Although the official corporate name of the retail entity based in this building had been Marshall Field & Company ( nicknamed Marshall Field 's ) from 1881 until 2006 , the store has had five different names since its inception in 1852 as P. Palmer & Co . In 1868 , after bowing out of involvement in day-to-day operations with his new partners of Field , Palmer & Leiter , Potter Palmer convinced Marshall Field and Levi Leiter to move the Field , Leiter & Co. store to a building Palmer owned on State Street at the corner of Washington Street . After being consumed by the " Great Chicago Fire " and splitting the wholesale business from the retail operations , the store resumed operations at State and Washington in a rebuilt structure , now leased from the Singer Sewing Machine Company . In 1877 another fire consumed this building , and when a new Singer Building was built to replace it at the same location in 1879 , Field then put together the financing to purchase it . The business has remained there ever since , and it has added four subsequent buildings to form the integrated structure that is now called the " Marshall Field and Company Building . " Chicago 's retailing center was State Street in the famous downtown " Loop " after the " Great Chicago Fire " of 1871 , and this center has been anchored by Marshall Field 's and its predecessor companies in this building complex . However , commuter suburbs began to have significant retail districts by the 1920s . In the 1920s , the store created new suburban locations such as Marshall Field and Company Store to remain competitive . After 1950 , with the booming post-World War II economic/social climate with increasing suburban residential and commercial development , saw the construction of first " strip " shopping centers , followed by regional enclosed shopping malls along major thoroughfares and interstate highways such as the " Magnificent Mile " reduced the role of the " Loop " 's daily significance to many Chicagoans as downtown retail sales slipped and gradually additional business moved outward following first the streetcar lines and then the automobile . Eventually , there was an influx of stores from other parts of the country as the pace of commercial retailing merged , consolidating , and spreading first regionally then nationwide . Nonetheless , the Marshall Field and Company Building has survived at this location . However , with the merger and conversion to Macy 's the emphasis of the store changed and store-branded lines replaced many designer labels , such as Dolce & Gabbana , Prada , Miu Miu and Jimmy Choo , which led to the disassembly of several designer departments of the former Field 's ( see picture below )
Great Chicago Fire
Great Chicago Fire
Marshall Field and Company Building