Marshall Field
By Megan McKinney
The 1833 incorporation of the quiet village of Chicago as a town coincided roughly with the births back east of three of the men who would power Chicago’s growth into the great world city it would become by century’s end. George Mortimer Pullman was born in 1831, Philip Danforth Armour in 1832, and Marshall Field, in 1834. (If you are wondering about Chicago’s incorporation as a city, that came in 1837. Growth was happening quickly out this way.)
Known as “The Trinity of Chicago Business,” Field, Armour and Pullman were three of the most prominent tycoons of the era and, also each other’s most intimate friends—or at least as close as Field and Pullman were to having intimates. Marshall Field was the richest of the three, followed by Armour, and trailed by Pullman. The trio was instrumental in building the city and its amenities as well as setting a standard for taste and personal lifestyle.
The Chicago, population was 350, in 1833, when Philip Armour was a year old and George Pullman, two. Marshall Field would be born the following year.
Philip Danforth Armour
Although the workaholic Armour rose at 5:00 every morning and was known for his determination to arrive at the office before his employees, there were days when he joined Field and Pullman and the three men walked to work together from their grand Prairie Avenue houses—carriages following in case of inclement weather.
George Pullman.
They often met again for lunch at the “millionaires’ table” in the dining room of the Chicago Club, where they might return later to play poker.
The delectable Delia Caton
Aside from Pullman, Armour and his neighbors the Arthur Catons, the icy Marshall Field had no close friends. Mrs. Caton, one of the city’s most gifted hostesses, entertained frequently—invariably with the great merchant as a guest. Their houses were positioned back-to-back, the Caton house at 1910 Calumet Avenue, with the Field residence at 1905 South Prairie. One of the great naughty rumors of the day was that of a supposed underground tunnel running between the two houses to facilitate a romance. When Field made the newly widowed Mrs. Caton—the delectable Delia—his second wife, it was a surprise to no one.
Marshall Field hired New York architect Richard Morris Hunt to design the three-story Prairie Avenue house. The cost of the project—the first house in Chicago to come equipped with electricity and lighting—was approximately $2 million, then an immense sum for a residence, more than $45.5 million today.
Architect Hunt’s elaborate front hallway ran from the entrance to the house back toward the dining room.
The Library was to the left of the hallway .
Although one contemporary described Marshall Field as “cold-souled and courtly” and another called him “a cool gray man,” he commanded universal respect and admiration. He was without a sense of humor and spoke very little, but he was affable enough social company and one of the city’s most desired dinner partners. Yet, when Field was with George Pullman, he became vivified. In fact, only with Pullman, Mrs. Caton and his rarely seen grandchildren did he truly come to life.
By the 1880’s, Field had become Chicago’s most powerful citizen; if he put his money and prestige behind something, it happened. In addition to Pullman’s Palace Car Company, he aided in the founding of Byron Laflin Smith’s Northern Trust and Samuel Insull’s Commonwealth Edison. Among the companies in which he was a major stockholder were U.S. Steel and the Chicago City Railway Company, and he lent Joseph Medill funds to gain control of the Chicago Tribune.
Return next to The Trinity Founds Prairie Avenue for more about how these three men impacted the residential style of fashionable Chicago.
Author Photo: Robert F. Carl
