Carrie Marcus was born in Louisville, Kentucky on May 3, 1883 to Jacob Marcus (1846 – 1929) and Delia A. Bloomfield Marcus (1848 – 1919). Both Delia and Jacob were born in Prussia. Jacob was listed as a merchant in the 1870 federal census and was shown to be a clerk in a store in the 1880 census. The family was still living in Kentucky when Carrie was born. Carrie was the youngest of six children. A few years before 1900, the entire family moved to Hillsboro, Texas and lived near the downtown area on Franklin Street. In 1899, when Carrie was about sixteen years old, she and her older siblings moved to Dallas. Many of them had secured retail jobs. Carrie and her brother Herbert were hired by Max Goettinger to work at A. Harris and Company. Carrie had a good eye for clothing and first worked in the ladies’ blouse department.
Carrie met her future husband, Abraham Lincoln “Al” Neiman while she was working at A. Harris around 1904. They fell in love and were married the next year. The four individuals: Carrie, Al, Carrie’s brother Herbert and his wife Minnie Lichtenstein Marcus became the founders of the specialty store Neiman-Marcus a few years later.
Herbert Marcus had married Minnie Lichtenstein in 1902 when Herbert was working for Sanger Brothers. Herbert and Minnie were the parents of Stanley, Edward, Lawrence and Herbert, Jr. The two couples decided to move to Atlanta, Georgia in 1905 where they established a sales promotion business. It was successful and they sold it for a nice sum in 1907. The group decided to return to Dallas to open their own specialty clothing store, something that had long been a dream of Carrie and Herbert. The Austin American-Statesman issue of May 11, 1907 announced that the Neiman – Marcus Company was incorporated with $50,000 capital stock. The purpose of the entity was to buy and sell ladies’ ready to wear garments. The incorporators were Herbert Marcus, Theo Marcus (another brother) and A. L. Neiman.
Their first location was about one block away from the A. Harris location and was an old two story brick structure at the intersection of Elm and Murphy streets. Murphy Street has since been eliminated. The store’s location today might be near Field Street downtown. The store had its formal opening in the fall of 1907. This full length ad ran in the Fort Worth Record and Register a few weeks later on October 13, 1907.
The concept was to provide ready to wear clothing for the “gentlewomen of Dallas” at a time when bolts of cloth were often sold and dressmakers/seamstresses were engaged to make ladies’ clothing. The timing of the opening also was at a low point in the national economy, referred to as the Panic of 1907. The stock market had declined and runs were made on banks causing some to fail. The financial crisis seems to have begun in October of that year. The United States economy was generally in decline for some time. However this was not to be the only crisis that the company would face over the next few years.
Despite the economic conditions, the business grew from these beginnings. The individual roles are said to have been divided with the men taking on financial and business decisions and Carrie being responsible for fashion decisions.
The company suffered a devastating loss when the original store was completely destroyed by fire on May 11, 1913. The loss was estimated to be $150,000. The company sought to relocate and an article on January 9, 1914 in the Courier-Gazette of McKinney, Texas announced a ground lease between the executors of the J. C. O’Connor estate and Neiman-Marcus Company, the term of which was 99 years. The subject property was a lot of 100 by 100 feet located on the southwest corner of Main and Ervay streets in downtown Dallas. At that time, it was said to be the largest lease ever executed in the state of Texas. Total rent payments in the amount of $3,360,000 were to be made. The article stated that a four story building was to be erected at a cost of not less than $100,000. The building, designed by Hubbell and Greene Architects, was completed with the initial four stories, engineered to be fireproof and to have a foundation sufficient to allow more floors to be added if desired.
Twelve years later, more land was leased and the footprint of the store was expanded to extend to Ervay and Commerce streets. This construction was designed by architect George Dahl who had moved to Dallas in 1926. There were at least one or two more major expansions of the building on the side opposite Ervay Street.
An rough Neiman-Marcus timeline for the thirty-five years after 1914 for Neiman-Marcus would likely note these highlights:
- 1927 Company begins to host weekly retail fashion shows. Articles note that shows were held at noon so that ladies could enjoy luncheons and see the latest fashions. Some articles note that these events also overcame objections of potential customers to come downtown at a time when many stores were not yet air conditioned.
- 1927 Company leases more land and completes its first major building expansion. Stanley Marcus comes to work at the store after graduating from college.
- 1928 Al Neiman leaves the company. He and Carrie are divorced. Neiman’s interest in the company was acquired by Herbert.
- 1929 Company begins to sell menswear. It is not noted which person was mostly responsible for this decision.
- 1939 Company introduces its Christmas catalog after beginning the annual Christmas Gifts Walking event the season before.
- 1946 Company suffers another fire. This time, it was confined to the basement and mostly caused smoke damage.
Herbert Marcus served as president of the company for forty-three years until his death in 1950. Carrie was then elected chairman of the board of directors and Stanley was named president and chief executive officer. Other sons of Herbert and Minnie: Marcus, Edward, Lawrence and Herbert, Jr., were all active in the business and played important roles.
Carrie died March 6, 1953. Her cause of death is noted as pleurisy, a lung ailment, believed to have been contracted on a trip to New York City. She is buried in Emanue-El Cemetery in Dallas.
After Carrie’s death, Marcus family members arranged for the donation of dozens of articles from her personal fashion history collection to University of North Texas in Denton. This became the core of what is now known as the Texas Fashion Collection, University of North Texas, part of the university’s College of Visual Arts & Design.
Sources:
They Came to Stay: The Story of the Jews of Dallas, 1870-1997. Biderman, Rose G., Eakin Press, 2002.
Texas Fashion Collection, University of North Texas (https://tfc.cvad.unt.edu/index.html)
DeGolyer Library Exhibits – “Eye for Excellence: Carrie Marcus Neiman and the Women Who Shaped Neiman-Marcus” (https://degolyer.omeka.net/exhibits/show/eye-for-elegance/introduction)
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