Wikipedia:

Marshall Field's established numerous important business "firsts" in this building and in a long series of previous elaborate decorative structures on this site for the last century and a half, and it is regarded as one of the three most influential establishments in the nationwide development of the department store and in the commercial business economic history of the United States.

And now it's Macy's. Meh. Well, the folks back home had never seen anything like this. Unless "Back home" was New York or Vienna.