 Although the official corporate name of the retail entity based in this building had been Marshall Field & Company (nicknamed Marshall Field's) from 1881 until 2006, the store has had five different names since its inception in 1852 as P. Palmer & Co.In 1868, after bowing out of involvement in day-to-day operations with his new partners of Field, Palmer & Leiter, Potter Palmer convinced Marshall Field and Levi Leiter to move the Field, Leiter & Co. store to a building Palmer owned on State Street at the corner of Washington Street.After being consumed by the "Great Chicago Fire" and splitting the wholesale business from the retail operations, the store resumed operations at State and Washington in a rebuilt structure, now leased from the Singer Sewing Machine Company.