The Story of State Street The Greater State Street Council (GSSC) frequently gets requests for information on the history of the street from students and other people doing research. We suggest the most accurate bodies of information on State Street's past can be found at the Chicago Historical Society, at Chicago's Harold Washington Library Center, and from the United States Department of Interior National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places. The following State Street data comes from some of the Greater State Street Council's 70 year-old files. These fascinating glimpses of the story of the street have been gleaned from handwritten notes, oral histories, carbon and mimeographed documents, records, old press releases, and employees of the council over the years. Serious scholars are urged to use them as a springboard for inquiry, and utilize the old journalistic maxim, "if your mother tells you something, check it out!" HISTORICAL NOTES ON STATE STREET AND EARLY CHICAGO (From circa 1930s GSSC files) State Street, the miracle street of the Western Hemisphere, pauses for a moment this week, the thoroughfare's 100th anniversary, to look back across the years that have led to the street's present eminence. The story of State Street, America's greatest shopping center, is the story of Chicago. Back in Chicago's origin are many destiny shaping incidents to which most historians apparently have paid scant attention. To put one of them startlingly: A political quarrel between two famous American statesman in Washington probably had as much to do with establishing Chicago on the site it occupies as any natural advantages or other considerations When John C. Calhoun was secretary of war for the United States, he was interested in the building of a railroad westward through the Cumberland Gap. Henry Clay, a political opponent of Calhoun, opposed the railroad. From the days of the earliest arrivals, explorers had envisioned a link between the waters of the Great Lakes and the tributaries of the Mississippi. The people of the West were clamoring for inland water transportation and Clay, to spite Calhoun, turned a benevolent eye on their demands. His influence gave impetus to the establishment of the old Illinois and Michigan canals. The federal government in consequence helped the canal project with a large grant of land. The canal commissioners who laid out the canal route ordered the surveying of Chicago and thus located Chicago on its present site. Perhaps the natural development of the country would have brought about the same development. Perhaps an inevitable Chicago might have grown up elsewhere had it not been for the Calhoun - Clay controversy. "Once upon a time," when the world was young, the sea had a strong right arm that reached across the United States and formed a great knuckled fist now called the Great Lakes, through which, scientists tell, ocean tides swept. Subsequently the earth became restive and there came an upheaval after which this arm of the sea lay in a basin of its own. The brimming reservoir thus formed poured its overflow into the Gulf of Mexico through powerful rivers. For ages, the overflow found its outlet through the Mississippi valley. Scientists have determined that the path of the flow followed a rocky trough between Summit and Lockport, Illinois. Chicago and Cook County then rested comfortably at the bottom of Lake Michigan, and much of the prairie land where farmers are now producing crops for the nation. The present channel of the Des Plaines River, now a part of Chicago's drainage system, lay in the arterial path of the lake waters discharging to the west and south. The level of Lake Michigan then, it is estimated, was forty foot higher than it has been within the memory of the oldest Chicagoan. The early French explorers who reached the site of Chicago after a long canoe trip from the Mississippi to the Illinois, to the Desplaines, portaged across the limestone ridge just west of Chicago over which the waters of Lake Michigan had poured in another ago. Just beyond the portage - a mile and a half long except in the rainy season, when it was possible to go most of the way by boat, the explorers found Mud Lake, connecting at its eastern extremity with the Chicago River. The Chicago River then and for many years was a clear, somnolent stream with a sandy bottom. The first settlers fished for trout in the North Branch. Tracing the origins of business that evolved on State Street, the historian goes back to 1790 when Cerais, of the American Fur Company, made the first dress sale. This was a strip of calico sold to the squaws. In 1816, there is record of the fact that John Crofts, agent of a Detroit firm, traded shawls, blankets and beads with the Indians living in the vicinity and made sales also to the whites. From 1817 to 1828, sutlers of the army had dealings in the fashions of the day. In the latter year - John S. C. Hagar, sutler, arrived in Chicago. In 1830, he was succeeded by G.W. Dole, a well known early Chicagoan. The record has it that T.W. Peck established the first dry goods store at LaSalle and Water Streets. What did Chicago look like in that day? As late as July 9, 1836, the inhabitants were offended by "a pool of water on Lake Street at LaSalle, inhabited by frogs." In 1831, the year the general assembly created Chicago as the county seat of Cook County, the first tavern licenses were granted to Elijah Wentworth for $7 and to Samuel Miller for $5. A decree from the court of county commissioners stated that the tavern keepers could charge 12 1/2 cents for a night's lodging. That same year a ferry was established across the branches of the Chicago River at the forks and two county roads were authorized. One was to run "from the town of Chicago, the nearest and best way to the house of Widow Brown, on Hickory Creek." The viewers appointed were James Kenzio, Archibald Clybourne and R.E. Heacock and the projected road was laid out along Sate Street and Archer Avenue. However, the report was rejected. The muddy trail that was to become in a few short decades the greatest shopping center in the United States and one of the magnificent streets of the world, shortly before Chicago became a town was known as State Road. In 1833, the year Chicago was incorporated, a series of official plats was drawn and State Road appears for the first time as "State Street." Original boundaries of Chicago were State Street, Madison, the river and the lake. This area had been known as the Fort Dearborn settlement, later as the reservation. A preliminary meeting to decide whether Chicago should be incorporated was held August 5, 1833 and twelve present voted "yes" to one "no." At the first election of town trustees August 10th, twenty-eight votes were recorded. On November 6th, 1833, the town limits were extended to Jackson Street, Jefferson and Cook, Ohio Street. There was a population of 140, which grew to 250 by the first of the New Year. Charles J. Latrobe, an English traveler, who saw the grand council of Indians held here in 1833, described Chicago as "this little upstart village." The city had no harbor, vessels were anchored in the open lake, Detroit was six days away by road and the village lay along the south side of Water Street and ran west to the forks. William B. Ogden later recalled that there was but one stopping place between Michigan City and Chicago - the home of a Frenchman married to an Indian woman. Houses were cheap, primitive. The tavern where Ogden stayed had partitions that were chiefly upright studs with sheets attached to them. Settlers were arriving from the East and floors of the taverns were covered at night with weary people almost all of them strangers to each other. To accommodate the awakening town, make shift houses were erected in a few days. In 1833 a slough emptied into the Chicago River at the foot of State Street. This was a sort of bayou of dead water through which scows could be run up as far as Randolph, near the corner of Dearborn Street. Early historians say that the town was then served principally by a few stores and a butcher shop, in addition to the taverns. On October 20th of that year, the first sale by public auction showed the value of Chicago property that since has become priceless. A square mile between State and Halsted Streets and Madison and Twelfth Street, then comprising a school section, was sold at an average price of $6.72 per acre and the purchasers took it in on one, two and three year notes yielding 10 per cent. It was not long afterwards that the incoming settlers started a land boom compared with which the recent skyrocketing in Florida land values pales into insignificance. The subsequent collapse flattened the town and Chicago had its first real baptism of empty pockets. When State Street was born, Chicago "walked a mile for a drink." There were wells here and there but careless housewives tossed garbage into the back yard and contaminated the drinking water. In this extremity, the water merchant came into existence. He mounted hogsheads on two wheeled carts, drove into the clear waters of the lake at Randolph Street, filled the containers and then drove about town selling water. It was transferred to the family water barrel with the aid of a leather hose for ten cents a barrel. The water merchants multiplied. Their routes were as well established as the milkman's today. During the spring and fall signs went up everywhere along the streets reading, "No Bottom," "Team Underneath," "Stage Dropped Through." The low-lying marshy ground easily turned into a bog. In fact, citizens had to turn to the police to escape mud holes. It is recorded that Luther Nichols, captain of police, and the proud possessor of several carts and drays, consented to drive Chicagoans here and there in what is now the northeast part of the loop, otherwise they couldn't reach their destinations without being covered with mud from head to foot. The land boom was on and patrons of the taverns slept three to a bed and others slept on the floors as well. The town surveyor, Amos Bailey, proposed that the streets be lowered to drain the town lots into them. "They will then drain into the river," Mr. Bailey declared. His proposal was carried out from Randolph to Water Streets with the result that after rains teams of horses spattered the entire town. Among the first buildings recorded on State Street is a log school that stood at the corner of Wacker Drive in 1833. Most buildings were one story frame homes. Boarding houses early came to State Street and remained until subsequent developments brought in large business houses. In January 1834, Chicago incurred its first financial obligation as a town. Sixty dollars was borrowed to drain State Street and the records show that the loan was secured in the name of the Street. In 1834, Augustin D. Taylor completed the first Catholic Church erected in Chicago at the southwest corner of State and Lake Streets. It was a building 25 fee by 35 feet and was erected for St. Mary's congregation. It was started in 1833, the year the first Tremont house, a 20 feet by 30 feet yellow, two-story structure went up at the Northwest corner of Lake and Dearborn Streets. Chicago records indicate that the last bear to be shot in Chicago's loop was brought down that year in the woods near where La Salle and Adams Streets now intersect. Wild deer, however, were seen in the city limits as late as 1838. Throughout the 1830's, wolves were seen on the prairie and in the clearings. Th proprietor of one tavern frequently would jump on his horse and gallop out on the prairie to kill a wolf he had seen. He used nothing but a hatchet. In 1834, the board of trustees felt it was necessary to improve the town's water supply. This was done by the digging of a town well in Kinzie's addition at the cost of $95.50. Three years later, having passed through a land boom and its collapse, Chicago was in the throws of hard times. The city council was compelled to resort to scrip and issued $5,000 worth in $1, $2, and $3 denominations. Land values, however, despite the collapse were several times higher than when the boom started - many times higher. In 1837, a correspondent of the New York Evening Star who had visited Chicago in 1834, arrived in Chicago for a visit and to his utter amazement found "a population of 6,000" and "where he had walked over the unbroken prairie on his earlier visit, the spacious avenue," he wrote, "is now opened, crowded with carts and wagons." He was astounded to learn that a lot offered him in 1834 for a song had recently sold for $9,000. Those who didn't buy were looking back in those days even as they have all down through the years. One world famous business house established in 1837, the year of the panic and the year Chicago was incorporated, still thrives. Elijah Peacock came to Chicago that year and engaged in his trade of jewelry and watch repairer, a calling his son, C.D. Peacock, born in 1838, continued. The Peacock jewelry establishment on State Street is operated today by the third generation of that illustrious family. In 1838, business conditions were still feeble. When a speaker in town meeting in 1838 enthusiastically predicted that Chicago would grow to a city of 50,000 within the generation of people then living, he was greeted with derisive calls of "town lots." He was one of our first realtors. In 1839 the depression continued. It was heightened by the collapse of the Michigan banks but the citizens of the day did not whimper. They were willing to ride any storm in store for them. Civilization had not pampered them and their personal wants were few and simple. It was 1844 before so called good time had again been firmly established. During the 30's and on through the 40's and into the 50's, the forefathers of State Street had bought their goods in a way that now seems fantastic. Figurines, or Fashion Couriers as they were known, built by German craftsman, were dressed in Paris and London fashions of the day and then dispatched to America. The dummies had their own passports. They were viewed in New York and came on to Chicago. Here the early merchants set them up, inspected them carefully, and if they liked the merchandise ordered it by mail. The Fashion Couriers made a circuit of American cities and, as rapidly as they started back to Europe, new couriers arrived. This procedure made two apparel seasons possible each year. Sportsmen had a merry time of it in old Chicago. In 1841, this notice was published: NOTICE TO SPORTSMEN: "A Wolf Hunt is expected to take place on Tuesday, February 2, 1841 (weather permitting), on horseback. Company to meet at the City Hotel at a quarter before 9 a.m. and there to receive coursing orders. A good turn out is expected." In the early 40's, a great merchant, John V. Farwell, arrived in Chicago, a young man with $3.75 in his pocket. He had worked his passage from the east on a load of wheat. State Street, laid out on June 17, 1839 as sixty feet wide from Madison Street to the Chicago River and so described by the subdivision known as the Fort Dearborn addition to Chicago, on March 3, 1845 by act of the Illinois legislature was provided with a strip sixty feet wide designated to be a part of the street. At the foot of Rush Street in that decade, the city established its first free ferry. Some time later, in the 50's, the city council directed that the ferryman should receive $30 a month for his labor, that he should carry passengers free from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. but night hawks of the town were penalized 5 cents a ride if they wished to cross after 10 o'clock or before 5 in the morning. That ferry was crushed in 1856, replaced by an iron bridge in 1856 costing $54,000 and the bridge collapsed on November 3, 1863 under the weight of a drove of cattle. The wooden structure replacing it burned down during the great fire. In the early 40's, Chicago was mired. When the mud presented too serious a problem to maintain normal business, in the face of it the city acted. From State Street to Dearborn, Lake Street was planked in 1844, probably the first instance of its kind in the city. Five years later State, Market, South and North Clark Street, LaSalle, Wells, East and West Madison - nearly three miles of street-were planked at a cost to the city of $31,000. Subsequently the entire downtown district had to be raised several feet so that the city sewerage system could function properly. On January 1, 1848, the first municipal structure belonging to the city came into existence. This was the Market building on State Street. It fronted 40 feet on Randolph and ran north towards Lake Street a distance of 180 feet. It was a two-story brick and stone affair costing $11,000. The City Council, which had rented its quarters heretofore, had one of the four chambers on the second floor and other rooms were devoted to a library and the city clerk's office. Mention of the 50's stirs the pulse of every student of early Chicago history. Chicago grew from a town on 16,859 in 1847 to 80,000 in 1855 and then multiplied itself by four in the fifteen years following. There were giants - giants of character and resourcefulness - gathering in that decade at the nation's cross roads. In their ranks were a score of merchant princes in the making. Here was a vast, rapidly growing country awakening to many needs. It was inevitable that these men should turn their talents to supplying such needs. This work brought them into State Street around which their work came to center. The founders or pioneers of State Street form a roster of nationally famous names. They include Potter Palmer, Marshall Field, Levi Z. Leiter, Leon Mandel and his brothers Edward Lehmann, Charles D. Peacock, Charles Wellington Partridge, Otto Young, Charles Netcher, Andrew MacLeish, John G. Shedd, Harlow N. Higinbotham, Abram M. Rothschild. One of them was the son of an Albany County, New York Quaker who later attributed his success to his upbringing in the Society of Friends. At 18 he was a clerk in a Greene County, New York store, after which he worked in Oneida, then Lockport, then sought the wider horizons of the west and Chicago. Less than a third of a century later John J. Flinn, Chicago historian, wrote of this Chicago merchant, capitalist, and philanthropist, "To Potter Palmer more than to any living man, is due the present greatness of Chicago." Writing just before the last World's Fair, Flinn declared that Mr. Palmer's counsel, judgement and purse saved the credit of the city time and time again. In the reaction after the Civil War, Palmer stood between Chicago merchants and bankruptcy on innumerable occasions; compelling honorable terms for the hard pressed Chicago businessmen. Marshall Field was no less a giant as a merchant. Field, born in the hills of Conway, Massachusetts, like Palmer clerked in a store. He went to Pittsfield, in the Berkshire Hills, at the age of 17, and out-growing the town in four years, set out for Chicago. Four years of clerking at Cooley, Farwell & Company and young Field became a partner. Presently, during a reorganization, Palmer and he were partners. Here were two men who made as deep an impression on a new metropolis as any men in history and probably for the same reasons - both because of staunch American Standards. Both worked harder than any men they employed. When Chicago passed along into the 60's, Potter Palmer had grown very wealthy as a merchant. He withdrew from Field, Palmer and Leiter after the Civil War for a bit of rest and to give attention to a dream that he had formed. In those days Lake Street still led the town as the dry goods center. Looking into the future Palmer foresaw that State Street possessed greater possibilities. He had a vision of what Chicago may easily become. He also had "the magic touch." Wherefore Palmer bought a mile of State Street property. As simple as that. He knew what he wanted. He always knew what he wanted. He didn't buy all of it at one time but he is known to have owned at least half a mile or more at one time. Thereupon he turned his attention to establishing State Street as a business center. In this, he succeeded perhaps beyond his own dreams. It is highly possible that Mr. Palmer foresaw that transportation would aid him in his plans. In 1858, the first streetcar track had been laid in State Street from Lake to Madison Street. The following Spring it was extended to 12th Street, now Roosevelt Road, and thence on to 19th and 22nd Street. Later on, it would be seen how vital local transportation can be to a growing city. Four little horse cars each drawn by one horse and seating twenty-five persons appeared on State Street in 1859. The streetcars gave State Street an importance Wabash Avenue craved. When he bought State Street property the thoroughfare boasted a width of only sixty feet. Subsequently a movement started to widen State Street from Randolph to Madison Streets. Citizens held the usual meetings, meaningless ordinances were passed, and the town was no closer to a wider State Street than it had been. Potter Palmer carried out the widening single-handed and he did it quietly, unostentatiously. He presented the city with the necessary frontage taken from his own lots to give the street a uniform width. "It was done so quickly and quietly," a chronicler reports, "that the citizens and the city council were taken by surprise. The sacrifice made by Mr. Palmer was a great one. Every foot of the property he so generously gave away for the public good represented a large sum of money. Nobody has ever heard him speak of it however. Only old citizens remember it now (1891). Potter Palmer's generosity made State Street what it is today for if it had not been widened the retail business would have sought an avenue not far away." It was inevitable that Palmer's one time partner, Marshall Field, should become the sole boss of a great establishment whose activities would girdle the globe. It was as inevitable as the growth of Chicago. Field and Levi Leiter parted in 1881 and Mr. Field went on alone. Long before he reached that point, however, the business moved (the 60's) into State Street at its present location. State Street had become Chicago's principal shopping street. Potter Palmer had his Quaker upbringing. Marshall Field had lived a disciplined life from early boyhood. Just as Palmer's character touched everything within the sphere of his operations and extended beyond them so did Field's code help shape the destiny of the city and, reaching out, it touched business of the entire Middle West. We take John J. Flinn's statement in 1891 as authority for the following: "Marshall Field never gives a note; he never bought a share of stock on margin; he never borrows; there is not a dollar's mortgage upon any piece of real estate or other property which he owns; he does business on a cash basis; he buys for cash and sells on shorter time than any of his competitors; he holds his customers to a strict enforcement of their contracts." In the 60's, hitching rings were common on State Street. In the 50's and 60's, the river as the foot of State Street was a rendezvous for all the gay people of the town. Carnivals were held on the ice and the skating rivaled that on the Scheldt in Holland. The young bloods staged horse races with cutters the course lying from the river mouth to Bridgeport. The river had seen some strange scenes in a quarter of a century. Perhaps the strangest had occurred back in 1849. The prairie that winter had been covered deep with snow. A spring freshet tore vessels from their moorings and swept them out into the lake. Back in the 50's, three brothers who came to State Street after the fire were laying the foundations for unusual careers. Simon, Leon and Emanuel Mandel were the young men. Like Palmer and Field, they had unusual character as well as an extraordinary amount of business ability. Thus was State Street enriched. Thus it became a street of great men. Leon Mandel, a Chicagoan of Chicagoans, began life as a cash boy in the dry goods store of Ross & Foster. Subsequently, he formed a partnership with his brother Simon and with Simon Kloin, the firm Kloin & Mandel doing business at Clark and Monroe Streets. Later Emanuel took Kloin's place and the three brothers opened at Clark and Van Buren. They were wiped out twice by fire but troubles failed to bother them much. They came into Washington Street between State and Dearborn in 1874 and the following year removed to 121-23 State Street. E.J. Lohmann, spectacular merchant, born in 1849 in Mecklenberg, Germany, was another early participant in the Chicago business world. Mr. Lohmann began life in Chicago as a bellboy in a hotel. Later he did odd jobs. Then be became a peddler, still later a successful jeweler and ultimately he startled and captivated the town by building The Fair, which was so unusual that people came just to look at the interior of the building as well as to buy goods there. The Fair is now operated by another great merchant, the veteran D.F. Kelly. The Chicago Fire of 1871 probably helped the growth of Chicago and of State Street, more than it injured that growth. While it destroyed miles of property and did $186,000,000 worth of damage and many people lost their lives in the flames, the fire spurred Chicago to do greater achievement. That was especially true of State Street. Potter Palmer had but recently completed a magnificent new hotel on State, near Quincy, the first Palmer House, when it was razed in the general conflagration. Hardly had the ashes cooled before he began rebuilding. He owned land on State Street but it was covered with the debris of buildings he had built. However, his life insurance produced the necessary funds. By day and at night by calcium light, he rebuilt the Palmer House, this time on its present site. It was a sight to light the hope and courage of the town. And so Chicago rebuilt itself, this time on a better basis. The city was invincible, as inevitable as daylight after dark. Mandel Brothers burned. Field and Leiter were burned out, too, and sought refuge in the car barns at 20th and State Streets. Thereafter Mr. Field erected a wholesale house at Madison and Market Streets and occupied it with his retail business as well until the old site at Washington and State Streets had been cleaned off and the retail store rebuilt. Field and Leiter were insured for $3,500,000; they recovered $250,000, just a fraction. Who could have foreseen then that State Street in less than sixty years would have shopping space equal to a 1,000 acre farm, that it would become even before its 100th anniversary a street where in seven short blocks $400,000,000 worth of merchandise would be sold yearly by from 50,000 to 75,000 people. In 1870, the city council had ordered the widening of the street from Madison to Jackson from 70 to 100 feet by condemning 27 feet on the East Side. In this locality, Mr. Palmer bought extensively. In 1875, the widening was continued from Jackson to Harrison Streets and that same year from Harrison to Twelfth. In 1879, it was widened again, this time from 12th to 39th Streets. In 1865, Charles Netcher, founder of the Boston Store, worked in Buffalo for the brothers Partridge as a bundle boy. Netcher was 12 years of age and received $1.50 a week. A few years later the brothers moved to Chicago and brought their bundle boy with them. In 1873, C. W. and E. Partridge gave him an interest in the business and presently he had his own store on State Street. His wife, Mollie, proved a help mate in the business as well as in the home. When Mr. Netcher died in 1904, she carried on and it was she who turned The Boston Store from an old fashioned six-story structure to a seventeen-story building with a million feet of space. Charles A. Stevens who did much to promote better transportation and thus gave State Street aid that will never be forgotten, came to Chicago from Colchester in 1889 and established the first silk house on the present site of the Stevens store. His four brothers joined him in 1902 and ultimately the Stevens establishment turned to ladies wear. Henry C. Lytton, 97-year-old dean of merchants, and founder and president of the State Street store, The Hub, was born in 1846 in New York City, nine years after Chicago was incorporated. He started as an errand boy in a lawyer's office at 50 cents a week. There followed several business ventures -St. Louis, Grand Rapids, and Indianapolis. With savings of $12,000 he came to Chicago in 1887 and established a store at the Northwest corner of State and Jackson. In 1911 he purchased the Northeast corner and built the Lytton Building. State Street was beginning to thrive when Maurice L. Rothschild, State Street clothier, then a boy of 17, started his first store in Seneca, Kansas. He borrowed $2,000 from his uncle. The venture succeeded and he moved to Sabetha in 1885 to Minneapolis in 1886, St. Paul in 1892 and later to Chicago, in 1902. The Minneapolis and St. Paul stores have been continued. In 1866, Andrew MacLeisch joined the retail business of Carson & Pirie, then located at 136 Lake Street. In 1870, the wholesale division was moved to 118-120 State Street. Following the great Chicago Fire of that year, both the wholesale and retail divisions were moved to various locations in what is now the Loop. The wholesale firm name was changed to Carson Pirie Scott & Company in 1875, and the retail in 1890, during which latter year the Wabash and Adams retail store was combined with the State and Washington, moving in 1904 to the present location at State and Madison Streets. A Chronological History 1779 The first pioneer settler of Chicago, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, built the first permanent settlement at the mouth of the Chicago River near what is now the Michigan Avenue Bridge. 1831 A State Road from Vinncennes to Chicago was authorized by the Illinois legislature. The name State Street came from this road, which ran along the eastern boundary of Chicago. State Street is the city's oldest street in nomenclature. 1833 A square mile, the eastern border of which would become the western frontage of State Street, sold at $6.72 an acre. John S. Wright built a log cabin at the present day corner of State and Wacker. The cabin was used as a store and a school. The street's first merchant was John McGavin, who lived at State and Madison and sold lake water to other residents for 10 cents a barrel. State and Wacker was the last outpost for shopping for the thousands of emigrants coming from the east going to government lands in Nebraska, Kansas, and the Dakotas. 1834 Land was valued at $60 an acre. Eager buyers had to add a mortgage on their purchases in order to drain off the mud. Chicago incurred its first public debt of $60 to drain State Street itself. The first church on State Street was erected, St. Mary's Catholic Church at State and Lake. The architect was Augustine Taylor. 1836 State Street appeared on Talcott's map of Chicago. Earlier maps in the Chicago Historical Society show the line of State Street, but do not name it. Later reprintings of some of the maps added the name State Street. 1839 State Street was laid out as a street in the Fort Dearborn addition to the city. 1840 State Street's first hotel was at State and Washington - the Merchants-between 1840 and 1865. That corner was very popular. It was once a marble yard where a man named George Washington Prickett carved out fancy monuments, and it was also the home of the original First National Bank. Later, it became the Reliance Building office building, which in 1999 was renovated to house the Hotel Burnham Chicago. 1844 A lot at State and Washington sold for $500. 1845 The width of State Street was set at 60 feet by the legislature. 1847 Five brick buildings, valued at $8,000, were built between Lake and Randolph. Van Osdel was the architect. 1848 The State Street Market was authorized. It ran 180 feet north towards Lake Street with a frontage on Randolph. The market held the City Council briefly, making it the first government building on State Street. 1849 State Street, along with other streets, was covered with planking. Planking and re-planking continued into the early 1850's. 1851 The first municipal water line was laid on State Street. Palmer House #1 was built at State and Quincy. Van Osdel was the architect. 1855 Grade raising began. The bulk of the work was done between 1855 and 1865, but it continued into the 20th century. The work was associated with the new sewage system, which was ordered in 1855. 1856 The first sewer, made of brick and glazed tile pipe, was laid on State Street. Work continued for several years. 1858 The Chicago City Railway Co. is established to operate a horse drawn streetcar line between Lake and 12th Street (now Roosevelt Road.) This was critical to State Street, because it encouraged the development of a north-south retail axis. Chicago's transit system traces its lineage to the formation of this railway company. 1864 The first State Street bridge over the Chicago River was built. It was wooden and burned in the fire of 1871. 1867 Potter Palmer began to exploit the three-quarters of a mile strip that he had purchased on State Street. It was reported that by the end of the year, he had $600,000 in construction underway. This was at the time the principal retail street shifted from Lake Street to State Street. Land values rose from $500 a foot in 1860 to $2000 a foot in 1869. 1868 Marshall Field built his first "marble palace" on State Street. This was a major breakthrough for Potter Palmer's new retail strip. A proposal was made that the city widen State Street. This occurred later, but at different times. 1867 Carson, Pirie & Company opened on State Street. (They left State Street after the fire and did not return until 1892.) 1870 Palmer House #2 was built at State and Monroe. (Palmer House #3 would be built at the same location.) Van Osdel was the architect. It later became world-famous for its tropical roof garden and the "Garden of Eden" barber shop (owned by Mr. Eden from whence came the name) with 225 silver dollars imbedded in the shop floor. 1871 All of State Street, from Harrison to Lincoln Park, was destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire. 1872 An iron bridge, the second bridge on State Street over the Chicago River, was built after the fire. 1873 C.D. Peacock Jewelry Store opened at 98 State Street. Until 1971, you couldn't buy opals at this famous jewelry store, because founder Elijah Peacock considered them bad luck. 1874 A fire destroyed State Street from Van Buren to Taylor Street. 1875 Ernest J. Lehman opened the Fair Store as a jewelry store on Clark Street, moving it to the corner of State and Adams later in the year. The Mandel Brothers, who had come to Chicago in the 1850's, opened a store at 121-123 State Street. 1881 Construction on a cable car system was begun. 1882 The first ride on a cable car was taken by 1000 people. In their heyday, Chicago had 710 "grip cars," which gripped a cable in a conduit in the street, making it the nation's largest cable system in terms of riders. The term "loop" is coined to refer to the circular routes used so the grip cars wouldn't get snagged on intersecting cables. 1883 State Street was "paved" for the first time with stone (granite) between Jackson and the Chicago River. 1887 The third bridge at State Street was built of steel. 1890 The first part of the Reliance Building was built at 32 North State. Charles Atwood was the architect. 1891 The Siegel, Cooper & Company Building was opened at State and Van Buren. (It served later as the Leiter Stores building, then as Sears and Roebuck. It is now the home of Robert Morris College's Loop Campus.) 1892 The Fair Building opened at the corner of State, Adams and Dearborn. Jenney & Mundie were the architects. The first building of Marshall Field's current structure was built at the northwest corner of Wabash and Washington. Burnham was the architect. Later additions, also by Burnham & Company, were built in 1902, 1906, 1907 and 1914. 1893 The world's tallest building in 1893 was a 22-story structure at State and Randolph-the Masonic Temple. It later became the Central Music Hall, where Flo Ziegfeld Sr. (father of the Follies Flo) was a teacher. 1897 The first extant movie of State Street traffic was made. 1900 The Mandel Brothers store was built at the corner of State and Madison. Holabird & Roche were the architects. 1903 The fourth State Street bridge opened. Like its predecessor, it was steel, but it featured a rolling lift mechanism rather than the swing type that was used before. 1905 The city's first motion picture theatre, owned by Aaron Jones, opens on State Street near Adams. It seated 300, and admission was five cents. 1906 The first electric car on the State Street line ran. 1908 At the turn of the century, so many new annexations were made to the City of Chicago that a definite dividing line on which to base a consistent numbering system was needed. Edward Paul Brennan wrote to the Record Herald June 6, 1901 and suggested State and Madison Streets as the dividing line on which the numbering system should be based. On June 22, 1908 the City Council made State Street the east-west base line of the city's street numbering system and Madison Street the base for the north-south grid. 1912 A new 19 story Charles A. Stevens store opened. D.H. Burnham & Company were the architects. Mandel Brothers built a new 15-story section of their store at 1 - 19 North State. Architects were Holabird & Roche. (Wieboldt's purchased the building in 1960 and opened their first store on State Street. One of Wieboldt's famous spring in-store events was hatching Easter chicks in its display windows. ) 1917 The State-Lake Building opened at 190 North State. It was designed by Rapp and Rapp. The theatre in it had seating for 2800. 1921 The Chicago Theatre opened at 175 North State. Rapp and Rapp designed this theatre to seat 3900. 1925 The Palmer House was rebuilt in stages in its old location. Holabird & Roche were the architects. 1926 The State Street merchants installed the brightest streetlights in the world. President Calvin Coolidge switched them on for the first time. 1929 The stock market crashes on "Black Thursday." The State Street Council (later renamed the Greater State Street Council) was organized. 1933 It was reported on July 30th by the Tribune that the widow of J. Ogden Armour paid $1,000,000 in cash for the northeast corner of State and Madison from the estate of Lady Ethel Field Beatty, daughter of Marshall Field. On October 9th, the 100th anniversary of State Street was celebrated. 1936 Goldblatt's purchased the Davis Store and opened for the first time on State Street on March 13, 1937. 1939 The Fair Store added a new face and two more stories. 1940 Construction began on the State Street Subway. 1942 State Street reopened to traffic after being closed for subway construction. 1943 The first subway ran on October 16th. 1944 Mayor Kelly leads a massive torchlight parade down State Street to recruit war workers. 1945 Major modernization of the State Street strip was announced, with an anticipated cost of $25m. The actual cost (by 1950) rose to $47.7m. Several new stores opened; air conditioning and automatic elevators were added in old stores. 1949 The present State Street trunnion bascule bridge opened and was named the Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Bridge. Meanwhile, in southern Cook County, a shopping center opens in a Park Forrest cornfield, foreshadowing a slow exodus of shoppers and businesses fleeing to the suburbs. 1957 Montgomery Ward purchases the Fair Store Building and opens their first store on State Street. 1958 A new lighting system was put in use. 1972 Maurice L. Rothschild and Company, which opened on State Street in 1905, closed that store in 1972. 1974 The city submitted a grant proposal for a State Street Mall, in order to decrease the time for bus trips and to "enhance the retail environment." Mixed traffic would no longer be allowed. 1977 The Chicago Special Services Area #1 was created on State Street from Wacker to Congress by City Council ordinance, allowing for a special tax assessment and the issuing of bonds to pay for part of the cost of the mall and environmental improvements. A mall commission (The State Street Commission) was also established to advise the Mayor regarding mall business. 1978 State Street was cleared of all but bus traffic and emergency vehicles to begin construction on the mall. 1979 The mall was completed and officially opened on October 29, 1979, financed primarily by $14.2 million in Urban Mass Transportation Administration funding and $3.2 million in bonds to be retired by property owners. 1981 Goldblatt's department store closed on State Street. On October 2, 1981, the Chicago Sun-Times ran an article about the small shops in the Stevens Building on State Street, where "...you can buy a G-string and pasties, with or without tassels, you can have your electric shaver overhauled or your fountain pen fixed; you can buy custom furs or hats, go to secretarial school, arrange a jaunt to Zimbabwe, fit women's size 14 triple-e feet with shoes, or have ballet shoes made while you wait...see a podiatrist or optometrist or dentist or osteopath or a Christian Science Reader..." among other things. 1983 Sears department store closed on State Street. The Palmer House began an $120 million renovation of its interior and Monroe entrance. 1985 Montgomery Ward and Lyttons department stores closed on State Street. Carson Pirie Scott began a $57 million renovation of their store. 1984 The North Loop Redevelopment District is established, which incorporates a three-block portion of State Street from Wacker to Washington. The Greater State Street Council commissioned a study to address and make recommendations in regard to the decline of retailers on State Street. 1986 The Chicago Theatre is reopened; following a dramatic restoration brought about by a public/private partnership, marking the completion of the first North Loop Redevelopment Project on State Street. 1987 Wiebolt's department store closed on State Street. The Greater State Street Council began an annual "Celebrate on State Street" festival to attract new shoppers and tourists. 1988 State and Congress is selected as the new site for the Central Chicago Public Library. Construction begins. The Greater State Street Council publishes the VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF GREATER STATE STREET plan, which makes recommendations for design, transportation, management and marketing initiatives. Marshall Field's began a $115 million restoration of its flagship State Street Store. 1989 The Leo Burnett headquarters building was opened, representing the first new construction project completed on State Street as part of the North Loop redevelopment effort. Charles A. Stevens closes its store. Winners Circle, an off track betting parlor, was opened in the Page Building on State Street. Construction began at State and Wacker for the new $85 million Stouffer Riveria Hotel (which later became the Renaissance Chicago Hotel.) De Paul University purchased the former Goldblatt's building on State Street for renovation. The $65 million project now houses part of the campus and a retail component, the Chicago Music Mart at DePaul Center. 1990 Tucker Companies, who have developed dozens of shopping centers, buy interest in the former 16 story Wiebolt's headquarters on State Street, and sign on major tenants Filene's Basement and T.J. Maxx. 1992 The Loop floods. 1996 The $30 million State Street renovation project is completed, and vehicular traffic returns. The street features subway stations with new Art Deco style entrances, new lampposts based on a circa 1920's design with pedestrian lighting at street level, and new landscaping. 1998 The State Street and Wabash Avenue Loop retail historic district is named to the National Register of Historic Places. 1999 Sears announces its return to State Street.