The company’s first location was an old two story brick structure at the intersection of Elm and Murphy streets. Murphy Street has since been eliminated. Today, that location might be near Field Street downtown. The store had its formal opening in the fall of 1907. 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.
Neiman-Marcus sought to relocate and an article on January 9, 1914 in the McKinney, Texas Courier-Gazette announced a ground lease with the executors of the J. C. O’Connor estate, 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 in the late 1920s, more land was leased and the footprint of the store was expanded to extend to Ervay and Commerce streets. The newer construction was designed by architect George Dahl who had moved to Dallas a few years earlier. The main entrance was redesigned to take advantage of the attractive new construction. Decades later, the store was expanded twice more to seven floors and then later to nine floors. More land was leased to allow construction on the opposite side of the building from Ervay Street.
As the remaining downtown department store, the Neiman-Marcus Building has been a contributing part of the Dallas Downtown Historic District. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. Over the years, the ownership of the retail company and the building has passed out of the hands of the original family to new owners. The current owners, a division of Saks at this writing, announced in 2025 that the downtown retail store would be closed after year end.
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