(mellow playful music) - Back in the day before people had cell phones to text each other where they wanted to meet, this is the clock that became famous for the phrase, "Meet me under the clock."

We're standing at State and Washington.

Behind me, we can see a Chicago icon: Marshall Field and Company, now known as Macy's, at 111 North State Street.

(playful music) (bright music) My name is Maureen Waller.

I'm a docent with the Chicago Architecture Center.

Follow me in to the old Marshall Field's store.

It's a huge building that takes up one entire city block.

It was built by the DH Burnham architects and the entrance is surrounded by four large ionic columns.

(playful music) Marshall Field and Company was built in five stages between 1892 and 1914.

We're now entering the 1907 section.

Marshall Field had a goal of making the department store opulent, and behind me, there are some beautiful Corinthian columns.

As we walk forward, we're going to see the Field family crest.

And if we look up, we're going to see the Tiffany Vault.

(bright music) It's called a vault, not a dome because it's barrel-shaped.

The vault is 6,000 square feet and it contains 1.6 million pieces of art glass.

It premiered in 1907, designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

You can see a lot of blue, green, white.

There are two globes hanging from the ceiling, but initially there were four.

The purpose of those is to illuminate the vault.

You can see that there's no light shining down into the vault.

(mellow bright music) And that's because there's a very famous restaurant up on the seventh floor, The Walnut Room.

This restaurant has been in place since 1907 and is the longest running restaurant in a department store.

Here, we can see some Circassian wood from Russia.

You can also see some sconces and chandeliers that are Austrian crystals, and it's all original.

Every year, they install a giant Christmas tree.

It is 45 feet tall, and until the mid 1960s was actually a real tree.

Dining at The Walnut Room, there are a couple very traditional entrees that are available.

The most famous one is Mrs.

Hering's chicken pot pie.

It's definitely a family favorite, but it's not mine.

This is my favorite.

It's called the Field's Special.

It's been on the menu since 1917.

It's actually a salad and a sandwich combined.

We're here on the seventh floor outside of The Walnut Room in the Frango Mints section.

Right now, we're in the mockup of the Marshall Field's Candy Kitchen, and you can just almost smell the Frango mints, traveling across this little conveyor belt.

Frango mint is an iconic candy here in Chicago, and it's been part of Marshall Field's since 1929.

For a very long time, the Frango Mints were made right here in the Marshall Field's building on the 13th floor.

(bright music) On the seventh floor, we get a great view of the exquisite 13-story light court, which was an original part of the Marshall Field's building.

It was put in place in order to allow light to flow from the top of the light court down to the lower floors because lighting was very rudimentary back in the time this building was built.

The ornamentation is painted green and gold, which are the traditional colors of the Marshall Field and Company store.

(bright music) I'm coming up the staircase in the 1893 building, which was designed by Charles Atwood.

I'm coming up from the bargain basement section, which was the idea of one of Marshall Field's managers, Harry Selfridge.

The staircase is called The Hidden Staircase because it wasn't discovered until 2003 when a renovation was occurring here in the building and they discovered this behind a wall.

It has a Florentine Renaissance appearance and is made of cast iron.

(water sloshing) We're here on the first floor at the fountain, but it's not original to the store.

When the store was undergoing a restoration in 1987 and 1992, the architects found the original plans that Daniel Burnham had planned for this fountain.

So they were able to create this fountain from the original plans and it's now settled here in the lobby of the men's section.

(dramatic music) There are many people who have attachments to things that are important in the Marshall Field legacy.

I hope that you enjoyed the tour of this historic building and national landmark.

Thank you for meeting me under the clock today.

(dramatic music)