Tracing the baby steps of 2 retail giants

Before they were big-city department stores, Macy's and Filene's were small-town retailers, selling leather and lace, fabric and fashions, particularly to women shoppers, across Essex County.

The founder of Macy's, the celebrated New York retailer, opened his first shop in Haverhill in 1851. Filene's, the venerable Boston department store, traces its early years to Salem and Lynn, where its founder had dry goods shops from the 1850s to the 1870s, historical records show.

The rival chains are set to combine next year, when Macy's takes over Filene's. The notion that the 115-year-old Filene's chain soon will be history saddens many, including a great-grandson of founder William M. Filene, who once lived in both Salem and Lynn.

''It's almost like selling the Red Sox," Robert M. Ladd, 76, said by telephone from his home in Maine. ''The store, and its name, was known by everyone in New England."

But more than a century ago few could have imagined that a couple of shopkeepers in Essex County would one day rank among the biggest names in American retailing.

Rowland Hussey Macy (photo above) opened Macy's Haverhill Cheap Store in a granite-block building at 70 Merrimack St. Three years later, Macy set the stage for a national tradition when he organized a parade led by a band to march by his small shop on July 4, 1854.

''He was a clever merchant," said Greg Laing, curator of special collections at the Haverhill Public Library. ''He wanted to draw attention to his store, so he held a parade."

Meanwhile, on Washington Street in Boston, the 21-year-old Filene was trying to make a name for himself as a tailor, operating W. Filene & Co. Tailors and Drapers, in 1851. Five years later, Filene, a Jewish immigrant from Germany, took his business in a new direction.

He headed north to Salem, where he opened a shop called Laces and Trim and Embroidery at 146 Essex St. He settled a block away, at 33 Brown St., with his wife, Clara Ballin, and at least two of their five children. A few years later, the Filene family moved to Lynn, where they lived in a grand home at 374 Western Ave. and ran two shops on Market Street, about a block from the current City Hall, city directories show.

''Downtown Lynn would have been a very active place when he was here," said Diane Shephard, librarian at the Lynn Museum. ''There were lots of small businesses up and down Market Street, right in the heart of the shoe factories."

Thriving shoe and leather industries also created new prosperity in Haverhill and Salem. The cities were on the railroad, making it easy to move goods. Market days brought throngs to city centers to buy cloth, ribbons, and furnishings at dry goods shops.

''The population was exploding then," said Jim McAllister, a Salem historian who has written about Filene's early years. ''A lot of immigrants were coming to work in places like Salem, and they created a bigger demand for consumer goods. There was a lot of opportunity."

But exactly why Macy and Filene both ended up in Essex County is a bit of a mystery. Lincoln Filene Ladd, 79, another greatgrandson, said the family had no personal ties to the area.

''There is nothing to suggest [in family biographies] why he opened the stores in either Salem or Lynn," said Ladd, a retired English professor who lives in Maine. ''I suppose one reason could have been that it was less competitive than along Washington Street in Boston."

Filene's start in Boston is well documented. The William Filene & Sons Co. opened its first department store on Washington Street in 1890, specializing in women's clothing.

William Filene, ailing with heart problems, turned the business over to two of his sons -- Abraham Lincoln Filene, born three days after the assassination of his presidential namesake in 1865, and Edward A. Filene, born in Salem in 1860 and named for Albert Edward, the prince of Wales, according to biographical materials.

''Apparently, William realized that they were the merchants of the family," noted Lincoln Ladd, a grandson of A. Lincoln Filene. ''They really were the only two family members ever involved."

When he launched his flagship store in Boston, William Filene instilled in his sons a sense of loyalty and appreciation for customers and workers alike, Ladd said.

''My grandfather really cared about his workers," Lincoln Ladd said. ''I remember once, in the early 1940s, I was in Boston on Christmas Eve. I stood with my grandfather as he shook hands with every employee, and wished them a Merry Christmas. He knew them all by name."

In the Merrimack Valley, R.H. Macy descended from seven generations who settled in Amesbury, including Thomas Macy, the first town clerk, whose house still stands on Main Street.

But R.H. Macy grew up on Nantucket, and is thought to have come to Haverhill on a tip from a shoe manufacturer named Caleb Dustin Hunking, who also taught school on Nantucket, Laing said.

''He probably is the one who introduced him to Haverhill," said Laing, noting Hunking owned the four-story building on Merrimack Street where Macy's was located. ''He convinced him that he could make a go of it in Haverhill."

For five years, Macy ran his shop in Haverhill, often demonstrating a flamboyance he would later perfect in New York City. Newspaper advertisements were addressed to ''The Ladies of Essex County," and used a rooster as a logo, Laing noted.

''It was almost as though he was saying, 'We have something to crow about,"' said Laing, whose collections include original copies of Macy's advertisements.

After five years, he closed his shop to seek his fortune elsewhere. He opened a dry goods shop on 14th Street in New York City in 1856, before moving to Herald Square in 1902, according to Macy's company history.

Filene's was one of three retail chains that in 1929 formed Federated Department Stores Inc., a holding company designed to protect the chains in the event of a financial downturn.

Federated, now based in Cincinnati, sold Filene's in 1988 to May Department Stores Co. Federated now is reacquiring Filene's through a $17 billion merger with the May company. In 2006 Federated will turn 330 May stores, including 36 Filene's locations, into Macy's stores.

''Filene's was one of our original brands," said Jim Sluzewski, a Federated spokesman. ''Now it is going to help us give Macy's a larger national presence. . . . In some ways, we've come full circle."

Kathy McCabe can be reached at kmccabe@globe.com.