Donaldson's Glass Block, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1908 Postcard Reproduction

Nice hand-colored historic view of Donaldson's Glass Block, at 6th and Nicollet in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from 1908. Scottish immigrant William Donaldson opened a small store in Minneapolis in 1881, located at 310 Nicollet Avenue. In 1883 William and his brother Lawrence purchased a 1 1/2 story store named Colton and Company, featuring a large expanse of glass block. The Donaldson brothers department store was known in its early years as "Donaldson's Glass Block Store" because of its distinctive design of the building.[2] In 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. By 1899 William had died, and Lawrence renamed the company the "L.S. Donaldson Company." The store continued to expand, which culminated in the construction of a new $2,000,000 eight-story building, taking up an entire block of Nicollet from Sixth Street to Seventh Street, topped by the distinctive dome from 1888.