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Meier & Frank Portland Oregon
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Meier & Frank was founded in Portland, Oregon in 1857, and acquired in
1966 by May Department Stores. May operated it as a separate division
for nearly forty years, expanding the chain to Utah in 2001, as a
result of a conversion of
May Company's
Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution
or ZCMI stores purchased in 1999. In 2003 it was consolidated
with North Hollywood, California-based Robinsons-May, but retaining
the historic Meier & Frank name in the
Oregon,
Utah
and Washington markets.
May itself was acquired by Federated Department Stores on August 30,
2005. On that day the former May Company divisions were dissolved and
operational control of the Meier & Frank stores was assumed by Macy's
Northwest. The Meier & Frank name was eliminated in favor of the
Macy's name.
The company's flagship store was the historic Meier & Frank Building.
This location is now called Macy's at Meier & Frank Square. The
building is in the process of being completely restored. The lower
five floors and basement are now occupied by Macy's. The nine upper
floors are being converted to a luxury hotel, The Nines. The
hotel will be owned and managed by Sage Hospitality of Denver,
Colorado under a franchise from Starwood Hotels, The Luxury Collection
brand. Renovation work of the downtown store for the Macy's portion
was completed in October 2007. Work continues on the hotel portion.
The Meier & Frank Building is a fifteen story, glazed terra
cotta building located in downtown Portland, Oregon, across from the
northeast corner of Pioneer Courthouse Square. The building is the
former flagship store and headquarters building for the Meier & Frank
department store chain and has now seen its lower floors be remodeled
into an updated Macy's department store. Upper floors of the building
are set to be a luxury hotel known as The Nines.
The building site is a full block bounded by SW Fifth and Sixth
Avenues and Morrison and Alder Streets. The present building was
constructed in stages, starting in 1909 with major expansions
occurring in 1915 and 1932. It replaces an earlier Meier and Frank
store built in 1898.
The project was the first major commission for prolific Portland
architect, A. E. Doyle. Although the original commission was an annex
to the original building, Doyle took a trip to Chicago with the
company's co-founder Sigmund Frank to survey department stores. Frank
was very impressed with what he saw, and plans for the building
changed into a full-block fully modern department store. Frank's death
in 1910 ended those plans and resulted in the building's construction
in piecemeal segments over several decades, which led to anomalous
differences in which elevators and which stairways reached which
floors. However, A.E. Doyle first used glazed terra-cotta in this
building, resulting in later use of it in many other Portland
structures by his and other firms.
The building hosted the corporate headquarters of the Meier & Frank
chain. After the acquisition of Meier and Frank by May Department
Stores in 1967, the chain became a division which was based out of the
former corporate offices.
The interior of the building has been modernized over the years with
few interior historic elements remaining. However, several notable
exceptions to this were the Georgian Room restaurant and seasonal
Santaland, both on the 10th floor (highest retail floor in the
building). The historic Georgian Room had remained virtually unchanged
for at least the last 50 years. Santaland, which closed after the 2005
Christmas season, was an annual holiday favorite for generations of
Portland families. Santaland operated a "kiddie"-sized overhead
monorail around the ceiling of Santaland (also at least 50 years old),
a holiday model railroad layout and Santa Clauses.
Pneumatic tubes
were used throughout the store to convey messages and money from upper
to lower floors and back again. The remnants of this system could
still be found in some stairwells and back areas.
The Meier & Frank Building featured the first escalator installation
in Portland, and housed the company's own radio station. KFEC signed
on the air
October 19,
1922.
The studio was on the 5th floor and was also used as the library and
reading room for employees. The transmitter towers were atop the
building. KFEC operated until
March 22,
1929
when it was sold and moved to
Yakima
Washington
which still operates today as KIT. The building has two primary lower
levels and a third service level beneath these. The first lower level
was used for retail space until the mid 1980s. The levels beneath that
were used for storage and various seasonal needs. The bank of
hand-controlled elevators originally operated by store associates were
closed off with the construction of new automatic elevators, but
continued to function as stock elevators into the 1990's outside of
public view.
At its peak, the store housed everything from a pharmacy to a pet
store. Actor Clark Gable worked in the store's tie department in 1922.
Several delis and food vendors operated out of various levels. As
demand for these services declined, the store changed focus. During
the 1980s the store began to concentrate more on soft lines such as
clothing, as well as small goods such as house wares. Several floors
were modified to serve as corporate offices. Other floors were simply
shut down and turned over to cold storage. The store was able to
operate in this configuration until finally doomed by the development
of the nearby Pioneer Place mall and increased competition from its
stores and anchors, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom.
The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1982.
In 2005, the May Company was acquired by Federated Department Stores,
corporate parent of Macy's and other chains. The Meier & Frank stores
were renamed Macy's in September 2006. That same year, construction
began on a project to turn the top nine floors of the building into a
330-room luxury hotel called The Nines, A Starwood Luxury Collection
Hotel. The former Meier & Frank store in the lower floors of the
building was set to be turned into a Macy's and remained open until
December 30,
2006,
before being closed for the remodel. The new Macy's at Meier and Frank
Square reopened on October 26, 2007. The hotel is scheduled to open in
late summer, 2008.
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