Roshek's Department Store
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Roshek Brothers Department Store was a large retail store in downtown Dubuque, Iowa. The company was founded by J.J. Roshek. In its prime, Roshek's was the primary shopping destination in Dubuque and claimed to be the largest department store in the state of Iowa.
Roshek's operated for more than 40 years in a 10-story building at 700 Locust Street in Dubuque. The building was built in two halves, beginning in August 1929. Originally it was intended to finish the building within a year, but as of the fall of 1931, the north half was only just finished. This building, completed in 1932, is a block long and half a block wide. It is the tallest building in Dubuque. It replaced two four story buildings, the former Rider-Wallis dry goods building, located on the south half of the same block (demolished to complete this building) and a smaller, four-story, Roshek building across the alley immediately east, which was located on the southwest corner of Eighth and Main streets, which was later occupied by Montgomery Ward's. The building's architect was Charles Wheeler Nicol (1888-1953) a noted regional designer of major hotels and school buildings. This was and remains the state's largest department store building.
Other department stores were also located downtown. In the 1960s, prior to the construction of Kennedy Mall, Stampfer's was on the northeast corner of Eighth and Main streets. J.C. Penney was on the west side of Main Street, just north of Stampfer's.
In the 1960s Roshek's decided to move their operations to smaller quarters at Kennedy Mall, a regional shopping center on the western edge of the city. Roshek's became one of the mall's anchor tenants, along with Montgomery Ward and Younker's, a Des Moines department store which made its first appearance in Dubuque when the mall was built. The new Roshek's store opened in 1970. The Roshek family subsequently sold the store to Gambles-Skagmo, Inc. The store closed in 1982. Today what was originally Roshek's space in the mall is occupied by two other department stores, Sears and Younkers.
After Roshek's moved from downtown the former department store was converted into an office building. For most of the time since conversion, it has been known as the Dubuque Building, except for a period of several years when it was called CyCare Plaza. The current primary tenant of the building is the McKesson Corporation, which had owned the building for a number of years and is still the largest tenant.
On January 15, 2009 IBM announced that it will move into the building creating a new technology service center with 1,300 employees after improving the building to make it a LEED-certified building [1]
