The Fair Store the store would be completed on that site in 1897. The Fair Store promoted itself as a Discount Department Store in the early 1900s. In 1915, a booklet published by the store stated "The Fair Store is still, as it always has been and undoubtedly always will be, the store of the people, the down-town shopping center for the Savers, the market place for the Thrifty." In 1925 the business was sold to a syndicate headed by S.S. Kresge (predecessor firm of Kmart). Under its management, branches were opened on Milwaukee Avenue (1929), in Oak Park, Illinois (1929), at the
Kresge College of Loneliness"; John Grinder, co-founder of Neuro-linguistic programming and co-author of ""; and William Everson, one of the Beat poets. Distinguished graduates from the early days of Kresge College include Doug Foster, who went on to become editor of Mother Jones magazine, and Richard Bandler, who co-founded Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) with John Grinder. The architecture of Kresge College is designed to resemble a residential area in Tuscany, and includes a piazzetta next to the college office and mail room. In the early days, Kresge had a threefold focus: Humanistic psychology, Women's Studies and Environmental Studies. The best history of the