Marshall Field's

Book excerpt: Anyone who has waited in a Christmas line forthe Walnut Room’s Great Tree can attest that Chicago’s loyalty to MarshallField’s is fierce. Dayton-Hudson even had to take out advertising around townto apologize for changing the Field’s hallowed green bags. And with goodreason—the store and those who ran it shaped the city’sstreets, subsidized its culture and heralded its progress. The resultingcommercial empire dictated wholesale trade terms in Calcutta and sponsoredtowns in North Carolina, but its essence was always Chicago. So when the MarshallField name was retired in 2006 after the stores were purchased by Macy’s,protest slogans like “Field’s is Chicago” and “Field’s: as Chicago as it gets”weren’t just emotional hype. Many still hope that name will be resurrected likethe city it helped support during the Great Fire and the Great Depression. Until then, fans of Marshall Field’s can celebrate itshistory with this warm look back at the beloved institution.