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. This building, completed in 1928, is a block long and half a block wide. It is one of the tallest buildings in Dubuque. It replaced a smaller, four-story, Roshek building across the alley on the southwest corner of Eighth and Main streets, which was later occupied by Montgomery Ward's.
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 an attempt was made to turn the lower floors of the former Roshek building into a mini mall. Later it 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 has owned the building for a number of years.
