Filene's (formally William Filene & Sons Co.) was an American department store chain; it was founded by William Filene in 1881. The success of the original full-line store in Boston, Massachusetts, was supplemented by the foundation of its off-price sister store Filene's Basement in 1908. Filene's, in partnership with Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, and Shillito's, was an original member of the holding company Federated Department Stores upon its establishment in 1929. Filene's expanded into shopping malls throughout New England and New York in the later half of the twentieth century, and was rivaled by fellow Boston-based department store Jordan Marsh. Federated sold Filene's to The May Department Stores Company, and spun off Filene's Basement into a separate company, in 1988. With this reorganization, the Filene's nameplate replaced the Hartford-based G. Fox & Co. in 1992 and Steiger's in 1994; the store assumed control of the Pittsburgh-based department store chain Kaufmann's in 2002. May itself was ultimately acquired by Federated in 2005; the Filene's brand was retired and most stores were converted into the Federated-owned, Cincinnati-based Macy's nameplate by September 2006. Federated itself was renamed Macy's, Inc., in 2007. The former Filene's flagship store at Downtown Crossing in Boston is listed in the National Register of Historic Places; its current tenants include advertising agencies Arnold Worldwide and Havas Media, and fast fashion retailer Primark. This building was designated as a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission in 2006. History Early history The precursor of the main company was a store opened in 1881 by William Filene. Filene was a German Jewish immigrant from Posen, Prussia (now Poznań in Poland). He immigrated to Boston in 1848. Although William Filene is credited with creating Filene's, it was his sons, Edward Filene and Abraham Lincoln Filene, who expanded the business greatly. Edward and Lincoln were two of the best known businessmen in America and were responsible for converting their father's clothing store into one of the largest department stores in the country. The two sons assumed management of the store in 1891 and inherited the store upon their father's death in 1901; by that the company was known as William Filene's Sons & Company. In 1908 Edward Filene opened the automatic bargain annex or Filene's Basement as a way to sell excess merchandise from the upstairs department store. He also developed an automatic mark-down schedule to reduce the price of merchandise, used thereafter