Lost Chicago Department Stores

by Leslie Goddard

Overview

Within thirty years of the Great Chicago Fire, the revitalized city was boasting some of America's grandest department stores. The retail corridor on State Street was a crowded canyon of innovation and inventory where you could buy anything from a paper clip to an airplane. Revisit a time when a trip downtown meant dressing up for lunch at Marshall Field's Walnut Room, strolling the aisles of Sears for Craftsman tools or redeeming S&H Green Stamps at Wieboldt's. Whether your family favored The Fair, Carson Pirie Scott, Montgomery Ward or Goldblatt's, you were guaranteed stunning architectural design, attentive customer service and eye-popping holiday window displays. Lavishly illustrated with photographs, advertisements, catalogue images and postcards, Leslie Goddard's narrative brings to life the Windy City's fabulous retail past.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467147712
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	01/31/2022
Series:	Landmarks
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	260,675
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Leslie Goddard is an award-winning historian who has been writing and lecturing about topics in American history and women's history for more than twenty years. She holds a PhD in interdisciplinary studies and an MA in museum studies and is the author of several books on Chicago history, including Remembering Marshall Field's (Arcadia Publishing, 2011) and Chicago's Sweet Candy History (Arcadia Publishing, 2012). Audiences in more than thirty states have enjoyed her history presentations, including at the Chicago Public Library, Illinois Humanities Council, Chicago History Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Road Scholars, Victorian Society in America, Questers International and hundreds of libraries, colleges, clubs, civic organizations and Chautauqua festivals.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 5

Introduction 7

1 Marshall Field's: Give the Lady What She Wants 19

2 Carson Pirie Scott: Carson's Is for Me 39

3 The Fair: Everything for Everybody Under One Roof 56

4 Montgomery Ward: Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back 61

5 Goldblatt's: The Incredible Bargain Centers 74

6 Wieboldt's: Where You Buy with Confidence 87

7 Sears, Roebuck: Cheapest Supply House on Earth 99

8 The Competition: Specialty and Neighborhood Department Stores 116

9 Christmas on State Street 133

Epilogue 147

Notes 157

Index 171

About the Author 176