Marshall Field and Company Building: How a State Street Department Store Became a Landmark

By Solomon Rokowsky

October 28, 2026

A Tichnor Brothers postcard of the Marshall Field & Company store on State Street. Photo: Tichnor Brothers. Source. Public domain. Resized.

Few buildings in Chicago carry as many memories as the block bounded by State Street, Randolph Street, Wabash Avenue and Washington Street. For generations it was Marshall Field's. Since 2006 it has been Macy's on State Street. The sign changed, but the thirteen-story granite building that Daniel Burnham designed is the same one, and it is both a National Historic Landmark and a Chicago Landmark.

The block is also a story about how a store became a city institution, and about who owns the pieces of it now. The store, the offices above it and the building's famous interiors do not all belong to the same people.

From P. Palmer & Co. to Field's

The business began in 1852 as P. Palmer & Co. Potter Palmer built it up, then stepped back from daily operations and brought in Marshall Field and Levi Leiter as partners. In 1868 Palmer persuaded them to move to a building he owned at State and Washington. The Great Chicago Fire destroyed that building in 1871. The store came back in a rebuilt structure leased from the Singer Sewing Machine Company, and when a fire destroyed that one in 1877 and Singer built a replacement in 1879, Field assembled the financing to buy it. The business has stayed on the site ever since.

Marshall Field in a portrait bust photograph. Photo: Bain News Service. Source. Public domain. Resized.

Field took over operations in 1881. According to Wikipedia, he was the first major merchant to post prices in plain sight, ending haggling, and he stood behind his goods with a refund policy he had inherited from Palmer. The company is credited with the first bridal registry, the first in-store dining, the first European buying office and the first personal shopping assistants. By 1906, the year he died, it was the largest wholesale and retail dry goods enterprise in the world.

Burnham's block

The building you see today was put up in stages. Burnham designed the two main sections on State Street, the north part in 1901 and 1902 and the south part in 1905 and 1906, and further sections followed in 1907 and 1914. It is clad in granite, and four 50-foot Ionic columns mark the State Street entrance. Inside are several atria, including a thirteen-story skylit atrium in the northwest section and a more recent atrium with a fountain that is crossed by escalators.

The interior atrium of the building. Photo: Pokemonprime. Source. CC BY 4.0. Resized.

The Tiffany dome

The best-known interior is in the southwest corner. A five-story balconied atrium is capped by a mosaic vaulted ceiling designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany. Wikipedia says it covers more than 6,000 square feet, is made of about 1.6 million pieces of iridescent glass, and took 50 artisans 18 months to build. It describes it as the first iridescent glass dome and the largest glass mosaic of its kind.

The clocks

The two bronze clocks on the State Street corners are the store's trademark. The Great Clock at State and Washington was installed on November 26, 1897. The story is that the corner was already a popular meeting place and people had begun to leave notes for each other on the store windows, so Field installed a clock to encourage punctuality. Each clock weighs about 7.5 tons. Norman Rockwell drew one of them for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post on November 3, 1945, in a painting called The Clock Mender, and gave the original to the store in 1948. It has since been donated to the Chicago Historical Society.

The clock on the corner of the State Street store. Photo: Victor Grigas. Source. CC BY-SA 3.0. Resized.

The name changes

The Marshall Field and Company name lasted until 2006. After Federated Department Stores acquired May Department Stores, the Field's stores were converted to Macy's on September 9, 2006, and the building was renamed Macy's at State Street. The change was widely covered in the national press, and many Chicagoans objected. In response Macy's promised to keep three traditions: the 45-foot Christmas tree, a seventh-floor viewing kitchen for Frango mints, and the animated holiday windows.

The State Street store dressed for the holidays. Photo: Ken Lund. Source. CC BY-SA 2.0. Resized.

Visiting the building

The store is at 111 North State Street. It is part of the Loop Retail Historic District, and an underground concourse connects the basement to the former Men's Store at 25 East Washington. The building is also a hub of the Chicago Pedway. I did not read the store's current opening hours, so check Macy's before a special trip. The Tiffany ceiling is inside the store in the southwest corner, and the clocks are visible from the sidewalk at no cost. The holiday windows along State Street are an annual draw. Macy's own page lists Great Tree Lighting Day for November 7, 2026.

Who owns the Marshall Field and Company Building today?

Legal title is split by floor. The store and the offices are separate properties.

The store: Wikipedia's infobox lists Macy's, Inc. as owner of floors 1 to 7. The Cook County Assessor lists "Macy's Retail Holdings" as the owner on the 111 North State Street parcels I found. That is a tax label, not a deed, but it matches. Macy's says in its annual report that it is exploring ways to monetize its real estate, which includes selling stores, so this could change.

The offices above the store: the upper floors were converted into about 632,000 square feet of offices in 2020. The Real Deal reported on September 22, 2026 that the six-floor office condominium at 24 East Washington Street is being put up for sale by BGRE, which bought it in 2018. BGRE is the new name of Brookfield Properties, according to BGRE's own website and press coverage of the July 2026 rebrand. Wikipedia lists Brookfield Corporation as owner of floors 8 to 14. The assessor lists "BSREP II SS Chicago LL" for the parcels at that address, and I could not tie that label to BGRE from a published source.

Operator: Macy's runs the store. The offices are leased by the office owner.

Still unconfirmed: the exact deed holder of the office condominium, and whether the land is held separately from the building. I found no source on either point. Read October 28, 2026.

Where can you eat or drink at Macy's on State Street?

The Marshall Field's Walnut Room is on the seventh floor. Macy's describes it as the first full-service restaurant inside a department store, with Circassian walnut paneling, Austrian crystal chandeliers and a 17,000-square-foot dining room. Its website lists regular hours of 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. The last afternoon tea service for 2026 is Friday, October 30. The holiday menu and hours begin November 7, 2026, when the Great Tree goes up. It stays through January 17, 2027. These details were read on October 28, 2026. Hours show the first and last seating, and holiday dates book up, so check the site and reserve.

The 45-foot tree has been a Walnut Room tradition since 1907, according to Macy's.