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Jordan Marsh was an American department store chain founded in 1841 by Eben Dyer Jordan and Benjamin L. Marsh. It was headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, and operated throughout New England. The destruction of the historical flagship store on Washington Street in Downtown Crossing, built in 1861 and demolished in 1975, contributed to the creation of the Boston Landmarks Commission. The suburban store at Shoppers' World in Framingham, built in 1951 and replaced in 1993, was a local landmark because of its large exterior dome.
Jordan Marsh was acquired by Hahn Department Stores in 1928, which itself was acquired by Allied Stores in 1935. Allied and competing department store holding company Federated Department Stores were purchased by the Campeau Corporation in 1988, which ultimately resulted in the bankruptcy of both and the consolidation of Allied into Federated in 1992. Federated dissolved Jordan Marsh and converted stores to Macy's in 1996.
A separate Jordan Marsh Florida division was operated by Allied from 1956 until being converted to Burdines in 1991.
As the business grew, the company moved from one location to another. In 1861, Jordan and Marsh decided to begin selling directly to the public. They acquired a brownstone building at 450 Washington Street, in the heart of present-day Downtown Crossing in Boston. After the American Civil War ended in 1865, Jordan and Marsh expanded into nearby buildings, offering an increasing quantity and variety of goods. The partners eventually established the nation's first departmentalized store, calling it Jordan Marsh and Company. During the second half of the 19th century, Eben Jordan's son, Jordan Jr., and George Mitton, a new partner, took over the company, turning it into a modern department store.
In addition to establishing the first department store, Jordan Marsh introduced the concept of department shopping, combining an elegant atmosphere with excellent personal service and a wide range of merchandise. With many different departments displaying wares from around the world, the store drew shoppers from Boston and from the growing . Once at the store, consumers could do more than just shop. Jordan Marsh offered fashion shows, a bakery famous for its blueberry muffins, art exhibitions, and even afternoon concerts.
Jordan Marsh also pioneered new services for shoppers not available in more traditional specialty shops, offering credit, usually in the form of charge accounts. It introduced the customer-is-always right policy, and offered money-back guarantees. Jordan Marsh was implemented new technology, and was one of the first stores to feature electrical lights, display window, telephones, and elevators. It also installed pneumatic tubes that delivered cash and credit information to individual departments.
Following the end of World War II in 1945, Jordan Marsh's management announced that it intended to build a new store in Downtown Boston. Jordan's five older buildings secured a new building, which consumed a full city block. Covering an area larger than Harvard Stadium, it had two stories underground and another 14 that rose into the air. It had the latest technology, including air conditioning, automatic doorways, block-long show windows, and radiant-heated sidewalks.
Shopper's World shopping mall opened in Framingham, Massachusetts on October 4, 1951, and was one of the nation's earliest suburban shopping malls with Jordan Marsh standing at the mall's southern end as its sole anchor. It was the first mall-styled Jordan Marsh in the country and was unmistakable for its large white dome. The dome was visible from the air and was used on aeronautical charts as a visual reporting point for aircraft approaching Boston's Logan Airport. It was reputed to be the third-largest in diameter unsupported dome in the world after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Shopper's World quickly became the most recognizable Jordan Marsh outside its flagship store in Boston. Jordan Marsh also opened a San Diego branch around the same time as the Florida stores in 1956, which occupied the former Sears store in downtown San Diego. The San Diego branch underperformed the Florida branches and was closed in 1958.
The main building of Boston's Jordan Marsh complex, an ornate brownstone edifice with a landmark corner clock tower designed by Nathaniel J. Bradlee in the 1860s, was torn down in 1975, along with its entire row of historic annex buildings. Local architect Leslie Larson founded a coalition called the City Conservation League to try to save the main building, which made way for a low modern brick structure that sits there today as Macy's. Some outraged customers cut up their credit cards in protest of the demolition. The protests and preservationist grassroots efforts led to the creation of the Boston Landmarks Commission.
In 1988, Campeau Corporation acquired Federated Department Stores. To consolidate with Federated, Allied's New York headquarters moved to Cincinnati.
In 1990, saddled by debt resulting from the highly leveraged Campeau takeover of Federated, both Federated and Allied filed for bankruptcy. Campeau Corp. U.S., Inc., was renamed Federated Stores, Inc. The following year, in 1991, the operations of Jordan Marsh Florida and Maas Brothers were absorbed by Burdines in 1991.
In February 1992, a new public company, Federated Department Stores, Inc., emerged, and Allied Stores Corporation was merged into it. A consolidation of the A&S and Jordan Marsh divisions resulted in the A&S/Jordan Marsh division, headquartered in Brooklyn, New York.
In 1998, Macy's discontinued Enchanted Village when it was moved to City Hall Plaza. More recently, it was housed in the Hynes Convention Center.
On June 16, 2009, Enchanted Village, including all its props and figures was sold at auction, after the City of Boston said it no longer could afford to sponsor the annual event. Enchanted Village was subsequently sold to Jordan's Furniture, a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway with no connection to the former Jordan Marsh, and is on display in Avon, Massachusetts during the holiday season.
The economic decline in the Florida market, paired with the financial difficulties Allied experienced during Campeau ownership, contributed to Allied's 1990 bankruptcy and 1992 acquisition by Federated. Jordan Marsh Florida, Tampa-based Maas Brothers, and Burdines were merged into a single division, and all were converted to Burdines on October 20, 1991. Burdines was co-branded as Burdines–Macy's in 2003 and fully converted to Macy's in 2005, and ultimately experienced the same fate as the New England stores.
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