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| The
Fair was founded by German-American E.J. Lehmann in 1875 as a small
dry-goods concern dedicated to the principle of providing "`Everything
for Everybody under one roof' at a cheap price." Like contemporary
discount retailers, Lehmann earned his profits not by catering to
Chicago's wealthiest consumers, but rather by selling, in volume,
inexpensive, mass-produced versions of products that Chicago's
upwardly-aspiring middle- and working-classes recognized (perhaps by
reading the more up-scale Marshall Field advertisements) as requirements
in their headlong quest to attain cultural respectability in the
post-Victorian city.
Interestingly, The Fair's publicists eagerly embraced their relationship with the less well-off. Their store, they said in 1915, "is still, as it always has been and undoubtedly always will be, the store of the people, the down-town shopping center for the Savers, the market place for the Thrifty." Their customers' upward mobility, in fact, was viewed as a threat to the store's success, prompting the question, "will the family that formed the habit of trading at The Fair long ago, and that has become prosperous to the point of wealth, be obliged to go elsewhere in order to buy the things suited to its new estate its enlarged fortunes?" Of course, "No" was the stated answer, but the anxiety was no less real. As one of Chicago's most prominent discount department stores, The Fair quickly outgrew its original quarters. In 1891, an enormous eleven-story building was constructed above and around the old one. The new store occupied the entire half-block on the north side of Adams between State and Dearborn (shown below). 
The Fair, Adams between State and Dearborn, ca. 1915 Lehmann and his son, who assumed control of the firm in 1890, were also a staunch believers in the power of advertising. He placed the first full-page department-store advertisement in the city's history, and, by the 1920s, some of the store's Christmastime spreads ran as long as sixteen full pages, a strikingly large number for the time. The Fair opened its first suburban branch in 1929, in Oak Park. In 1965, the Loop store was remodeled as the downtown outlet of Montgomery Ward and Company, which purchased The Fair and its three branch stores in 1957. Online Resources Photograph: State Street at night, looking south, showing the street lights, store lights and signs of the toy and doll bazaar, 1906 [Library of Congress] Photograph: Exterior view of The Fair building, 1926 [Library of Congress] Photograph: Pedestrians crossing the intersection of Adams and State Streets, 1927 [Library of Congress] Photograph: Santa Claus and children with toys in the office of E. J. Lehman's Fair Store, 1929 [Library of Congress] |
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Page authored: 12
January 1997 -
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