Marshall Field's: How "Meet Me Under the Clock" Became Macy's
For generations, Marshall Field's on State Street was Chicago's store: the Great Clock, the Walnut Room, Frango mints, the holiday windows. Then in 2006 it became Macy's. The history and the protests.
For more than a century, "meet me under the clock" meant one place in Chicago: the corner of State and Washington, under the great bronze clock of Marshall Field and Company. In 2006 the name on the building changed to Macy's. Plenty of Chicagoans never forgave it.
Building a landmark
Marshall Field's State Street store grew over decades, from an 1879 building to a 1893 annex by Daniel Burnham, and then the big buildings of 1902 and 1907. By 1914 the store filled the entire block bounded by State, Washington, Wabash and Randolph.
The first of the store's famous Great Clocks went up at State and Washington on November 26, 1897. It became the city's favorite meeting spot.
Chicago traditions
- The Tiffany ceiling: the 1907 building has a favrile glass dome by Louis Comfort Tiffany's studio, with more than 1.6 million pieces of glass, the first and largest ever built in favrile glass.
- The Walnut Room, where the chicken pot pie tradition started, the story goes, when a clerk shared her lunch with a tired shopper.
- Frango mints, first made by Frederick & Nelson in Seattle, then made in Field's own candy kitchen on State Street.
- The holiday windows, with animated displays families lined up to see every Christmas, and the Great Tree in the Walnut Room.
A carriage ride past Marshall Field & Company, July 1984, from the hellgin founder's family photos.
The sale and the switch
Marshall Field's passed through several owners in its later years, including Target Corporation, which sold it to the May Company in 2004. When Federated Department Stores bought May in 2005, the decision was made to put the Macy's name on the stores. On September 9, 2006, Marshall Field's became Macy's.
The protests
Hundreds of protesters gathered under the Great Clock that day. People cut up their charge cards, and protests continued every year for years after. To this day, many Chicagoans still call the building "Field's."
What's left
The clocks still hang on the corners. The Tiffany ceiling is still there, and so is the Walnut Room and its Great Tree. The name on the door changed; the landmark didn't.
More Chicago history: why the Sears Tower became the Willis Tower.
Source (1)
Photo: Chicago (2692999072).jpg) by Tony Webster from Portland, Oregon, United States, CC BY 2.0.