DONALDSON'S

'Donaldson's', also known as The L. S. Donaldson Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota is a defunct department store company.

Contents

History

Former Store Locations

Donaldson's Locations

Powers Dry Goods/Donaldson's Locations

References

History

The L. S. Donaldson Co., Minneapolis, Minnesota, was founded in 1883 by Scottish Immigrants. It was built as "The Glass Block" in 1884 because the building extensively used glass in its design. That building even included a small dome at the intersection of Nicollet Avenue and West Seventh Street, but it was dismantled for scrap metal durind the Second World War. It was renovated beyond its historical recognition after the war.
The store was acquired by Allied Stores Corp. in 1928. In 1979, Donaldson's acquired the James Black Company of Cedar Falls, Iowa. In 1985 the company acquired its struggling rival The Powers Dry Goods Co. from Associated Dry Goods Corp., which gave it same breathing room against dominant rival Dayton's.
When the producers of The Mary Tyler Moore Show were filming Minneapolis exteriors for the opening sequence of the show in March, 1970, the famous hat-toss scene was filmed directly in front of Donaldson's. This can best be verified in the opening scenes of the shows from the first season. All other openings of the show deleted the Donaldson scene.
Donaldson's flagship store left its old building for the new City Center development when it opened in 1982. The original store complex, which occupied an entire block, burned in a fire on Thanksgiving Day of that year due to arson. In 1987, after Campeau Corp.'s buy-out of Allied Stores Corp., Donaldson's was purchased by Carson Pirie Scott & Co. of Chicago, Illinois which made the ill-fated decision to rename the stores Carson's. Carson's in its turn was acquired by P.A. Bergner & Co. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and formerly of Peoria, Illinois) in 1989, which filed for bankruptcy in 1991.
The former Donaldson's stores that were renamed Carson's did not do well, and in 1995 Carson's sold the rump of the chain to Dayton's parent Dayton Hudson Corp.. Dayton Hudson re-opened them under its moderate Mervyn's chain, mostly in a move to prevent serious competition in its Twin Cities stronghold by Kohl's. In 2004 when Dayton's successor Marshall Field's was acquired by May Department Stores, it also agreed to buy the former Donaldson locations, which Mervyn's promptly shuttered, and be responsible for disposing of the real-estate.

Former Store Locations

Donaldson's Locations

City	Shopping center	Existed	Notes
Minneapolis, Minnesota	Downtown	1884-1982
	City Center	1982-1986
Edina, Minnesota	Southdale Center	1956–1987
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota	Brookdale Center	1962–1987
Roseville, Minnesota	Rosedale Center	1969–1987
Minnetonka, Minnesota	Ridgedale Center	1974-1987
St. Paul, Minnesota	Town Center	1980-1985
Rochester, Minnesota	Miracle Mile	1954-1987
Cedar Falls, Iowa	College Square Mall	1978-1987
Waterloo, Iowa	Crossroads Center	1978-1987

Powers Dry Goods/Donaldson's Locations

City	Shopping center	Existed	Notes
Minneapolis, Minnesota	Downtown Store	unknown
St. Louis Park, Minnesota	Knollwood Mall	'1955-1985'; 1985-1987
St. Paul, Minnesota	Highland Park	'1960-1985'; 1985-1987
Blane, Minnesota	Northtown Mall	'1972-1985'; 1985-1987
Maplewood, Minnesota	Maplewood Mall	'1974-1985'; 1985-1987
Eden Prairie, Minnesota	Eden Prairie Center	'1976-1985'; 1985-1987
Burnsville, Minnesota	Burnsville Center	'1977-1985'; 1985-1987

References

http://www.lileks.com/mpls/donald/index.html (Long Gone Minneapolis)