History of Target Corporation

This article covers the history of Target Corporation, a discount retail chain.

The Westminster Presbyterian Church in downtown Minneapolis burned down during the Panic of 1893; the church was looking for revenue because insurance would not cover the cost of a new building. Its congregation appealed to George Dayton, an active parishioner, to purchase the empty corner lot adjacent to the original church so it could rebuild; he eventually constructed a six-story building on the newly purchased property. Looking for tenants, Dayton convinced the Reuben Simon Goodfellow Company to move its nearby Goodfellows department store into the newly erected building in 1902, although its owner retired altogether and sold his interest in the store to Dayton. The store was renamed the Dayton Dry Goods Company in 1903, and was shortened to the Dayton Company in 1910. Having maintained connections as banker yet lacking previous retail experience, Dayton operated the company as a family enterprise over which he held tight control and enforced strict Presbyterian guidelines. Consequently, the store forbade the selling of alcohol, refused to advertise in newspapers that sponsored liquor ads, and would not allow any kind of business activity on Sundays. In 1918, Dayton, who gave away most of his money to charity, founded the Dayton Foundation with $1 million.

By the 1920s, the Dayton Company was a multimillion-dollar business and filled the entire six-story building. Dayton began transferring parts of the business to his son Nelson after an earlier 43-year-old son David died in 1923. The company made its first expansion with the acquisition of the Minneapolis-based jeweler J.B. Hudson & Son right before the Wall Street Crash of 1929; its jewelry store operated in a net loss during the Great Depression, but its department store weathered the economic crisis. Dayton died in 1938 and was succeeded by his son Nelson as the president of the $14 million business, who maintained the strict Presbyterian guidelines and conservative management style of his father. Throughout World War II, Nelson Dayton's managers focused on keeping the store stocked, which led to an increase in revenue. When the War Production Board initiated its scrap metal drives, Dayton donated the electric sign on the department store to the local scrap metal heap. In 1944, it offered its workers retirement benefits, becoming one of the first stores in the United States to do so, and began offering a comprehensive health insurance policy in 1950. In 1946, the business started contributing 5% of its taxable income to the Dayton Foundation.

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