The entrance to the new CD Peacock Mansion features four custom-made light fixtures suspended from lengths of leather designed to mimic watch straps. The sweeping staircase takes visitors upstairs to the store’s main floor. (Photo courtesy of CD Peacock)
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The exterior of the Mansion, which opened in May. The main level (second floor) has theater lights that can be changed to any color. CD Peacock turned the lights pink in October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month and will do holiday colors in the weeks ahead. The color of the words “CD Peacock” can be changed as well. (Photo courtesy of CD Peacock)
When CD Peacock moved from a 6,000-square-foot store to one measuring 20,900 square feet earlier this year, the store’s leadership did what any sensible retailer would do after more than tripling the store’s footprint.
They bought white Adidas sneakers for all of their staff so they could move around the store in comfort while also still looking clean, uniform, and stylish.
Opened in May, the modern, cloud-inspired CD Peacock Mansion is located in Oak Brook, Illinois, about 20 miles west of Chicago.
Earlier this week, Jewelers of America’s Director of PR and Events Amanda Gizzi and I traveled from parched New York City to a drenched Windy City for a Steven Holtzman-led tour of the store.
They are the second generation of Holtzmans to run CD Peacock.
Steven’s father, the late Seymour Holtzman, bought the fine jewelry business in 1993 from then-owner Birks, essentially acquiring a piece of Chicago history that’s (slightly) older than the city itself.
A Storied History English immigrants Elijah Peacock and his wife, Rebecca Haylock, opened the House of Peacock in January 1837 on the corner of Lake and La Salle streets.
At that point in time, the population of the town forming along Lake Michigan was 4,170. It wasn’t officially a city yet; Chicago was not granted a charter until March 1837.
The House of Peacock was, Steven noted during the tour, the first registered business in the state of Illinois.
Over the years, the store moved several times as Chicago’s population grew and shifted, weaving itself into the fabric of the city but also falling victim to one of its biggest tragedies.
The Great Chicago Fire swept through the city in October 1871, destroying more than 17,000 structures.
These personal letters penned by one of Illinois most famous politicians, Abraham Lincoln, hang on the wall in the CD Peacock Mansion’s Peacock Room. Mary Todd Lincoln was a client of the House of Peacock. (Photo credit: Amanda Gizzi)
The House of Peacock, then located on Randolph Street, was one of them; only the store’s vault was left standing.
Because the vault survived the fire, the store was able to reopen before year’s end, finding a new home on West Madison Street in time for the holidays.
The store would relocate twice more and get a new name—House of Peacock became C.D. Peacock when Elijah and Rebecca’s son, Charles Daniel Peacock, took over in 1889—before moving into what was arguably its most iconic space (until now, of course).
Modern Touches The C.D. Peacock store in the Palmer House Hotel, with its trio of brass peacock doors custom made by Louis Comfort Tiffany and clock on the corner of State and Monroe streets, was a downtown Chicago landmark.
I can imagine generations of Chicagoans telling each other, “Meet me at the C.D. Peacock clock,” in the same way people met under the Kaufmann’s clock in my native Pittsburgh.
The store’s long history is not lost on the Holtzmans, and it was not forgotten in designing the CD Peacock Mansion in suburban Oak Brook.
This shot taken from above shows the peacock design that was incorporated into the floor on the gallery level, as well as, from left, the Cartier Espace, Tudor boutique, Chanel shop-in-shop, and Omega boutique.
Look up at the ceiling when you enter, and you will see a line of four custom-made alabaster pendant lamps imported from Paris suspended from lengths of saddle-stitched lengths of leather designed to look like watch straps.
Look down at the floor, and you will see four rings that align perfectly with the lights and form the tail of the peacock that winds its way around the store’s first floor, or gallery level, as CD Peacock refers to it.
This is just one of many detailed-oriented touches that are a signature of Director of Visual Merchandising Stanley Hunter, the creative visionary behind the Mansion.
(See also: The incredible wallpaper that was custom printed on gold mylar for the store and lines the walls to the restrooms, where an audio surprise awaits. And no, I will not spoil it.)
Related stories will be right here …
There are more nods to CD Peacock’s history sprinkled throughout the store, including a bronze medal created in 1937 to mark the store’s 100th anniversary.
Housed in a case on the gallery level, the medal has a piece of steel cut from the fire-surviving vault embedded in the back, along with a depiction of the Ferris wheel from the World’s Colombian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893.
Also known as the Chicago World’s Fair, the exposition was the setting for the nonfiction book “The Devil in the White City.”
Another bit of Chicago history is located on the second floor, referred to as the main floor, where three vintage card catalog cabinets sourced from the City College of Chicago line one wall.
Watch: Steven Holtzman’s 5 Favorite Things About the Mansion, Part I
Dating to the 1960s, the small, rectangular-shaped drawers that once contained typed-up cards organized according to the Dewey Decimal System have been retrofitted with trays to hold watch straps.
Each drawer is outfitted with a tag that lists the size and color of the watch straps inside, 22 mm brown, for example, or 20 mm blue.
This picture taken by the author shows the vintage card catalog cabinets CD Peacock repurposed to create a watch strap “library,” where people can select from straps in a variety of colors and sizes.
It’s my favorite area of the store.
Repurposing these gorgeous, solid oak cabinets that could have ended up in the trash is a brilliant way to engage customers and make coming into the store a fun, interactive experience. I could have spent all day in the watch strap “library,” opening and closing those little drawers.
This area of the store also brought to mind the joy and peace I felt in my elementary school library, where the librarian, Mrs. Zupsic, made me feel welcome and always had book suggestions at the ready.
The Next Chapter Following our tour, I asked Steven to take me through his five favorite features of the new store.
He started with the card catalog cabinets full of watch straps—which, he acknowledged, was his baby—before venturing into the Peacock Room, then to the bar and the Proposal Room before concluding with the zodiac-themed ceiling, which is not yet complete.
Watch: Steven Holtzman’s 5 Favorite Things About the Mansion, Part II
You can watch Steven talk about these areas of the store in his own words in the videos above.
The CD Peacock Mansion is located in the Oakbrook Center shopping complex and is open seven days a week.
The gallery level features a Rolex shop-in-shop, a Cartier Espace, Omega and Tudor boutiques, and a Chanel shop-in-shop.
The main floor is home to the bridal salon and more watches and jewelry, as well as the Proposal Room, bar, CD Peacock Room, and the aforementioned watch strap “library.”
The seating area of the CD Peacock Mansion’s bridal salon, located on the main floor (Photo courtesy of CD Peacock)
The watch section of the store’s main floor (Photo courtesy of CD Peacock)
Also located on the main floor, the CD Peacock Mansion bar is brushed chrome, allowing it to reflect and essentially blend into the room around it. The bar serves coffee, juices, alcoholic beverages, and a limited selection of teas. (Photo courtesy of CD Peacock)
The store’s zodiac ceiling depicts all 12 signs of the zodiac, from Aries to Pisces, surrounded by 24-karat, hand-applied gold leaf. The illustration is not quite finished, and Steven Holtzman said when it is, his mother’s antique Tiffany & Co. chandelier will hang from the center. (Photo courtesy of CD Peacock)
Steven said Saturday is their busiest day, when about 650 people will come into the store.
They don’t all buy, obviously, but it creates a nice energy, and Steven said it always makes him happy when he sees the bar (where there is a two-drink maximum, in case you’re wondering) full on the weekends.
It’s a sprawling, luxurious next chapter for an independent retailer that will turn 188 years old in January, and a jewelry store worth seeing if you’re ever in the Chicago area.
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