Frederick & Nelson

Frederick & Nelson was one of Seattle’s foremost department stores and was considered by many to be a Seattle institution. Founded by partners D.E. Frederick and Nels Nelson in 1890 as a second hand furniture store on Seattle’s Front Street, the store expanded steadily in its early years, starting with the sale of new furniture after the acquisition of the Queen City Furniture Co. in 1891. Early on, the store provided home delivery service, using its fleet of horse drawn delivery wagons. Among the store’s early customers were the local Native Americans, prospectors heading to the Yukon and the new hotels which had sprung up to accommodate the prospectors.

The store moved into the Rialto building at 2nd and Madison in 1897; the business gradually developed into a department store under the partners’ philosophy that their store should provide whatever merchandise their customers ask for. By 1906, Frederick & Nelson had annexed more space in the Rialto building, opened its first tearoom and introduced ready-to-wear men’s and women’s fashions, a novel alternative to fine clothing made-to-order.

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