Dunbar Dry Goods Store
Dunbar & Son was a successful family-operated dry goods business for 77 years that operated in Center Point from 1880 to 1957. Stephen Dunbar, who was born in 1836, was the senior member of the firm. Stephen married Almira Fitzgerald in 1835. Together the couple had three children: Inez, Allen E. “Tone”, and Elvin H.
1908 Maude and Tone Dunbar in front of their dry goods store when it was located below Yost Hall (steps on left side).
Stephen learned the dry-goods business in Wisconsin. He disposed of his Wisconsin real estate, reduced his stock of goods and shipped the balance of his inventory to Center Point in 1880. Stephen’s son, Allen, became a business partner in 1886. Together they occupied a two-story brick building with a basement on the southwest corner of Main and State streets.
Allen E. “Tone” married Emma Bartleson in 1887. Before his marriage, Tone traveled with a horse and wagon selling groceries and buying eggs for his father’s business. He regretted not having more schooling; his father pulled him out of school to help with the store.
Circa 1940, Tone and daughter, Maude, inside Dunbar Dry Goods.
An advertisement that appeared in 1892 declared, “the store sells nothing but first class goods.” The business supposedly sold the best in footwear, dress patterns, underwear and the famous Albert Lea flour,which they bought in ton lots. They claimed, “no firm in the city stands higher in the commercial world and they are recognized to be first class businessmen.”
The store and its neighbor to the south, Lemon and Brazelton, burned in 1905. For a few years, Tone relocated his store to the two-story building near the southwest corner of Main and Washington streets; Yost Hall occupied the second floor. Tone later rebuilt on the site of the fire, constructing two onestory brick buildings. After renting the building to others for a short time, he resumed business in the north building on the corner.
Tone Dunbar at age 90 still operated Dunbar Dry Goods daily. The store was established in 1880 by his father, closed in 1957.
In 1952, Allen, at age 90, carried the distinction of being the oldest businessman in Center Point in terms of age and service to his customers. The store opened each morning at 8:30 and closed at 5:30 pm. The store closed at noon every day for an hour and a half so Tone could take his daily 30-minute nap. His daughter, Maude, who had a record of 40 years work in the store, was the only other clerk. After her father died, Maude operated the Dunbar Dry Goods store until 1957.