Like the old Donaldson's building, the building one block further north on Nicollet (between Sixth and Fifth Streets) survived until the 1980s. According to a 2013 City of Minneapolis Community Planning and Economic Development staff report, that building was constructed in 1890. The occupant in 1912 was the Minneapolis Dry Goods Company. In 1934 the tenant was the Leader Department Store. A 1944 map identifies the occupant as The Baker Company Department Store. J.C. Penney occupied the building from approximately 1955 through 1989. By then, its windows had long been covered by a long wall of modernist dark stone. It was demolished in 1991 to make way for a mixed-use development (that included a Nieman Marcus store that did not endure).

I believe they had a roof garden up there by the dome, which was dismantled during WWII for the scrap metal.

Does anyone know why the Donaldson's Department store building at right has so many boarded up windows? Must be a story behind this. Also what was the big dome atop it used for?

The building to the right, with the dome on the Sixth Street corner, is the old Donaldson's Department store, which burned down on Thanksgiving night 1982. Arson suspected.