the northern portion of the vincennes trace or vincennes trail, a buffalo migration route and an indian trail which ran some 250 miles to vincennes, indiana, was called hubbard's trace or hubbard's trail since it connected chicago with gurdon saltonstall hubbard's more southerly trading outposts. it took on the name state road after some state-funded improvements. vincennes avenue, one of chicago's rare diagonal streets, is a vestige of the vincennes trace, and further south the trail eventually became illinois route 1. in its early days, state road was unpaved and known for having mud so deep it was jokingly said that it could suck down a horse and buggy. in the late 1860s, potter palmer embarked on efforts to raise the profile and prestige of state street. he enticed marshall field and levi leiter to move their prosperous and growing department store, field, leiter & co., to the corner of state and washington streets in 1868, and he built his own palmer house hotel nearby in 1870. for many years the city's most well-known seafood retailer, burhop's seafood, was located on north state street, as well as the historic chicago theatre. the latter was lit by commercial light company in 1958, making it the brightest thoroughfare in the world, according to the "chicago tribune".