Minneapolis, Minnesota - circa 1970
Lets get a little fresh air today! Here's a great view of the famous outdoor shopping and dining district, Nicollet Mall, in downtown Minneapolis (still there today), with an old W. T. Grant Co. store visible on the right.
Yeah, just a pleasant little scene here that I really would like to walk right into! You guys can all come along with me if you want. :)
Current aerial view
W. T. Grant (not W. S.), if I recall correctly, was kinda like Kmart.
ReplyDeleteW.T. Grant was a five and dime store (like woolworth's). The store on the left is the old Donaldson's department store.
ReplyDeleteW.T. Grant was huge in its day. 1200 stores coast to coast.
ReplyDeleteThat they were. Grant's had huge discount stores in larger cities here in WI.
ReplyDeleteNicolet Mall is actually also a collection of smaller enclosed malls, though I don't think these came until the early 1980s. City Center and Crystal Court were two of three or four enclosed sections.
Donaldson's would become Carson Pirie Scott in the '80s before folding in the early 1990s (with the rest of the Minnesota stores) Dayton's was obviously the other huge store.
There was a giant Woolworth store here too if I'm not mistaken.
I'll bet Mary Richards shopped here.
ReplyDeleteYou bet Mary shopped there! In fact, in the opening title sequence in the first few seasons, you can clearly see Donaldson's department store. Today, right in front of Dayton's (aka Marshall Fields, soon to be Macy's) on Nicollet Avenue, there is a statue of Mary Tyler Moore throwing her hat in the air
ReplyDeletePaul
Wow, it's still there? Here, they've taken back the streets and returned them to their rightful owners: the car (I say that cynically).
ReplyDeleteSCott
Maybe the Grant department store was owned by Mary's boss Mr. Grant or his family, it would only make sense. Is Donaldsons in the photo? I don't see it.
ReplyDeleteKind of looks like the area Mary Tylar Moore threw her hat into the air because she knew she was going to make it after all.
ReplyDeleteNot only were some of the opening sequences of the Mary Tyler Moore show shot on the Nicollet mall...but at least one episode during the first season has an extensive montage of Mary and her neighbor Phyllis' daughter, Bess, cavorting on the mall, getting ice cream, picking flowers and hiding from each other in the entranceway of a store called Judy's. In later seasons, new title sequences were shot at an indoor retail center somewhere in downtown Minneapolis - which I believe was part of a larger office complex designed by noted architect Philip Johnson. Does anyone know the name of this "mall?" It can be glimpsed in the titles from the third-sixth seasons, when Mary is riding up an escalator carrying a bag of "groceries", and later in the opening titles the camera catches her on a restaurant balcony with her date, overlooking this enclosed retail area...
ReplyDeleteActually, Mary's "date" was her real-life husband at the time, Grant Tinker. Wonder if that is who the character Mr Grant was named for?
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know anybody interested in writing a brief history of Donaldson's Department Store? Ideally the author should leave in the general area and have some tie or connection. Check out The History Press's website, www.historypress.net for more information about our books and our company. We are a traditional, full-service press, which means the author have no financial investment, and that they would receive royalties from book sales. Contact Allison at allison.evans@historypress.net for inquiries.
ReplyDeleteNicollet Mall - America's original "lifestyle center."
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