Meier & Frank was a prominent chain of department stores founded in Portland, Oregon, and later bought by The May Department Stores Company. Meier & Frank operated in the Pacific Northwest from 1857 to 2006. History Summary Meier & Frank was founded in Portland, Oregon in 1857, and acquired in 1966 by May Department Stores. May operated it as a separate division for nearly forty years, expanding the chain to Utah in 2001, as a result of a conversion of May Company's Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI) stores purchased in 1999. In 2002, May consolidated its operation with North Hollywood, California-based Robinsons-May, but retained the historic Meier & Frank name in the Oregon, Utah, and Washington markets. Federated Department Stores, the parent company of Macy's, acquired May on August 30, 2005. Federated dissolved the former May Company divisions and merged operational control of the Meier & Frank stores with Macy's Northwest. Federated decided to rename the store chains that it had acquired through its takeover of May – including Meier & Frank – as Macy's, and the change took effect about a year later. The final day of operation under the Meier & Frank name was September 8, 2006. (The following year, Federated also changed its own name to Macy's, Inc.) The company's flagship store was the historic Meier & Frank Building. This location later became Macy's at Meier & Frank Square and closed in May 2017. The building was restored with little attention to historical accuracy paid to the interior. The lower five floors and basement were occupied by Macy's, following the completion of the renovation of that part of the building in October 2007. The nine upper floors were converted in 2007–08 to a luxury hotel, The Nines (the name coming from a play on words combining the number of stories the hotel occupies with the idea of spiffy dress). Founding - late 1800s In 1857, Aaron Meier (1831–1889) arrived in the Oregon Territory at the age of 26 and opened a mercantile store at 137 Front Street in Portland, which had a population of 1,300. He had come to California from Bavaria during the Gold Rush, spending time as an itinerant peddler in Southern Oregon. He formed a partnership with a Mr. Mariholtz and began selling merchandise that arrived by steamer from San Francisco and in the covered wagons rolling along the Oregon Trail. Ten years later,