If the JC Penney building in Decorah stops being the home for a retail business, it would break a string of 165 years

The news that JC Penney plans to close its Decorah store on Water Street threatens to break a string that has lasted for 165 years--there has been a retail business on the corner of Washington and Water Streets since 1852. 

Documents shared with decorahnews.com by the Decorah Genealogy Association show that Decorah's very first store was built on that location in 1852--operated by Morris Derrick.  That building was destroyed by fire in the late 1850s and was replaced by "The Goddard Building," Decorah's first building specifically constructed to house a dry goods store.

In 1909 Bertha Mott and Herman Warner moved into the building when their "Mott & Co." business expanded from next door to the west, doubling the size of their business.

In 1925 the well-known Charles Altfillisch architectural firm from Decorah designed a new facade for the building and several other improvements, including an automated cash transfer system in which money was placed in a metal container and send to the office cashier through a wire channel system.

In 1947, Mott & Co. gave way to "Wimmer's."  That company lasted just five years, then J.C. Penney moved into the building.  Penney's had opened at another Decorah location in 1922, but moved across the street in 1952 and has been in the location for the past 65 years.