The Young Quinlan Building was designed by Magney and Tusler with Frederick Ackerman. Miss Quinlan spared no expense when building her elegant five-story building at the corner of Nicollet Mall and Ninth Street. She sought out an architect that would design her “home” with an Old World atmosphere. The building’s dedication ceremony and open house on June 15, 1926, was said to have been attended by more than 20,000 people.The inclusion of parking facilities in the building’s basement created a modern planning solution for the new automobile age. In keeping with the old, the Young-Quinlan Building and City Hall in Buffalo, New York are two of the few in the United States to employ elevator operators.
The Young Quinlan department store went out of business in 1985 after a 59-year run. The store’s founder Elizabeth Quinlan had been in the retail fashion business since the 1890′s. She was the first merchant to sell ready-to-wear clothing west of the Mississippi. In 1927 the Saturday Evening Post did a four-page spread and in the mid-1930′s Fortune magazine named her one of the country’s top businesswomen.
