Digital Division
416 Division St
Lawler Building
est. 1868
The Lawler Building, completed around 1868, is one of Northfield’s oldest buildings. The name comes from the Lawlers’ period of ownership, which lasted from 1908 through 1943, but it was Harold Thoreson, a first-generation Norwegian immigrant and one of the founders of St. Olaf College, who oversaw the building’s construction and its $2000 renovation four years later. He sold the space in 1885, and after a decade of much change, the Lawler Building found its longtime purpose in 1894, when Bierman Hardware moved in.
Two of the Lawler Building’s earliest occupants, Watson & Moses and the Rice County Journal
The Lawler Building, completed around 1868, is one of Northfield’s oldest buildings.
Holding of the hardware store at 416 Division Street saw turnover, but it lasted in this location until the 1960s, most recently under the name of Gambles Hardware. The Bierman name, that of its original owners, holds a historic legacy in Northfield, having been featured on many a shopfront over the years. While they no longer reside in this particular spot, that legacy lives on through the continued flourishing of business both in their family (see Bierman’s Home Furnishings and Bierman, Benson & Langehough Funeral Home) as well as in this original space they occupied—currently by Antiques of Northfield and by Town & Country Office Supply before them.
The DJJD Celebration in front of Gambles Hardware