<P> The 1906 earthquake and fire leveled the San Francisco store with the remainder of the downtown area . The store reopened in new quarters at 50 Grant Avenue at Geary Boulevard in 1912 . During the 1910s, the chain opened shops in six high - end hotels in California . The Los Angeles Wilshire Boulevard branch (opened in 1939) and the Union Square store (opened in 1948) were among the most elegant in America . When designer Christian Dior visited, he toured the Union Square store, which had earned the nickname "White Marble Palace", and said "Magnifique!" The word would later be turned into a high compliment: "Magninique ." </P> <P> In 1944, the chain was bought by the Los Angeles - based Bullock's department store chain . In the late 1950s the combined chain expanded into the Southern California suburbs by opening the Fashion Square concept in Santa Ana in 1958, the San Fernando Valley (Sherman Oaks) in 1962 and Del Amo (Torrance) in 1965 . </P> <P> After a major proxy battle in 1964, Bullocks - I. Magnin was merged into Federated Department Stores . Bullock's, I. Magnin, and eventually Bullocks Wilshire were run as separate divisions of Federated . I. Magnin expanded in the Chicago and Washington, D.C. areas in the 1970s . </P> <P> R.H. Macy & Company had long yearned in the 1980s to enter the Southern California market . Along with trying to build their own stores, they attempted to purchase Federated, eventually losing a takeover war to the Campeau Corporation in 1988 . As part of the settlement with Campeau, Macy's purchased Bullock's, Bullock's Wilshire and I. Magnin, subsequently beginning a reorganization of its divisions and consolidating the I. Magnin and Bullock's Wilshire stores into a semi-autonomous division under Macy's California . The seven Bullock's Wilshire stores were renamed I. Magnin in 1989 . </P>

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