The Golden Rule/Emporium Department Stores

At opposing corners on the north side of Robert Street and Seventh Street, St. Paul, MN

Department stores are likely the longest-lasting queer sites in Twin Cities history. For most of the twentieth century, the impressive palaces of consumerism were places to see and be seen. Those appearing to be part of a upwardly-mobile class could (and still do) cruise for hours on the various floors under the guise of shopping for clothing and furniture.(1) Basement toilets were the most active places for queer male sexuality; men’s restrooms at the Golden Rule and Emporium (or Dayton’s and Donaldson’s in Minneapolis) were notorious in networks across the state, if not the nation.(2)

The Emporium's basement Tea Room in 1937. "Tea Room" became synonymous with cruisy toilets by 1970, when Laud Humphrey wrote a shocking expose on the clandestine activity.

The Golden Rule on Christmas Day in 1949.

The Emporium was built six years before the Golden Rule in 1914.(3) Located at the intersection of Seventh and Robert Streets, the two department stores competed for business at the busiest intersection of trolley lines in St. Paul. At the time, the stores sold everything from dresses to televisions to Christmas hams. The stores suffered with the development of suburban shopping centers and the downfall of the trolley system, and both stores closed in the late seventies.(4) Sexual activity may have occurred as the two stores faded, but this activity may have also been a lasting product of either building’s design. Like all other sizable department stores in the U.S., the Emporium and Golden Rule were giant and, by nature of their service, subdivided into scores of smaller rooms and enclaves. Customers far outnumbered the employees, and the heated buildings were among the few wintertime cruising sites that were free to enter all week. So long as a cruiser kept a low profile, they could spend they day inside without spending any money. Both buildings were retooled as office buildings, though the Emporium’s terra-cotta façade is presently covered by a modern glass veneer under the name of “Metro Square.”

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(1) Humphreys, Laud. Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places. New York: Rutgers, 1970. Page 157.

(2) Brown, Ricardo J. The Evening Crowd at Kirmser's: A Gay Life in the 1940s. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001. Pages 8, 116-119.

(3) http://www.placeography.org/index.php/Golden_Rule_Building,_85_7th_Place_East,_Saint_Paul,_Minnesota

(4) http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=building&lng=3&id=317580

Part of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN: 100 Queer Places in Minnesota History, (1860-1969), (1969-2010)