Montgomery Ward & Company Northwestern Catalog House, 1400 University Avenue west, Saint Paul, Ramsey County, MN

Significance: As one of the first Montgomery Ward catalog houses built outside Chicago, the property represents a period of expansion and change in the history of the country's first mail-order house. Conceived as Ward's northwestern branch, the facility housed only a mail-order operation and its associated administrative offices. Soon after the branch was established, however, competition forced the company to move into the retail field. Ward's focus increasingly shifted to retail, and the property underwent substantial alterations to accommodate the change. Montgomery Ward's decision to locate the branch in the Midway District of Saint Paul reflects that area's emergence as a commercial and industrial zone. The property immediately became a landmark, owing to its size as much as to the tower that rises from the Operations Building. The company boasted in 1921 that the 257' tower was the tallest reinforced concrete structure ever built.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N402
Survey number: HABS MN-157