Potter Palmer

Merchant and real-estate entrepreneur, born in Albany Co, New York, USA. He had his own dry goods stores in upstate New York before he moved to Chicago (1852) and opened one there. His innovative practices, such as allowing customer returns and advertising and displaying merchandise, became known as the Palmer system and led to great success. Overworked and ailing, in 1867 he turned the store over to his partners, Marshall Field and Levi Z Leiter. After three years of recuperating in Europe, he returned to Chicago and became a real-estate developer. Most of his early buildings were destroyed in the great fire of 1871, but he went right back to building even more roads, homes, and commercial structures. His Palmer House hotel soon became internationally famous. Active in civic affairs, he was commissioner of the South Side park system and the first president of the Chicago Baseball Club. His wife, Bertha Honoré Palmer, continued to manage his real-estate empire, and through her many philanthropic and cultural activities she became the ‘first lady’ of Chicago.

Potter Palmer (1826 - 1902) was a Chicago businessman who was responsible for much of the development of State Street.

Potter Palmer founded a dry goods store on Lake Street in Chicago in 1852, eponymously named Potter Palmer and Company. Palmer also instituted a "no questions asked" returns policy, which served to nurture the goodwill and patronage of Chicagoans.

When Palmer's doctor urged him to get out of the business in 1865 because of ill health, he sought brought in partners Marshall Field and Levi Leiter. The trio joined forces and renamed the firm Field, Palmer, Leiter and Company. He built several buildings along State Street on property he owned, including the Palmer House Hotel. When his building were destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire, Palmer borrowed $1.7 million to rebuild, the largest amount loaned to an individual up to that time.

Palmer is buried in Graceland Cemetery.