Marshall Field's
Marshall Field & Company traces its antecedents to a dry goods store opened at 137 Lake Street in Chicago, Illinois in 1852 by Potter Palmer, (1826–1902), eponymously named P. Palmer & Company. In 1856, 21-year-old Marshall Field (1834–1906) moved to the booming midwestern city of Chicago on the southwest shores of Lake Michigan from Pittsfield, Massachusetts and found work at the city's then-largest dry goods firm – Cooley, Wadsworth & Company. Just prior to the American Civil War, in 1860, Field and bookkeeper Levi Z. Leiter, (1834–1904), became junior partners in the firm, then known as Cooley, Farwell & Company. In 1864, the firm, then led by senior partner John V. Farwell, Sr., (1825–1908), was renamed Farwell, Field & Company. only for Field and Leiter to soon withdraw from the partnership with Farwell when presented with the opportunity of a lifetime.
Mayfair Mall
Mayfair Mall opened in October 1958, featuring more than 70 stores. The mall's original design was a open-air concourse, with Marshall Field's as the northern anchor and Gimbels as the southern anchor. Chicago based Marshall Field's opened at Mayfair in 1959 to complement Gimbels which opened just prior to Mayfair being dedicated. Three east-west corridors (North Mall, Central Park, and South Mall) ran the width of the mall, with each corridor decorated in a different color. The mall's central court also featured a park, which included trees, flowers, benches and picnic tables.