Marshall Field's

At Marshall Field's stores, the guest is always first. This guest-focused approach has inspired millions of shoppers across the Midwest and beyond to look to Marshall Field's for fashion leadership, superb guest service and a commitment to community involvement. Potter Palmer opens a retail dry goods store called P. Palmer & Company on Lake Street in Chicago, soon finding success creating an upscale emporium catering to women. Marshall Field and Levi Z. Leiter buy into Palmer's enterprise, which is renamed Field, Palmer & Leiter. Field and Leiter buy out Palmer, renaming the firm Field, Leiter & Company. The retail store reopens in a new building at State and Washington. Another fire burns the store to the ground, forcing another temporary relocation. Field buys out Leiter and renames the firm Marshall Field & Company. Marshall Field dies, leaving ownership of his company to a complex family trust; John G. Shedd takes over as president. Field family trustees sell 90 percent of their company shares to the firm's officers and managers. The company finishes construction of the mammoth $35 million Merchandise Mart, new home of the wholesale and manufacturing divisions; Marshall Field & Co. offers shares to the public for the first time; the Field family retains a 10 percent stake. The Merchandise Mart is sold to Joseph P. Kennedy for $12.9 million. Marshall Field completes the divestment of its manufacturing operations, selling Fieldcrest Mills. The company leads the development of Old Orchard, a new shopping center in Skokie, Illinois, featuring a Marshall Field's store. The Field family sells its last remaining holdings in Marshall Field & Co. Water Tower Place, half-owned by the company, is completed on Chicago's North Michigan Avenue and includes a new Marshall Field's store. Carter Hawley Hale Stores, Inc. launches a takeover bid that is rejected by Marshall Field's board. The first Marshall Field store outside the Midwest opens in Houston, Texas. To fend off a takeover bid led by Carl Icahn, Marshall Field sells itself to BATUS Inc., a division of B.A.T. Industries PLC, for $367.6 million. A $110 million, five-year renovation of the flagship State Street store is launched. To fend off a hostile takeover led by James Goldsmith, B.A.T. Industries announces that it will sell off its U.S. retailing operations. Marshall Field's exits from the Texas market, selling its four stores there. Target rebrands its Dayton's and Hudson's department stores under the Marshall Field's banner. Target announces that it will explore a possible sale of Marshall Field's. Source: International Directory of Company Histories , Vol.63. St. James Press, 2004.