Commercial Block 1
Built: 1879
Architectural Style: Late-19th Century Commercial Style
Architect/Builder: George Wilkinson
Currently: Tootsie Too’s/Red Wing Restyle
When this building opened in 1879, it was the home of Johnson & Bjorngaard Drug. For the next 140 years, it would remain a pharmacy.
In the first 90 years, no owner lasted very long. New pharmacists with names like Sundberg, Sylvander, Bakkela, Nott, and Nord named the store after themselves when they took over.
Then, in 1968, Marv Dyrstad took over the business. Because he figured Dyrstad would be too hard for customers and doctors to spell, he renamed it Corner Drug, and he, along with his wife Joanell, ran the pharmacy for the next 39 years.
Across all those years, the pharmacy changed. The building originally featured multiple storefronts, but as the population expanded and medical science improved, the pharmacy needed more space and took over the neighboring spaces. And in the late 1980s Corner Drug became Minnesota’s first independent pharmacy outside of the Twin Cities to shift to a computerized records system.
The basement of the drug store was used for processing and storing merchandise throughout the years. But because it was inaccessible to the outside, merchandise needed to be delivered to the main floor. To get it to the basement, it was sent down a chute.
In 1999, the Dyrstads remodeled the space, and relocated the chute, but it remained a vital and beloved part of the store. Employees had such a fondness for the chute that they began signing their names along its path, and their signatures can still be seen today.
Separate from the business, in the 39 years the Dyrstads ran Corner Drug, Joanell Dyrstad served two terms as Red Wing’s mayor and one as Minnesota’s lieutenant governor.
Eventually, it became time for the couple to retire. Understanding the value of a locally-owned pharmacy, and the legacy they had carried on, they decided to sell the business to a small chain that focused on maintaining neighborhood drug stores along the Mississippi River.
The sale was made in 2007, just before the United States entered the Great Recession. The new owners folded and sold the business to Walgreen’s. With the new corporate branding the building remained a pharmacy until 2019, when the 140-year run of drug stores on this corner finally came to an end.
