Donaldson's Department Store

Donaldson's was a department store that opened in 1883 and closed in 1987. Thank you for your suggestion. Live from Donaldson's! It'saturday night! With 15% savings on every regular and sale-priced item! A sale so extraordinary we've made it after hours! 15% savings on men's fashion, women's fashion, linen, clothes, everything in the store! It's live Saturday night from 5 to 11 pm at all! Donaldson's! Originally born in Scotland, the brothers William and Lawrence Donaldson worked as salesmen across the United States before moving to Minneapolis. William arrived around 1881 and worked for the firm Auerbach Finch and Wensleichen company. In 1882, he opened his own store at 309 Nicolette Avenue with a small stock of men's and women's clothes, and by the next year Lawrence had joined him. In 1883, William and his brother Lawrence purchased a one-and-a-half-story store from Colton & Company which featured a large expanse of glass block. The Donaldson Brothers department store would be known as early years as Donaldson's glass block store because of its distinctive glass block. From the start, the Donaldson store fared well despite its location on what were then the outskirts of downtown. By the end of their first year in business, they had outgrown their space. In April of 1884, they tore down the original glass block. Building. The new building would afford the people of Minneapolis with a cosmopolitan landmark and become a local attraction. By 1888, the original building was demolished and replaced with a five-story building featuring a dome on top, elevators, and rows of plate glass windows. Perched on a corner of Nicolette Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, it was called the glass block, a reference to the rows of plate glass windows on the exterior of the five-story building. By 1899, William had died and Lawrence renamed the company L. S. Donaldson Company. The store continued to expand which culminated in the construction of a $2 million eight-story building, taking up the entire block of Nicolette from 6th Street to 7th Street, topped by a distinctive dome from 1888. After the name change, the store continued to thrive. In 1912, Donaldson bought out another Minneapolis firm called Gimbal & Zimmer, another Nicolette Avenue retailer. The entire store block now was in his possession. In the early 1920s, the original building got a facelift and a remodel. The new store opened to great fanfare on November 10, 1924. The dome was eventually dismantled in April of 1942 and turned into war materials during World War II. Donaldson's was so big, it ran its own post office and bank. It's well supplied all of the city schools with drinking water. It even operated an express boat delivery service for customers on Lake Minnetonka. They were the Amazons of their day, offering everything to everyone from sewing notions to imported French fashion. Donaldson's was not merely a shop that sold household goods and quality clothing, rather it was a public center that hosted civic and cultural affairs. It provided a venue for fashion shows, art collections, special exhibits, Christmas programs, and even lectures. In 1928, L. S. Donaldson and company merged with Han department stores. In 1935, Han's recapitalization plans resulted in a name change and Han department stores became known as Allied Stores Corporation. Donaldson's began to expand after being acquired by Allied Stores, including their first branch store located in Rapid City, South Dakota, which opened in the former C. C. Anderson building in January of 1948. A second branch opened in Rochester, Minnesota on October 15, 1953. In 1961, the Golden Rule Store of St. Paul, Minnesota was transferred by Allied Stores to Donaldson's and operated as Donaldson's Golden Rule. By April of 1965, Donaldson's advertising for the St. Paul Store dropped the Golden Rule name and became known as Donaldson's. Over the years, Donaldson's would host concerts and orchestra concerts. They hosted authors as well as actors who were touring through. Famed Egyptian actor Omar Sharif once hosted a bridge playing clinic at Donaldson's. Before joining Led Zeppelin, guitarist Jimmy Page played in 1966. Simon and Garfunkel performed there too. The Mary Tyler Moore Show were filming Minneapolis Exteriors for the opening sequence of the show in March of 1970. The famous hat toss scene was filmed directly in front of Donaldson's. This can best verified in the opening seems frame by frame of the shows from the first season. In 1977, Donaldson's relocated from their flagship store in Minneapolis on the east side of Nicolette for the new city center development across Nicolette. In 1978, Donaldson's parent company, Allied Stores, would expand the chain when it transferred control of the three store James Black Company to Donaldson's. In 1982, what was known as the 1982 Thanksgiving Day Fire, the vacated Donaldson store complex, which comprised half a city block, along with the adjacent Northwestern National Bank building, burned in the result of an arson fire. The fire cost $75 million in damage and was the most destructive fire in the history of Minneapolis. Two juveniles were charged with setting the fire to the building while it was undergoing demolition. In 1985, Allied Stores acquired the Powers Dry Goods Company from Associated Dry Goods Corporation. By acquiring six of the seven area power stores, it gave Donaldson some breathing room against rival datans by increasing Donaldson's retail footprint in the twin cities by almost 40%. Donaldson's would have 12 stores. In January of 1987, Campo Corporation bought out Allied Stores Corporation, which incurred over $1. 1 billion in debt due to the takeover and was forced to sell 15 of Allied's 24 retail properties in order to pay it off. In August of 1987, Donaldson's was purchased by Carson's for $163. 5 million, and the Donaldson's name was permanently changed to Carson's in April of 1988. So what do you remember about this place? And if you haven't already, hit that like button and