Carson, Pirie & Co.
Life Span: 1865-1871
Location: 20 Lake street, 118-120 State Street
Architect: Unknown
Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1866
Carson, Pirie & Co. (Samuel Carson, John T. Pirie, George Scott and Robert Scott), whol. dealers in dry goods, notions, etc. 20 Lake
Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1870-71
Carson, Pirie & Co. (John F. Pirie, George and Robert Scott, and Andrew McLeish), dry goods, 118 and 120 State
Chicago Tribune, August 20, 1866
About daybreak yesterday (Sunday) South Water street was again visited by a terrific conflagration, one of a few more destructive character than even the records of that fiery locality can show for several years past. The loss of property is estimated at not far from half a million dollars, and involves the destruction of a large tobacco manufactory, a wholesale grocery establishment, a wholesale drug store, with several stores which have sustained material damage.
About half past four o’clock, some time before the alarm was sounded from the Court House, the residents in the vicinity of South Water street and Michigan avenue were startled by the cries of fire from several individuals in the street, At the same time a dense volume of smoke was seen to issue from the tobacco factory of Messrs. Van Horn, Murray & Coy, Nos. 37 and 39 South Water street. The fire appeared to proceed from the rear portion of the building, on the second floor, and the supposition is that it originated in the engine room. Very soon the flames made their appearance at rear windows looking into the alley between South Water and Lake streets, and ere the alarm was given the fire had already made considerable headway. When the department arrived the flames were raging from front to rear, while the street was filled with the stifling fumes of tobacco smoke from the monster pipe which had just been lighted.
The building is part of that large five-story block extending on South Water street from Wabash to Michigan avenue, and half way from South Water to Lake street, a narrow alley running between the two streets. It was in this alley that the flames seemed to rage the most vigorously at the onset. The rear windows were nearly all protected by fire-proof iron shutters, but such was the fierce of the conflagration that they were all burst open, letting the flames blaze forth at every window. From the alley to Water street, and from roof to basement, the whole premises were speedily permeated by the destroying element. The partition walls gave way, the roof fell in and the havoc was now fairly begun. The supply of water was very inadequate to the occasion, but had it been three times as plentiful very little could have been accomplished toward suppressing the fire.
The wholesale grocery establishment of G. & C. W. Church & Cady, No 41, was the next to fall a vicytim. The third, fourth and fifth stories were speedily undergoing a similar process to that of the the adjoining building, and after that came the wholesale drug store of Tolman, Pinkham & Co., No. 35, which shared the same fate. In the two last named stores, the work of destruction was not so complete as in the tobacco factory, which was entirely gutted, only the front and rear walls of which, with a portion of the inside partition walls, were left standing, and these in a very shaky condition. Not a particle of the stock could be saved, in fact it was a matter of impossibility to approach the buildings, as the whole street was like a furnace, and caused many people in the vicinity to quite their rooms.
At an early stage of the calamity, the flames crossed the alley to the block which fronts on Lake street, and caught through the upper windows of Carson, Pirie & Co.’s wholesale dry goods store, which contained a valuable stock. Then it seemed as if the whole of the two immense blocks would fall a prey to the flames. The iron shutters on both sides of the alley were bent, and almost shriveled up like scrolls of parchment. By the efforts of the fire brigade, however, the fire in the Lake street block was soon put down, although the greater portion of the stock was destroyed or damaged by water.
The fire raged from half-past four till nearly nine o’clock, by which time the whole of that portion of the block extending from No. 35 to No. 43, was left in ruins. The thin shell of a wall bulged out on the street as if it would topple down on the heads of the people below, and the interior, particularly in the premises pof Van Horn, Murray & Coy, had all caved in.
The origin of the catastrophe could not be ascertained yesterday with any accuracy. No one was on the premises at the time, and, when the workmen left the factory on Saturday, everything appeared to be right. It is conjectured to have arisen from something defective in the engine-room which was located on the second floor near the rear of the premises. The watchman, it is said, was not on duty, having gone from the city for the holiday.
The Losses.
The following is a statement of the losses and insurance so far as could be ascertained yesterday. It is far from complete as to the latter in particular, owing to the difficulty of obtaining information from the insurance companies, whose offices, of course, were all closed. The estimate given of the losses is as near as could be given by the sufferers themselves, and from a survey of the ruins.
The stock of Van Horn, Murray & Coy was valued at $140,000. It was all destroyed. The building is owned by Hon. I. N. Arnold, and by Myer & Fuller, and was valued at $50,000. The stock is insured in various Insurance Companies to the extent of $101,600. Myer & Fuller had an insurance on their building of $3,000 in the Mutual Security, which expired last week and was not renewed. The actual extent of insurance on the building we have not been able to ascertain.
The stock of Church & Cady was valued at $200,000. Of this about $120,000 worth has been destroyed. A considerable portion of the stock was only partially destroyed. The building, which is owned by the firm, was damaged to the extent of $20,000, and is insured for $18,000. The stock is insured for $85,000.
Tolman, Pinkham & Coy’s wholesale drug store contained a stock valued at $100,000. The damage sustained by water and fire will reach about $50,000. The building which is owned by Cornelius Price, and valued at $30,000, is not so much injured as the others. The loss will not exceed $5,000, and is fully covered by insurance.
The wholesale grocery store of Smith Brothers, next to that of Church & Cady, on South Water street, sustained some damage by the water. Probably $1,000 will cover the loss, which is fully covered by insurance.
The wholesale dry goods store of Carson, Pirie & Co., No. 20 Lake street, was a heavy sufferer by the fire. Only the fifth story was in flames, but the whole of the premises, from top to bottom, was thoroughly drenched with water, and the contents all, more or less, destroyed. The loss on stock is estimated at $75,000, which is covered by insurance.
Jewett & Butler, No. 18 Lake street, a hardware store, sustained damage by water to the amount of $5,000. Fully insured.
Whitney Brothers & Co., boot and shoe makers, No. 22 Lake street, sustained a loss of about $1,000. Insured.
Van Horn, Murray & Coey employed in their factory upwards of forty young women, who will thus be thrown out of employment until the firm can resume operations, which they expect to do within a few weeks, as soon as new machinery can be set up.
Location of Carson & Pirie’s wholesale store at 20 Lake street from 1864-1866. Map is from 1862.
Chicago Trbune, January 29, 1868
The city was visited by two destructive conflagrations last evening, so nearly together that they were by many mistaken for the same fire, or rather one as the result of the other. The intersection of Lake street and Wabash avenue was the centre of a sweeping visit from the fire-fiend, unparalleled, in the magnitude of the operations and extent f the losses covered, by any destructive fires which have ever been witnessed in our city.
The first fire broke out about 7 o’clock in the evening, in one of the upper stories of Burch’s iron block, on the southwest corner of Lake street and Wabash avenue. It was at first thought that the destructive could be confined to comparatively narrow limits, but almost before the engines had been put in position, the broad sheets of flame shot shot out voluminously from windows and roof, and ere another quarter of an hour had elapsed the whole building seemed to be wrapped in one vast mass of flame, the lurid crest of the huge pyramid seeming to reach to the skies, and to kill off the stars with its overwweening glare.
It soon became evident that Burch’s Block was not the only one doomed to destruction. The flames swept westward, now flickering playfully along the roof, and then swelling out in a mammoth intensity from out the noble pile of wholesale structures stretching to Lake street. Not even here did its insatiate fury rest; heavy tongues of flame shot out across the street, and the mocking demon had enfolded in his embrace the outworks of the structures which form the northern front of Lake street. The signs and cornices were burned off quickly, and it was only by great exertions that these buildings were saved from general ruins.
Origin of the Fire.
The fire was first observed in the fifth story of Nos. 39 and 41, occupied with other numbers by McDougal, Nichols & Co. as a boot and shoe manufactory. This was directly over the bookstore of S. C. Griggs and Co. How it caught fire it is impossible to tell; it was asserted that there was no legitimate light on that floor at the time, but it could not be ascertained last night that no one was there unauthorizedly. So quickly was the whole building wrapped in flames that o time was given to verify this particular.
Diagram of the Locality of the Two Great Fires
The Second Fire.
While the above fire was still at its height, tongues of flame were seen to shoot up almost simultaneously from the rear, near the roof, and from the basement of Carson, Pirie & Co.’s wholesale dry goods establishment, No. 20 Lake street, almost immediately opposite. This was about twenty minutes to 9 o’clock, and about the same time that the first walls fell in on the other side of Lke street. Amid the smoke and confusion the fact was not at once noticed by the department, whose energies were only too severely taxed already, and whose efforts on another subject could be ill spared. Hence it was some time before that was attended to, and the second conflagration had soon gained a fearful headway.
The origin of the second fire is a question, the buildings being somewhat removed from the first scene, and the flames appearing to some looking on, to leap up sudddenly from the basement. Two gentlemen who were standing on the grating of Carson, Pirie & Co., saw large live cinders flying about them, and looking down through the grating saw that it was all fire below.
It was rumored that this firm had said a few days before that they would soon have to fall and go into bankruptcy.
There was much complain of lack of water. One length of pipe carried up to the second story of No. 20 Lake street was brought down again, it being Impossible to force water up there, and another pipe carried to the rear of Burnhams & VanSchaack’s ceased playing because no water would come. This was probably due as much to freezing and to bursted hose as to actual scarcity of water, though it is not surprising if there was a difficulty in feeding all the steamers with the immense volume of water required.
The buildings burned were the following:
- First Fire:
Nos. 39, 41, 43 and 45 Wabash avenue.
Nos. 33, 35, 37, 39 and 41 Lake street.
Second Fire:
Michigan ave—One No.
Lake street—Nos. 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 and 22.
Twenty numbers, or five hundred feet of front, besides side frontage not reckoned.
All totally destroyed.
Twenty-two firms were ejected by the two fires.
The total loss was about…$2,070,000
Total insurance about…$1,486,000
Chicago Tribune, January 30, 1868
THE LATE FIRE—CARSON, PIRIE & CO.
In our report of the late fire on Lake street, the fallowing paragraph was accidentally inserted:
- The origin of the second fire is a question, the buildings being somewhat removed from the first scene, and the flames appearing to some looking on, to leap up sudddenly from the basement. Two gentlemen who were standing on the grating of Carson, Pirie & Co., saw large live cinders flying about them, and looking down through the grating saw that it was all fire below.
It was rumored that this firm had said a few days before that they would soon have to fall and go into bankruptcy.
This rumor was pretty extensively circulated in the crowd on the night of the fire, but was nevertheless wholly unfounded. The construction of the building which they occupied fully accounts for the fire which broke out in the basement. An enormous skylight in the roof was the only protection of their stock of goods against the cataract of cinder which fell from the conflagration of the Burch Block. From this skylight, which was there was broken by a falling ember, there was an open space or “well” through all the floors, to the cellar. When the skylight was demolished the cinders fell in a shower into all parts of their building—the larger portion. of course, lodging in the basement. Hence, the fire seemed to break out in their store without any ostensible cause.
Mr. Warren, the agent of the London & Liverpool Insurance Company, and Messrs. Moore and Stearns, the underwriters of Messrs. Carson, Pirie and Co., not only regard the rumor in question groundless and injurious, but inform us that the unfortunate firm had voluntarily cancelled $10,000 of their insurance a few days before the fire occurred. Moreover both Mr. Caron and Mr. Pirie are absent from the city, the former in Europe and the latter in New York. The credit of the firm stands high, and especially so with tho insurance companies who have taken their risks. The Liverpool & London, one of the best managed institutions in the world, has insured Messrs. Carson, Pile & Co. during the entire period of their existence as a firm, and have entire confidence in their integrity and solvency.
Chicago Tribune, November 29, 1868
FOUR PLAINTIFFS AND FOUR LAWYERS,
Some nine months ago a fire occurred on Lake street, in this city, at a late hour of the night, and among other firms burned out was that of Caron, Pirie & Co. One of our reporters caught up and embodied in his report saying rumor which some people might regard as injurious to this firm, and accordingly on the following day we published, unsolicited, a full and ample correction of it. In due time we were served with notice that Carson, Pirie & Co, had brought an action of libel against us, saying their damages at $50,000, and had retained no less than four lawyers to prosecute us viz., Henry G. Miller, John Van Arman, H. L. Lewis and Robert Hervey. This had a formidable look certainly; but we were used to that sort of thing, and we concluded not to pay the $50,000 down, but to save the interest on the money until the end of the suit.
The four lawyers went at it, and after several months of severe labor brought in a declaration alleging that we had charged the firm of Carson, Pirie & Company with arson, to their damage to the amount of $50,000, sad so forth. The case was reached few days ago in its place on the docket. We submitted to the learned Judge that we could not have injured the firm of Carson, Pirie & Company to the amount of $50,000, or any other sum, in the manner alleged, inasmuch as the crime of arson could not be committed by a firm; if committed at all it must be by an individual. Without waiting to hear the decision of the Court on this point the four lawyers quashed the joint product of their labors, and retired incontinently from the halls of justice.
But they have returned to the charge. On Friday last we were served with notices of four separate suits, viz., one by Samuel Carson, one by John T. Pirie, one by Robert Scott, and one by George Scott, claiming $25,000 apiece, making & total sum of $100,000. We have decided not to pay this sum of money, upon the same ground as that we decided not to pay the original $50,000. But we have a few words of advice to give to the plaintiff, for which we charge nothing. We advise them to employ four lawyers apiece, making sixteen in all, and to select the other twelve from students in the University of Chicago, who are fresh from their books, and who may be supposed to know that arson cannot be committed by a firm, any more than murder or rape. We suggest, also, that they retain the services of Samantha Procter as consulting counsel. This persevering female has been litigating in most of the courts of Cook and Lake Counties some years, trying to draw a declaration. In all her practice she bas never been known to quash one of her own declarations, and she has finally succeeded in drawing one that was not quashed by the Judges. With her assistance the four lawyers and the twelve collegians may, between now and the Day of Judgement, prepare a declaration that will not crumble to ashes before it crosses the threshold of the court.
Harper’s Weekly, February 15, 1868
Chicago Evening Post, December 2, 1868
THE LAST CASE OF LIBEL
It sometime happens that one commencing a law-suit as plaintiff, finds, in the progress of the proceedings, that he has become the defendant. A suit involving this change of attitude is now on trial in the courts of this city. We refer to the case of Carson, Pirie & Co., or the individuals of that concern, whatever their names may be, against the Chicago Tribune, for libel. The nominal plaintiffs have, in the eyes of the public, become defendants. The charge against them is one with which juries are not usually very lenient. They are accused of the mean attempt to get something for nothing.
Perhaps our readers are familiar with the facts: On the night of the great fire of last winter, on Lake street, when two millions worth of property was burned, Carson, Pirie & Co., a dry-goods firm, were burned out with the rest. The excitement of the eventful night was fearful. The origin of the fire was warmly discussed by shivering crowds on the street, and all sorts of conjectures were hazarded as to the method by which the flames crossed the street, unobserved, and broke out afresh five or six hundred feet away, in Carson, Pirie & Co.’s store. One of these conjectures was caught up by a reporter of the Tribune, and though libelous, as it hinted at insolvency and arson, it was embodied in his hurried account, and, unobserved by the editor, went through the whole edition. On the day following, the Tribune editorially apologized for and retracted the implied charge in the fullest and most satisfactory manner. Those whose attention was called to the fact supposed that the matter would end there—that an unfortunate mistake had been committed in the hurry, excitement and alarm of a great calamity—that ample reparation had been made, and that all parties were content. Not so Carson, Pirie & Co. The Tribune was rich, and they thought they saw their chance. They know, as surely as that two and two make four, that the stupid error of the local reporter was not the editor’s or proprietors’ act; that there was not shadow of malice in the case, as in all human probability the publishers had never beard of the firm before; and they further know that the full apology and explanation following quickly on the heels of the original offense, had shielded them from all possibility of harm. Had they been men of fairness and generosity, they would have been content with the reparation made. But the libel, though technical, afforded too good a chance; the probability of getting something for nothing-of making the owners of the Tribune pay $50,000 tor an injury that was wholly imaginary-was too much for them to resist—hence this suit.
In all such cases as this, the public has a vital interest—an interest common to every civilized community in which justice is sought as the end of the law; hence we think the agreement on all hands will be, that, since libel suite against editor came into fashion, there has not been a case displaying quite the amount of greed and rapacity revealed in the proceedings which these men hare instituted. Without pretense that they have suffered or will suffer from the unfortunate blunder; without the remotest reason to believe that they were assailed from malicious motives; without even the old excuse, that it is their duty to “restrain the licentiousness of the press,” their whole aim is to use the case so as to make it yield them the largest possible amount of money-in & word, to get something for nothing. It cannot be possible that any jury that can be found in Cook county will hesitate about the verdict to bring in. As Carson, Pirie & Co. are on trial the least they can expect to get off with is liability for the costs. Were absolute justice the rule of the courts, they would not escape so easily. The offense of attempting to get something for nothing is punishable mainly, however, by public opinion.
Chicago Evening Post, January 27, 1869
We do our readers a favor by by calling their attention to the advertisement of Carson, Pirie & Co., on the first page. They are closing out their stock previous to removal to more spacious quarters, No. 118 and 120 State street, and offer unusual bargains as their price list shows.
Chicago Evening Post, January 27, 1869
Carson, Pirie & Co.
118-120 State Street
Carson, Pirie & Co,
118-120 State Street
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
1870
Chicago History Magazine, Summer, 1979
Carson Pirie Scott: 125 Years in Business
In September, 1854 two Scotsman, John T. Pirie and Samuel Carson, landed in New York and set out for Illinois to enter into the dry goods business. After three months in La Salle, they opened a store in a remodeled saloon in Amboy, where they were joined in 1856 by two brothers, George and Robert Scott, whom they had known in Scotland. It was a family business in more ways than one; Carson married Pirie’s sister Elizabeth and Pirie married Carson’s sister Sarah.
Soon the firm expanded to form a chain that included a store in Galena as well as branches in the farm towns of Mendota, Polo and Sterling located along railroad arteries leading into Chicago. In order to supply these stores more efficiently, Carson and Pirie opened a wholesale business in Chicago on Lake street near Wabash in 1864. The company did so well that in 1867 it opened a retail store at 136 Lake street (between Desplaines and Union streets) which was managed by Andrew MacLeish, a Chicago neighbor of Samuel Carson as well as a fellow Scotsman. To concentrate their resources and partners sold their stores outside Chicago and became a city concern.
But it would be sometime before the firm had a permanent home. A fire destroyed the original quarters at Lake street in 1868, resulting in a move to 118-120 South State. When this building was consumed by the Great Conflagration of 1871, the store reopened on West Lake, then moved to 22nd Street before settling briefly at Madison and Peoria, where it advertised “It pays to trade on the West Side.” A second store opened in 1875 on Clark and Erie where it remained until 1883.
Carson, Pirie & Co. very much wanted a site on State street and leased space in the Singer building at State and Washington in 1879. This arrangement also proved short-lived; the firm’s competitor, Field, Leiter & Company bought the building band paid Carson’s $100,000 to break its lease. (Note: Carson’s moved into the A. S. Gage Company’s building at the northeast corner of Wabash and Adams in March, 1888 first) That bonus helped buy the Charles Gossage & Co. dry goods business on the west side of State between Washington and Madison, which it merged with space in the Reliance Building in 1891 to form a much enlarged Carson, Pirie Scott & Co. store.
In 1904, after nearly a dozen moves, the company settled at the southeast corner of State and Madison in the building designed by Louis Sullivan for the Schlesinger & Mayer store. The building had been acquired several months earlier by Harry G. Selfridge, a former partner of Marshall Field and & Company, who opened his own department store only to be forced to sell it because of financial difficulties.
Chicago Tribune, July 7, 1929
Carson Pire Scott & Co. and the town of Amboy, Ill., will celebrate their seventy-fifth anniversaries together next month. The town will put on its flags and gay bunting and send a delegation of leaders to the Illinois Central station to meet the third generation of Carsons and Piries and Scotts, who are to make a pilgrimage to see the little home nest in which their forefathers laid the foundation for the organization they are directing today.
The red brick building, 20 feet front and 50 feet deep, with its two show windows and iron canopy, still stands, substantial as ever, facing the Illinois Central tracks in Amboy (55 S. East Ave., Amboy, IL). A grocer occupies the building now, but it looks almost as it did in the days when the first John T. Pirie hustled around the counters to serve the farmers who drove up and hitched at the door.
Amboy is located in Lee county, about 90 miles west of Chicago.
Laid Foundation in 1854.
It is told in the Carson Pirie store of today that back in 1854, Sam Carson and John T. Pirie, newly arrived from Scotland, came to Illinois and opened stores in La Salle and in Amboy, within a few weeks of one another. A few weeks afterward the first Scott-J. E. Scott, then a boy of fifteen-put on an apron and did the chores around the Amboy store.
The two young merchants and young Scott got together eventually, and old timers in Amboy can remember that they as children often went into the first Carson, Pirie, Scott
store, which moved to Chicago in the 60s.
The men who are to make the pilgrimage back to the old red brick building next month are all descendants of those men. Among them will be Thomas Pirie, 2d, son of S. C. Pirie, also a grandson of the original John T.; Samuel Pirie Carson, grandnephew of the founder, Sam Carson; Robert L, Scott, Jr., and Frederick H. Scott, Jr., grandsons of John E. Scott.
Survived Loss In Fire
The original partners, when they first came to Chicago, opened a store on Lake street, with the late Andrew McLeish as partner and manager. In 1871, having moved to 118-20 State street, they were almost wiped out by the great fire, their capital loss being $129,000, leaving them a capital of only $30,000.
In 1883, they bought out Charles Gossage & Co., at Washington and State streets; in 1904, they bought out Schlesinger & Mayer and moved to their present location at State and Madison streets.
Chicago Tribune, July 11, 1929
The second and third generations of the original Carson Pirie Scott & Co., yesterday went back to Amboy, Ill., 100 miles west of Chicago, on a diamond jubilee pilgrimage to the old red brick building facing the Illinois Central tracks, in which the present day enterprise of millions was born seventy-five years ago.
Sam Carson, John T. Pirie and J. E. Scott, the former two arrived from Scotland only a short time before, were the men who founded the store out of which the wholesale and retail business of today grew. That was back in 1854, the same year that Amboy was incorporated as a village, and so the big merchandise concern of Chicago and the little town of Amboy, population 1,994, are now celebrating their seventy-fifth birthday together.
An Unostentatious Pilgrimage.
But it was an unostentatious pilgrimage on which S. C. Pirie, chairman of the board and senior member of the firm—the son of John T, Pirie—led his own son, John Thomas Pirie II, and the grandsons and grand-nephews of the other founders.
They drove in two automobiles, unannounced, into the town of S. C. Pirie’s irth, visited the old store, looked all over it, and chatted with citizens who had known the founders and traded with them. The citizens had wanted to have brass bands and bunting and reception committees and speeches, but S. C. Pirie, a lean and leathery man, who lives on Staten Island, N.Y., would not have it.
But the others, all young men, not one of them 30, went joyously and respectfully to the scene of their families’ start in American business.
Grandson Makes Trip.
There was John Taylor Pirie Jr., son of John T. Pirie, and grandson of the founder, now connected with the concern’s wholesale business. And there were, besides young John Thomas Pirie II, now in the retail end of the business—Samuel Pirie Carson, also of the retail business, and the son of the late Samuel Carson, grand nephew of the original Sam Carson; Robert L. Scott Jr., and Frederick H. Scott Jr/. both grandsons of the founder, John E. Scott.
Robert L. Scott Jr. is just going into his senior year at Williams college. Frederick H. Scott Jr. is in the sophomore class of Princeton university. Both are expected to take their places in the firm when they are graduated.
After the visit to the store Mr. Pirie and the younger men gathered at the First National Bank of Amboy to chat with Pirie’s old friends, Fred N. Vaughan, the undertaker. Also on hand were W. H. Badger, 82 years old, and Charles Ives, 87 years old, both of whom knew all three of the founders well.
Recalls the Early Days.
“yes,” said Mr. Badger, “I remember how Mr. Carson used to ride into town every day from the farm. He had a white horse and rode old Country fashion—up and down, you know—posting, I guess, they call it.”
“Right, you are, Mr. Badger,” said Mr. Pirie. “I’m going out there today to see the old farm.”
They got to arguing about where Mike Right had his saloon over in the old days, and about the mill, “Just beyond the creek,” and things like that. Said Badger to Mr. Pirie: “Your mother had a millinery shop up over that store—remember?”
And Pirie, the millionaire, answered without a trace of embarrassment: “Yes, they all worked in those days.”
The visit lasted for several hours and then all the young Piries and the Carsons and the Scotts followed Mr. Pirie back into the cars and started back to Chicago.
DESCENDANTS OF BIG BUSINESS FOUNDERS VISIT FIRM’S BIRTHPLACE
Left to right: Robert L. Scott Jr., Samuel Pirie Carson, William Clark, grocer; S. C. Pirie, John T. Pirie Il., Frederick H. Scott Jr, and John T. Pirie Jr., all, except Clark, descendants of Carson Pirie Scott & Co. founders, before old store in Amboy, Ill., where firm began operations in 1854. Clark now occupies the store.
Carson & Pirie Co.
118-120 State Street
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
1869
Amboy, Illinois
1900 Plat Map
George A. Ogle & Co. Publishers & Engravers
312-314 Van Buren
Chicago
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