The building today, hemmed in by progress on every side. The store's in great shape, physically, but the name was lost to the relentless consolidation that drove the regional names out of the department store business.

It almost seemed like a relief for the company at the time; the Target division was so much more shiny and interesting. I still miss Dayton's, but eventually all the people who remember it, or even remember the era of the great downtown department store, will be gone, and everyone can look at the pictures of these places and wonder exactly why we gave them up.

Macy's shuttered the store in March of 2017. But that's not the end of the story, as you'll see on the next page.