Donaldson's

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Donaldson's

Type	Department store
Founded	1883
Headquarters	Minneapolis, Minnesota
Industry	Retail
Products	Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares.
Website	None

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

1 History
2 Donaldson's in popular culture
3 Former Store Locations
- 3.1 Donaldson's Locations
- 3.2 Powers Dry Goods/Donaldson's Locations
4 References

[edit] History

The L. S. Donaldson Co., Minneapolis, Minnesota, was founded in 1883 by Scottish Immigrants. Built in 1884, the building was known as "The Glass Block" because of its extensive use of 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 1978, Donaldson's acquired the two-store James Black Company of Cedar Falls, Iowa. In 1985 the company acquired its struggling rival The Powers Dry Goods Company from Associated Dry Goods Corp., which gave it some breathing room against dominant rival Dayton's.

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 half a city block, burned in a fire on Thanksgiving Day of that year due to arson, along with the Northwestern National Bank Building.

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. This was done mostly in a move to prevent serious competition in its Twin Cities stronghold by Kohl's. By 2004, when Dayton's locations had been converted to Marshall Field's, new owner May Department Stores also acquired the former Donaldson's locations — all promptly shuttered by Mervyn's management — and assumed responsibility for disposing of the real estate.

[edit] Donaldson's in popular culture

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 -- frame by frame -- of the shows from the first season. All other openings of the show deleted the Donaldson scene, yet keeping the hat toss.

[edit] Former Store Locations

[edit] Donaldson's Locations

City	Shopping center	Existed	Notes
Minneapolis, Minnesota	Downtown	1884-1982
Minneapolis, Minnesota	City Center	1982-1987
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 Square	1980-1987	Downtown
Rochester, Minnesota	Miracle Mile	1954-1987
Cedar Falls, Iowa	College Square Mall	1978-1987
Waterloo, Iowa	Crossroads Center	1978-1987

[edit] Powers Dry Goods/Donaldson's Locations

City	Shopping center	Existed
Minneapolis, Minnesota	Downtown Store	unknown
St. Louis Park, Minnesota	Knollwood Mall	1955-1985; 1985-1987
St. Paul, Minnesota	Highland Park	1960-1985; 1985-1987
Blaine, 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