State Street

In 1860, when State Street was just an unpaved, mud road it was hard to imagine that it would be as famous as it is today. However, with the revitalization efforts of Potter Palmer, Marshall Field, and Levi Leiter, State became Chicago's shopping center by the early 1900s. 

This video, taken in 1897, captures the popularity of this area of downtown Chicago, often considered the "busiest corner in Chicago". Crowded with men and women in elegant clothing, walking, riding carriages or streetcars, it is clear who the shoppers were: men and women of 'high society,' who could afford the new department stores that dotted State Street. 

In July 1897, State street was home to four major department stores:

- Mandel Bros, founded in 1855. The store found at the same corner in this video was opened in the 1880s, employing 800 people. By the shopping boom in the early 1900s, it employed over 3,000 people. 

- Carson Pirie Scott & Co., housed at the corner featured in this video. In 1897, the building was being remodeled for dry-goods merchant Schlesinger & Mayer, who ran out of money by the time it was finished in 1904. Carson Pirie Scott moved in shortly after, and employed 1,000 men and women.

- The Fair, founded in 1875 by Ernest J. Lehmann. Often considered the city's first department store, the State street building was one of the largest stores and one of the largest employers in the city by the 1910s.

- Marshall Fields & Company, arguably one of the most famous department stores in the city. In 1881, its State and Washington streets store employed 3,000 people, with annual sales reaching $30 million. In 1907, a new and improved store on State street was one of hte largest retail spaces in the world.