Illinois

Located on the site of the original Sears Tower, the historic Sears, Roebuck and Company catalog plant is one of the nation's most unique landmarks. Representing American ingenuity at its best, Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald combined technology, commerce, and social science with bricks and mortar to build "the World's Largest Store" on Chicago's West Side. Completed in 1906, the plant housed nearly every conceivable product of the time: clothing, jewelry, furniture, appliances, tools, and more. The complex employed 20,000 people, and merchandise orders were processed and delivered by rail--within the same day. During the first two decades of the 20th century, almost half of America's families shopped the over 300 million catalogs published in that era. WLS (World's Largest Store) Radio broadcasted the Gene Autrey show from the top of the tower, and the first Sears retail store opened here on Homan Avenue and Arthington Street. In 1974, Sears moved to the current Sears Tower. Thanks to many individuals who fought to save these architecturally and historically important treasures, the administration building, the original Sears Tower, the catalog press-laboratory building, and the powerhouse remain today. There are currently plans for redeveloping these buildings into housing, office, and retail space. A new Homan Square Community Center stands on the site of the merchandise building.

From watch catalog to international retail empire, revisit Sears's Windy City history with author Val Rendel and remember how good the “Good Life” once was.

In 1887, Richard W. Sears started a Chicago mail-order house that quickly outpaced its competitors, including Montgomery Ward. For millions of rural Americans over the next hundred years, Chicago was the place where dreams came from. Here, the “World’s Largest Store” opened its first retail buildings, debuted its WLS radio station and transformed the global marketplace from the Great Works headquarters complex. Today, Sears has faded from the city of its birth, but many marks of the once-great business remain, from repurposed iconic department store buildings to the Sears kit homes still scattered across the suburbs. The 110-story skyscraper that dominates the skyline will forever be known to locals as the Sears Tower. Sears greatest legacy, however, was the role it played in shaping the lives of generations of Chicagoans.

In early 1909, a new retail emporium readied for business on the wrong end of Oxford Street in London. The man behind it was an odd little American with a waxed mustache and frenetic nature. Harry Gordon Selfridge had spent the previous twenty-five years in Chicago honing his skills at the venerable Marshall Field and Company before unleashing his concept of retail theater in the United Kingdom. Follow Selfridge's astounding rise through the ranks of the Windy City's merchant princes, his tumultuous attempt to challenge Field's mastery of Chicago and his triumphant introduction of the American department store to London.

Woodfield Mall opened on September 9, 1971. Built in the village of Schaumburg, Woodfield Mall was a major factor in the rise of that city and all of Chicago's northwest suburbs. At the time of Schaumburg's incorporation in 1956, approximately 130 people lived in the area. The mall opened with 59 stores on that fateful day in 1971, and actor Vincent Price served as master of ceremonies. By 1973, Woodfield Mall had grown to nearly 190 stores, and at 1.9 million square feet of retail, it was the largest mall in America at the time. Retailers and corporations began to flock to the area, and many top companies now call Schaumburg home, existing in the shadows of Woodfield Mall. Today Schaumburg holds a population of over 75,000 residents, and Woodfield Mall brings 27 million visitors per year to its 2.7 million square feet of shopping space, making it the number one visitor destination in Illinois. New stores continually reshape the shopping experience in this place where society and commerce collide.

Discover the maufacturing plant that typifies the era when American industrial giants dominated the global economy and generations of blue-collar workers strived for a fair share of the ""American Dream.""

A burgeoning town on the fringes of Chicago rose and fell with the successes of the Western Electric Company. For almost 90 years, the Hawthorne Works plant employed, educated, entertained, and defined the township of Cicero. As the manufacturing arm of Western Electric, Hawthorne contributed greatly to the prosperity and national defense of the United States. As the site of the controversial Hawthorne Studies of workplace motivation and behavior, the plant reconfigured business and social science models. A community within a community, Hawthorne had its own sports teams, social clubs, hospital, railroad yards, and savings and loan. At its peak, the works was the largest single-site employer in Illinois and one of the biggest manufacturing establishments in the country, second only to the Ford plant in Detroit.

When investigating the mysteries of Chicago's past, it's helpful to examine the physical evidence. From a fiddle played by a Chicago pioneer and a jersey worn by Michael Jordan to a relic of the Great Chicago Fire and the guns used in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, these talismans chronicle the city's tragedies and triumphs. Some heirlooms shed new light on familiar figures like Louis Sullivan, while others commemorate the contributions of less heralded visionaries like Frances Glessner Lee. Joseph Gustaitis explores Chicago's history through fifty carefully chosen objects, a collection that includes stockyard knives, the world's first portable radio and Nelson Algren's typewriter.

The Gerlach Barklow Company was organized in 1907. The construction of the factory building in Joliet began and was completed that same year. The prime movers in the organization of the company were Theodore R. Gerlach, Edward J. Barklow, and K. H. Gerlach. Over the next decade, the company quickly grew into one of the largest calendar and advertising companies in America. A leading employer in Joliet for several decades, the company sponsored many sports teams as well as an annual picnic for its employees. This book, through vintage photographs and calendar prints, offers a unique view of the Gerlach Barklow Company's rich history. It includes calendar prints from the many artists employed by Gerlach Barklow, photographs of the various departments that made up the factory, photographs of company-sponsored sports teams, Volland books, as well as examples of Rust Craft greeting cards.