Building History

The German immigrant Aaron Meier (1831-1889) left Ellerstadt, Germany, in 1855 and arrived in California. He then traveled to Wilsonville, OR, where he set up a business reselling goods to settlers there. He relocated to the growing town of Portland in 1857, and set up a mercantile business at 137 Front Street. He worked with a colleague namedMariholtz in these early days, until his father passed away in 1864, necessitating his return to the Rhineland-Palatinate to attend to the family estate. While here, he married a German woman, Jeanette Hirsch (1843–1925),, and made his way back to Portland. In his absence, Mariholtz had managed to ruin the business, and Maier was forced to use his substantial $14,000 inheritance to create a new store across the street from the old one at 136 Front Street.Meier's new business prospered, and he hired new employees Emil Frank (1845-1898) and Sigmund Frank (1850-1910), in 1870 and 1872 respectively. A large fire destroyed Portland's central business district on 08/02/1873, leveling about 22 city blocks.

In the aftermath, German immigrants, Meier and the Frank Brothers, founded this Department Store, once one of the largest west of the Mississippi River, in 1873. Meier and Frank consolidated their retailing position in Portland, becoming its most successful purveyors of general merchandise.

By 1909, they completed the first building phase of a large new department store at 621 SW 5th Avenue in the center of Portland.

The May Company purchased the Meier and Frank Department Store in 05/1966 after a bitter bidding war with Broadway-Hale Stores; the Frank heirs favored selling to Broadway-Hale, while the Meier heirs supported May Company. A serious rift occurred between the two families in 1964-1966, as this takeover struggle occurred.

The KBS Companies developed the property into a luxury hotel, and mixed-use office/retail space. It said of the building in 2018: "The Meier & Frank Building is a 16-story, glazed terra cotta, historic structure originally headquarters of the Meier & Frank department store chain. The Property encompasses an entire city block across from the vibrant Pioneer Square and the highly successful Pioneer Place Mall. ...[It] is a 208,520 rentable square foot condominium interest property. KBS is redeveloping the former Macy’s Department Store (floors 1-5) into a best-in-class, mixed-use asset encompassing street-level retail and creative office space. Floors 6-16 of the property are home to the Nines Hotel, downtown Portland’s most luxurious hotel." (See KBS Companies.com, "Meier & Frank Building," accessed 11/30/2018.)

Building Notes

When fully expanded in 1932, the Meier and Frank Department Store occupied an entire city block and enclosed 14.5 acres of space. (Portland's block sizes, were, however, smaller than those of most major American cities.)

Alterations

Alterations and additions occurred in 1915 and 1932.

The building underwent a radical remodeling (completed in 2007), when the first 5 floors were made into a Macy's Department Store, called "Macy's at Meier & Frank Square." Starwood Hotels' Luxury Collection will renovate the 9 upper floors of the former department store, yielding 331 rooms. During the last renovation by SERA Architects, a new interior light well was carved into center of the building.

PCAD id: 13773