Marshall Field's

Marshall Field's is a department store chain headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota with its flagship store on State Street in Chicago. Since August 30, 2005, it has been a division of Federated Department Stores. It was formerly a division of May Department Stores, which acquired it on July 30, 2004 from Target Corporation, until the Federated takeover of May Company.

Expansion to 1990/Corporate History

In the 1910s and 1920s Marshall Field & Co. 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 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.

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The 1980s was a slower growth period for Chicago area stores, with locations added at just Spring Hill Mall in West Dundee and Stratford Square in Bloomington. But the 1980s did see further expansion into Texas with stores opened at The Galleria in Houston (actually opened in 1979), 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.

Related Topics:
The Galleria - Dallas Galleria - Gimbels

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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.

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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.

Related Topics:
1929 - Frederick & Nelson - Frangos - The Crescent - Spokane, Washington - Halle Brothers - Cleveland, Ohio

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In 1982 ownership of Field's and it 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 puchased 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.

Related Topics:
BATUS - British-American Tobacco - Gimbels - Saks Fifth Avenue - Kohls

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BATUS initially retained Saks Fifth Avenue, Marshall Field's and Ivey's, but subsequently sold all of its remaining U.S. retail endeavours 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

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