine-story section, faced with quoined granite, features terra cotta cornice work; both round-arched and rectangular window surrounds with heavy, radiating, stone voussoirs; one-over-one sash-type windows; and a heavy ornamented cornice near the roofline.

Entrances, which are now covered with metal awnings, are generally recessed and feature a combination of hinged and revolving doors. On the State Street (west) side of the store is an elaborate portico featuring four Ionic columns of Carrara marble set on granite pedestals and capped with a deck with plain entablature and carved marble balustrades. Two clocks are mounted on the store at the State and Washington and State and Randolph corners respectively. Each clock is 12 1/2 feet tall, weighs nearly 8 tons, and has minute hands more than 2 feet long.

Inside, the Marshall Field & Company Store exhibits very little structural alteration and a minimum of decorative alteration in key areas. The most striking interior features are two light wells located at the north and south ends of the store, respectively. The 12-story well in the north end near the Randolph Street entrance is designed to resemble a courtyard, features white-painted steel and plaster Corinthian columns at each level, and culminates in a skylight in the roof. At the south end is the impressive Tiffany Dome designed by the renowned Louis Comfort Tiffany. Covering an area of 6,000 square feet, the Dome is the largest glass mosaic with an unbroken surface in the United States. Fifty men worked 1 1/2 years to install the nearly 1.6 million pieces of glass in the mosaic, and it was unveiled to the public in 1907 when the store was completed. Much of the original oak flooring remains, and in many areas of the store, the walnut and mahogany wainscoting is still in place. Also, the company has retained a large number of its original display cases.

Foundations are caissons to bedrock. Walls are masonry with structural steel framing and flat tile arch floors and roof. Exterior walls are granite, marble, glazed face brick, and terra cotta. Roof finish is tar and gravel. Finished flooring is marble, hardwood, vinyl asbestos tile, linoleum and terrazzo. Finished ceilings are generally plaster with some laid-in acoustical tile.

Heating is a two-pipe steam radiation system from three low-pressure Wick boilers, two of which are 600 horsepower and one of which is 350 horsepower. The primary source of heat is from steam coils in air-conditioning ducts. Air conditioning consists of 4,900 tons of cooling: two 1,200-ton units, two 1,000-ton units and one 500-ton unit. Units are Carrier chilled water.

The first basement to the tenth floor are 100 per cent air-conditioned. The eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth floors are approximately 60, 55 and 30 percent air-conditioned, respectively. There is an insignificant amount of air conditioning in the third basement. There is no air conditioning in the second basement. There are approximately 1,000 plumbing fixtures.

Escalators consist of two-tier runs on the State Street side of the building and one on the Wabash Avenue side. Escalators generally extend from the first basement to the ninth floor. One tier extends to the tenth floor and one extends to the second basement on the State Street side. The escalators are 4 feet wide from the basement to the fourth floor and 3 feet wide for the balance of the accessible floor levels. They are manufactured by Westinghouse. There are a total of 27 automatic passenger elevators. Sixteen are on the State Street side and eleven are on the Wabash Avenue side. Each has a capacity of 2,500 pounds. They were manufactured by Westinghouse (10), Haughton (9), Otis (6), and by Marshall Field (2). Fifteen extend from the first basement to the thirteenth floor, four from the first basement to the twelfth floor, five from the third basement to the thirteenth floor, and two from the first to the sixth floor. There are ten Haughton manually-operated freight elevators of various capacities from 3,500 to 12,000 pounds providing collective service to all levels. The building is 100 percent sprinklered through a wet system. Electrical service is six 12,000-volt 8,000-AMP substations. Wiring is in rigid conduit. Fixtures are suspended and surface-attached, fluorescent, spot and incandescent.