Boston Store history

In 1890 Carson and Pirie took on a new partner, Robert Scott, son of another Irish immigrant who had worked at the Amboy store.

In 1911, a five-story building was built on the downtown site with an entrance onto West Michigan Street.

P.A. Bergner & Company had been owned by the Swiss firm Maus Freres since 1938.

In 1953 it became the first department store chain to sell insurance policies to its customers.

In 1961, Carson Pirie Scott & Co. greatly expanded in Illinois by purchasing the 20 unit Block & Kuhl chain headquartered in Peoria.

By 1971 annual sales stood at around $250 million.

Baytree then upped its offer. Its head, Gilbert Granet, had made unsuccessful bids for a slew of retailers, including Gimbels and B. Altman, only to land the ailing Weiboldts, which had not shown a profit since 1979.

In 1980 the company made a major acquisition to further diversify its business away from retailing.

While earnings from department stores fell, airline catering and restaurants contributed over 50 percent of the company's operating earnings by 1982.

Carson's found a new chief executive in 1983; former Federal Express Corporation president Peter Wilmott.

County Seat was a chain of casual-wear stores with 269 units in 33 states. Its sales for 1984 were close to $200 million, and its acquisition put Carson's revenues over $1 billion.

Carson Pirie Scott's sales rose to $1.3 billion in 1985.

These were sold in 1988, as was the County Seat clothing chain.

And Younkers, like Carson, had emerged from bankruptcy in 1993.

In late 1994, Carson's initiated an acquisition bid for another midwestern department store chain, the Des Moines-based Younkers.

Sales were sluggish for most of 1995, but the recently renovated stores showed improved performance.

As the proceedings dragged on, Carson raised its bid to $20 per share and promised to reseat its board candidates at the May, 1996 shareholder meeting.

In late 2005, however, the group was put up for sale as Saks Incorporated tried to refocus itself primarily on its core Saks Fifth Avenue stores.

The chain expanded into Metro Detroit in 2013 with the conversion of three Parisian stores.