From the window of the Nicollet Hotel, a shot of the site after the fire debris was carted off and the plot converted to a park. The Great Northern Depot is up. Note the sign for Northrup King, a seed company based in Minneapolis for decades. For years Minneapolis was a famous seed center, and NK was one of the biggest. (It was later purchased by Sandoz, a Swiss company; I worked for them in 1979 as a salesman in the South. Burpee was our enemy. Burpee was always our enemy.)

The structure on the corner would survive for many decades, eventually becoming the home for Berman Buckskin, a leather-goods company that morphed into “Wilson’s,” and had a good run as a national chain before it expired in the early part of the 21st century.

Hennepin and Nicollet join to cross the river as they’d done for years, and would do for many years to come. Until the Geniuses got involved, anyway.