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<!--- correct spelling in this time period ---> 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.

19th-century history

thumb|left|An illustration of shoppers crowding the entrance to Jordan Marsh in Boston ()

In 1841, Eben Dyer Jordan left his job at a Boston dry goods store and went into business for himself, laying the foundation for the first Jordan Marsh. Ten years later, Jordan partnered with Boston merchant Benjamin L. Marsh. They began by selling linen, silk, and other dry goods from Europe to wholesale customers in and around Boston.

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.

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, glass showcases, telephones, and elevators. It also installed pneumatic tubes that delivered cash and credit information to individual departments.

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.

Conversion to Macy's

In 1994, the A&S/Jordan Marsh division merged with Macy's East, and the A&S stores were renamed Macy's in 1995. In 1996, Jordan Marsh stores in the Northeast U.S., which were already part of Macy's East division, were converted to Macy's name and branding.

Enchanted Village

From the 1940s until 1972 and again in the early 1990s, Jordan Marsh's flagship store in Downtown Crossing in Boston was home to Enchanted Village, a lavish Christmas display which at its height consumed an entire floor of the department store and was spotlighted in the store's display windows. The display's centerpiece, besides Santa Claus, was an eight-set Lionel electric train display. In what started as a marketing gimmick, Enchanted Village quickly became a legendary Boston tradition and an annual mainstay of the city's holiday season.

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.

Jordan Marsh Florida

Allied opened the first Jordan Marsh store in Florida on Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami in 1956. It competed with Burdines in this market, which successfully pursued acquisition by Federated Department Stores for capital investment to compete with Jordan Marsh. It was comparatively more upmarket than local competition; the regional flagship store in Miami, advertised as "the store with everything, with a Florida flair", featured a swimming pool and boating dock to attract affluent customers. Allied operated the Jordan Marsh Florida division separately from the New England stores, and it expanded to 13 stores in the state.

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.

See also

  • List of defunct department stores of the United States
  • List of department stores converted to Macy's
  • Adriatic Mills, a textile mill in Worcester, Massachusetts that was owned by Jordan Marsh
  • Filene's, another deparrment store chain based in Boston that was acquired by Federated and converted to Macy's
  • Jordan Hall, a concert hall in Boston that was built with major funding from one of the Jordan family
  • Jordan Marsh Co. v. Commissioner

References

Further reading

  • Jordan, Marsh Illustrated Catalogue of 1891 (Dover Publications reprint, 1991).
  • Tales of the Observer, by Richard H. Edwards, Jr. (Jordan Marsh Company, 1950).
  • Blog about memories of shopping in Boston
  • A Last Look at Boston's Enchanted Village 2005