Chicago, day 4, Macy's
Our next stop in our downtown experience was Macy's on State Street, the second largest department store in the world. The shop originated from a dry goods store created by Potter Palmer in 1852, which was burnt down in the Great Chicago Fire. Palmer, his health failing, had sold the company on to Levi Leiter and Marshall Field, the entrepreneur who dominated Chicago commerce around the turn of the 19th century. Field bought out Leiter and went on to develop the site. After building a couple of smaller stores, which soon proved insufficient, Marshall Field, encouraged by his store manager Harry Selfridge, employed the architect Daniel Burnham to build a larger one to accommodate visitors coming for the 1894 Chicago Exposition. Over a period of time the enterprise grew as Field took over other buildings on the block, until the store occupied the whole area. In 1907 the original 1894 building was pulled down and a new one erected, rising up to a Tiffany glass roof. In 1982 Marsh...