Macy's was founded in 1851 by Rowland Hussey Macy as a dry goods store in downtown Haverhill, Massachusetts. In 1858, Macy moved to

New York City and founded a new store named R.H. Macy & Company on the corner of 14th Street and 6th Avenue, which later moved to 18th

Street and Broadway on the "Ladies' Mile", the 19th century elite shopping district, where it remained for nearly 40 years.

In 1896, Macy's was acquired by Isidor Straus and his brother Nathan, who had previously sold merchandise in the store. In 1902 the

flagship store moved slightly uptown to Herald Square at 34th Street and Broadway. Although the store initially consisted of just one building,

it expanded through new construction and merging, eventually occupying the entire block bounded by 7th Avenue on the west, Broadway on the east,

34th Street on the south and 35th Street on the north.

In 1994, Federated Department stores merged with Macy's. Federated began closing some of its stores, selling others and renaming the

remaining stores. Federated continued to expand through 2003.

In 2005, Bon-Macy's (now Macy's Northwest), Burdines-Macy's (now Macy's Florida), Goldsmith's-Macy's (now Macy's South), Lazarus-Macy's

(now Macy's South), and Rich's-Macy's (now Macy's South) stores were renamed as simply "Macy's". Macy's has 424 stores throughout the U.S.,

as of July 2005.

On February 28, 2005, when Macy's had about 400 stores, Federated agreed to terms of a deal under which it would acquire May Department Stores

for $11 billion in stock, creating the nation's second largest department store chain with $30 billion in annual sales and over 1,000 stores.

On July 28, 2005, Federated announced that, based on the success of converting its own regional brands to the Macy's name, it proposed to

similarly convert 330 regional department stores owned by the May Company, named variously Famous-Barr, Filene's, Foley's, Hecht's, The Jones

Store, Kaufmann's, L.S. Ayres, Meier & Frank, Robinsons-May, or Strawbridge's, pending approval of the merger by federal regulators. Where Macy's

stores were in close proximity to other May company stores, some redundant stores would close while others might be converted to Bloomingdale's,

another brand owned by Federated. On September 20, 2005, Federated announced that all of its Marshall Field's stores (including the legendary State

Street store) would become Macy's by the end of 2006, becoming the new Macy's North division. The announcement was met with much hostility. If the

project is completed as envisioned by the fall of 2006, Macy's will have approximately 730 stores in the United States.

On January 12, 2006, Federated announced its plans to divest the Lord & Taylor division by the end of 2006 after concluding that chain does not

fit with their strategic focus for building the Macy's and Bloomingdale's national brands. Until a buyer is found and the sale is completed,

Lord & Taylor will remain a separate brand of Federated Deparment Stores.