Donaldson's Department Store

Melissa

With all of the interest surrounding the 25th anniversary of the Northwestern National Bank fire, there were a lot of questions about the beginnings of the blaze. When asked about it, most people say it started in the old Donaldson's  building. Now, I am not a native Minneapolitan, nor was I alive prior to 1982, so this reference does not exactly paint a picture for me. So in an attempt to make the events in downtown Minneapolis on Thanksgiving Day in 1982 a bit clearer, I did a little research…

Donaldson's  was founded in the 1883 by Scottish immigrants. It was located between 6th St. and 7th St. on Nicollet Mall  — the company owned the entire block. Donaldson's sold everything from clothing, bedding, footwear and furniture, to jewelry, beauty products and housewares. It was "a peculiar jumble of stores, all connected with a warren of hallways and showrooms," writes lileks.com . At the start of the 20th century, especially, Donaldson's brought, "Continental flavor to the cramped dim retailing style of the time. At night, the store sang with light; in the day, the dome on the corner of Nicollet and 6th made the Midwestern shopper think she might have wandered into the Bon Marche of Paris."

The "dome" was part of the Glass Block Building , originally constructed in 1884. The company that worked on the building (and many of its subsequent renovations) was the local Pike and Cook Company, now the George F. Cook Construction Company. The dome, visible in many of the lileks.com pictures, was dismantled during World War II for scrap metal.

After the war, Donaldson's was remodeled beyond "historical recognition." There were several modern designs  for a new store, all sleek and ready for the consumers of the 50s. The final incarnation of the department store, in its original location, looked like this , before it was destroyed in the 1982 fire. It is this façade that is immortalized in pop culture history by Mary Tyler Moore . In the opening credits of the first season of the show, Mary triumphantly tosses her hat directly in front of Donaldson's.

Across the street from Donaldson's was their rival, Dayton's . The two stores battled it out for the greater part of the 20th century — Dayton's always staying just a step ahead. In 1982, Donaldson's left their historic beginnings before the fire occurred, to relocate in the newly built City Center. (It was the empty original building that burned.) In 1987 Donaldson's was bought by Carson Pirie Scott & Co.  and renamed Carson's. These stores were unsuccessful and the entire business was sold to Dayton Hudson Corp, ironically, who re-opened the stores as part of its Mervyn's  chain.

Mervyn's is now focused in southwestern and West Coast markets. It's merchandise, however — clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, and housewares — remains the same as it's long-gone ancestor, Donaldson's.