Mar 9 - Minot Memories - Ellisons - The Fair Dept Store

Ellison’s The Fair Dept Store – Ellison’s was on northwest corner of the intersection of Main Street and 2nd Avenue. The original Ellison’s was the second building to the north of the intersection. After they acquired the building to the south, Ellison’s doubled the size of the building to what it is now. Ellisons had a restaurant/cafeteria on the second floor, overlooking the shoppers,.   They also had an elevator… probably one of the few in Minot way back when. I have been informed that Ellisons also had tubes running to the various cash registers… similar to those used by drive up banks today. The tubes in Ellison’s were transparent so you could see the money moving through them. today. Ellison’s planned a three story department store with another two floors of office space on top. The first three floors were built but not floor 4 and 5 as George Vaulker started building his office building on the northwest corner of 1st Street and 1st Avenue Southeast.  Thinking there would be a surplus of office space, the Ellison Building remained at only three floors. The restaurant in the Ellison Building was pn the second floor. The Vaulker office building  was never completed. Twenty years later Clarence Parker bought the unfinished building and converted it to the Clarence parker Hotel.