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Chicago Landmark Lives On

A set of porcelain Marshall Field’s letters will identify one of 15 storefronts along Signs on Main Street.

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Thanks to Olympic Signs Inc. (Lombard, IL), a Chicago icon for more than 150 years will live on at the American Sign Museum. The 10-ft.-high, green, porcelain “Marshall Field” script letters that are so familiar to the Windy City will identify one of 15, life-size storefronts designed for the museum’s “Signs on Main Street” area of its new home.

Marshall Field & Co., or Marshall Field’s, as it was later known, was purchased in June 2004 by May Department Stores Co., only to be acquired by Federated Department Stores two months later. In September of the same year, Federated announced it would replace the Marshall Field name with Macy’s. The decision ended a Chicago tradition that began in 1852, when Peter Palmer opened his first store.

The re-imaging job went to Olympic Signs. The job included the removal of existing signs for six area stores. Guy Dragisic served as Olympic’s project manager, and Ward Peters was the project crew chief.

Once the new Macy’s letters were installed, temporary banners that read “Marshall Field’s” were created and hung to cover up the new image until the official unveiling of the new signs on September 9, 2006. Fortunately for the museum, Bill Pyter, Olympic’s VP and co-owner, saved a set of original letters from the Hawthorne Mall location in Vernon Hills, IL. He donated them to the museum in November 2007, after having heard about the then-proposed new home.

The museum revised the planned streetscape to accommodate a 25-ft. Marshall Field storefront. Some liberties are being taken, however, in incorporating the large-scale letters. Although the original sign read “Marshall Field & Company,” the museum will only used the “Marshall Field” letters so they don’t dwarf the other 14 planned, smaller storefronts, which range from 10 to 15 ft. wide.

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The changeover of the local icon generated much publicity in the Windy City. During removal of the letters at the Orland Park location, a local resident tried to secure her own piece of history. Beth Damas was loading the large, green “M” into her nearby SUV, but before she could drive away, an Olympic employee retrieved the letter and returned it to the shop. The incident was reported on the evening news of a local TV station.

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