Leiter Building II, Siegel-Cooper Building, Sears Roebuck & Co. Building
Life Span: 1891-Present
Location: State and Van Buren Streets
Architect: William Le Baron Jenney
- Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1904
Siegel, Cooper & Co. Henry Siegel pres; Frank E. Vogel 1st v pres; Isaac Keim 2d v pres; Joseph Basch sec; dry goods State, Congress and Vanburen
Leiter Building II
About 1892
Inter Ocean, September 18, 1891
In all human probability Siegel, Cooper & Co. will occupy the great structure on State street, between Van Buren and Congress streets, now being completed by L. Z. Leiter. For six weeks past negotiations have been in progress between the parties for the leasing if the building, but so quietly did they work that until yesterday not a word had leaked out.
Orders have been given to the contractors at work on the building to complete the structure as one large store, and push the work to completion as rapidly as possible. Siegel, Cooper & Co. must have possession by March 1 next, as the lease under which they occupy the new store of Alexander H. Revell & Co., at the northeast corner of Wabash and Adams street expires then.
- Leiter Building II
Chicago Tribune, April 5, 1903
- Shortly after the Victor Talking Machine Company was organized, Siegel Cooper was one of the first retailers to offer their machines in their stores. Victor Talking Machine Company became RCA Victor in 1929.
Inter Ocean, March 6, 1892
Chicago Tribune, March 30, 1902
- Siegel Cooper
1905
Chicago Tribune, February 1, 1920
By Al Chase.
Chicago-the home of the largest department store in the world and also the tallest store building in existence—is going to have the most novel and lowest priced merchandise mart of any big city—it predictions of its backers some true.
Within four weeks the eight story building in South State street, between Van Buren and Congress streets, which for twenty-live years or more housed Siegel, Cooper & Co., will reopen its doors as “The Leiter Store,” a full fledged, up to the minute city department store it will appear to the casual visitor—but with innovations that will make even the jaded State street shopper take notice.
This Way for Po’k Chops.
For instance, if Mrs. Dearborn 1s looking for pork chops she, will be directed down the big, wide stairway cut in the center of the main floor to the basement, where the entire 68,000 square feet of floor is to be devoted to food products. But instead of finding merely a meat market with pork chops selling at one price, and that might be a cent or two higher than she could buy at some other store, she will find twelve— yes, one dozen – meat mar-kets, each owned and operated by different companies, stretched along the side of the big room for 400 feet. With twelve meat markets to choose from in one room, it looks as though Mrs. Dearborn ought to get those po’k chops at a fairly reasonable price. For they will all be competing for Mrs. Dearborn’s trade.
This competitive idea will be carried out throughout the entire big basement food market. There will be fifteen fruit and vegetable firms competing with each other. At the south end there will be a restaurant.
She’ll Probably Carry ‘Em.
If Mrs. Dearborn bought those po’k chops she’ll pay cash for them and probably carry them along with her, for free delivery has been sacrificed for lower prices. If she wants them ant it will cost her a minimum of 10 cents.
When she gets back to the first floor sell notice that instead of a center asle north and south and smaller east and west cross aisles, the store is divided by long, wide north and south aisies. On this floor all the ordinary Tines of merchandise carried on the ground floor of department stores will be shown, but only one company has been allotted to sell each line. On the second floor will be various concerns selling women’s merchandise. The third will be called the men’s floor. House furnishings will occupy the entire fourth. There will be a restaurant the fifth, and the balance of that door will be devoted to furniture.
The sixth, seventh, and eighth will be given up to a brand new feature in department store merchandising, it is calmed, which will be made public later.
Enter the Brothers Doerr.
When Siegel, Cooper & Co. closed their doors May 1, 1917, Joseph Leiter began a search for tenants. He combed the country from coast to coast. No one wanted so much space. Later the government used part of the building for thirty-nine days and sold over $1,000,000 worth of supplies, with every dollar’s worth “cash and carry.”
And then two Chicagoans, Albert I. and George W. Doerr, took their cue from Uncle Sam and also a suggestion from the Bon Marché in Paris. They laid their plans before Mr. Leiter. He put a prompt. O. K. on them. On March 1 the result will be made public.
Listen to the composite description of the project as told in a dialogue interview with the two brothers.
- Eighty-seven Departments.
We are going to have eighty seven departments,” they said, “and 200 separate concerns will operate them. We’ve received 1,220 applications to date, and about 15 per cent are manufacturers who will sell direct. For instance, a pickle maker is going to have a pickle shop. A baking powder manu-Licturer will have a little store of his own for his products. Twenty per cent will be small merchants, and about 40 per cent will be middle grade mer-chants.
There will be no so-called rentals. Each applicant for space will be assigned a location, and at the end of the first month he will pay & certain percentage of his gross profits to the Leiter estate. It will range from 5 to 10 per cent. His heat, lights, janitor service, and other incidentals will be furnished him free, so you can see his overhead will be so light that he can figure to a cent the profits on his goods, and mark them much lower than the outside shopkeeper.
No Bargain Tables.
And listen to this—there’ll be no bargain tables. The windows will be open to view from the store as well as the street, with a wide aisle running along inside by the windows. Each department owner will be allotted space at certain times for window display. There will be an advertising fund, to which every firm has got to subscribe and we’re going to go the limit on advertising the new store. It’ll be the biggest fund on State street.
A motor service company has the delivery concession, and each customer will pay a direct charge to it for de Ivery. But we figure that 75 per cent of our customers will carry their own purchases home. The store hours are going to be from 8 to 6.
Each lessee, and leases will run from one to five years, will put in his in counters and shop fixtures, all subject to approval of the store superintendent to insure uniformity.
Courtesy Promised.
We think one of the biggest points in our plan is that the shopper gets the conveniences of the city department store with the personal responsibility of the small town store. For in most cases the buyer will come in direct contact with the owner of the department and of course should get better attention and more courtesy than from an uninterested clerk.
And maybe if the Messrs. Doerr’s promises of a combination of low prices with courteous treatment come true in Chicago’s big new merchandise mart, both Father Dearborn and the missus may find a new way to hit old HI Cost a darned good wallop.
Chicago Tribune, March 27, 1921
Chicago Tribune, November 15, 1931
By Al Chase.
Approximately the $900,000 is to be spent, it is understood, and work supplied for 750 men in the remodeling and modernizing of the old time eight story Siegel, Cooper and later Leiter stores, at State and Van Buren, into a great downtown merchandise emporium for Sears, Roebuck & Co., it was announced last night by L. B. De Witt, manager of construction for the big mail order concern. This is the first official statement regarding the rebuilding plans made public since the property was leased for 20 years from the Leiter estate last month. The new store is expected to be open early next spring.
As announced by Robert E. Wood, president of Sears, Roebuck & Co., at the time the lease was signed, the old building is to be made into one of the most modern of department stores. Mr. DeWitt said:
- The building will be so completely altered that no one familiar with the stores housed there will recognize it when it opens as a Sears-Roebuck unit. The store will also be, in a sense, something new for the Sears-Roebuck organization. It will be different in many respects from any store in the company’s retail system.
- Leiter Building II
1932
New Show Windows.
Extensive alterations will be made to the entrances and show windows. The Van Buren street entrance and the State street entrance nearest Van Buren will be considerably enlarged. Black granite and white metal arranged in modernistic pattern will be used on the entrances and show windows. The windows in the upper stories are being changed to provide show windows opposite the elevated platforms on Van Buren street.
New floors are being built and terrazzo will be used in the basement and on the first floor. New elevators and elevator enclosures will be installed, white metal to be the prevailing material. The ceiling of the first floor will be lowered and redesigned.
The color scheme of the architectural treatment on the first story will be black and white pastel tints in polychrome for plaster decoration. The black and white will be represented in black marble and white metal. The basement and other floors will be done in various tones of enamel and pastel tints for wall decoration.
New Ventilation System.
An entire ne ventilation system will be installed and the building will be completely rewired for the accommodation of the more modern lighting fixtures.
The arrangement and equipment of the interior of the store is being done under the supervision of the national display division of Sears, Roebuck and some of the plans have resulted from a series of experiments extending over a period of about two years.
Most revolutionary in the fixture arrangement of the store will be the elimination of unnecessary islands and ledges so that an unobstructed view of the entire floor may be had from any point on the floor. Ledges will be used only to define departments. Each department will have its own color scheme which will be carried through even to the carpets.
Men’s Store on First Floor.
The south half of the first floor will be a men’s store and will house men’s clothing and furnishings department and in addition the numerous divisions of the sporting goods department. A golf club and a hunting lodge will be erected at the rear of the first floor. The north half of the first floor will contain the conventional departments found on department store main floors, but specialty shop principles will be applied to the various divisions both in the arrangement and the scope of the merchandise.
On the large mezzanine balcony will be established spacious restrooms which also will be decorated in the modern manner. Among special service departments that will be located on the mezzanine balcony and also in other parts of the store are beauty parlors, barber shops, a shoe repair shop, a flower shop, a pet store, and a number of specialty shops. A women’s ready to wear salon will cover almost the entire second floor. There will also be a linen shop.
Award General Contract.
The third floor will include a lrge number of home and electrical equipment departments, including radios, kitchen equipment of all kinds, curtain and window shade shop, and here factory demonstrations of various mechanical merchandise will be conducted every day. Special instructors will be busy with classed every day on the second floor in a home craft shop, where women may take courses in almost every branch of the domestic arts and crafts.
One of the most interesting innovations of the new store will be the third floor, where furniture and home furnishings will be displayed in several series of model rooms.
The A. J. Jackson company of this city has been awarded the general contract. It has ton date awarded sub-contracts for ornamental iron work, plastering, sheet metal windows and hollow metal doors, freight elevators and iron doors, glass and glazing, cement and asphalt tile floors, granite, tile partitions, revolving doors, structural steel, electric wiring, sprinkler system and ventilating system. Seven contracts are yet to to be let.
Mundie & Jensen architects for most of the plans for the remodeling. Nimmons, Carr & Wright, architects represented Sears, Roebuck & Co. Work has already started.
Chicago Tribune, March 4, 1932
One more mercantile establishment entered the great State street field yesterday when the new Sears store was opened to the shoppers swarming about its doors. From 10 o’clock in the morning when City Controller Szymczak snipped a ribbon across the main entrance until 9 last night the emporium was the center of thousands who came to see and remained to shop.
Happily pushing and shoving, the crowd gazed admirably at the floral pieces, speculated audibly upon the number of employés who had gained salaried jobs, sniffed approvingly of the odorously new stocks, and bought with a will. Manning the counters and policing the aisles were 1,350 sales people and department heads.
Ceremony Is Brief.
There was a brief dedicatory ceremony at the main entrance on State street before the doors were opened, but there was no attendant fanfare in the way of souvenirs, special sales, or orchestra music. Eighteen pages of advertising had announced opening, without a single mention of price, in line with the policy of the executives to show the public the store as it will be day by day.
Both Gov. Emmerson and Mayor Cermak sent messages of congratulation. The former was represented by Speaker David Shanahan of the state house of representatives, and the latter by Mr. Szymczak. Lessing Rosenwald, who announced his father, the late Julius Rosenwald, as chairman of the board of Sears, Roebuck & Co., replied to their expressions of good will, on behalf of the firm, and handed Mr. Szymczak the scissors with which he cut the ribbon.
Twenty Police Handle Crowds.
Immediately the spectators waiting in the streets charged the doors. There was a stampede in which the twenty police detailed especially to handle the crowd bobbed about helplessly. The store continued jammed solidly until past midafternoon, when it thinned somewhat.
Last night store officials announced that a few more than 151,300 persons had passed through the doors during the day.
Although a preview had been given the day before to prominent business men of the State street area, most of the well-known merchants drifted back again yesterday to see the opening and tender best wishes in person.
Sears Flagship Store Grand Opening
May 3, 1932
1933 brochure promoting the new Sears State Street Store during the Century of Progress.
Leiter Building in 1963 as the Sears State Street store
Chicago Tribune, October 30, 1982
Sears, Roebuck and Co. will close its flagship department store on State Street next spring (April 3, 1983), and the structure will be remodeled into an office building under a different owner, officials announced Friday.
Sears, which for several months had been rumored to be preparing to abandon the big retail store in the south end of the Loop, joins Goldblatt Bros., Inc. and Montgomery Ward and Co. among major retailers closing stores on State Street.
There will be no Sears store downtown after the closing. Sears has six other stores in the city.
Ira Bach, Mayor Jane Byrne’s director of development, made the announcement at a City Hall news conference. He was joined by officials of Sears.
Everett L. Buckhardt, manager of Sears’ Chicago retail merchandise group, said the store will remain open until spring, when ownership will transfer to the Anvan Realty and Management Co. of Lombard.
The huge store, with 46 merchandising departments, has been losing money for seven years, according to another Sears spokesman, but the company would not say how much money. A retailer outside Sears estimated the store’s annual sales at $30 million to $40 million.
The Sears building, constructed in 1891, is on the national register as a national historic landmark.
Buckhardt said the decision to close the store, long an anchor in the South Loop, was strictly financial.
“We were an island unto ourselves,” said Buckhardt. He said the closing of Goldblatt’s earlier this year placed Sears two blocks away from the other retailing giants on State Street.
“That part of the South Loop has not been viable for our business,” he said.
In addition to the closing of Goldblatt’s due to financial problems, Wards announced earlier this year it will demolish its existing building on State and Adams Streets and construct a new high-rise office tower. That building will retain some retail operations in the lower floors.
Bach said that the closing of three major retailing stores on State Street does not mean the Loop area is dying. Rather, he said, it reflects the changing business face of the Loop, with retailing being replaced by business offices.
Jack Cornelius, executive director of the Chicago Central Area Committee, a business advisory group, said he is certain that Marshall Field and Co. and Carson Pirie Scott and Co. will continue as Loop anchors on the north end of State Street.
Leiter Building
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
1906
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