Rosie Rosenthal reflects on store's legacy after as it prepares to close

MINNEAPOLIS — A trademark Twin Cities furniture store that's been around since the late 1800s is closing its doors.

Since 1895, the name Rosenthal has been synonymous with Twin Cities furniture.

"The oldest furniture store in Minneapolis and a family legacy. What a wonderful legacy it's been," Martin Goffin, the general manager for the downtown store, said.

Rosenthal has had its downtown location along North 5th Street since 1955. It reopened just over a month ago, after being closed for the last few years.

RELATED: Twin Cities furniture store will close permanently after 128-years of business

Through two economic recessions, a few floods and a fire, the family-owned company survived.

"Everybody's responding in kind, coming back and making purchases and saying goodbye, and it's been a lot of fun," Goffin said.

Rosenthal is now liquidating its inventory, with price cuts between 50 and 65 percent.    

Both the downtown and Minnetonka stores will remain open until all the merchandise is sold.

"I had a couple surgeries, was out for a year and a half, and it made me think that there's more to life than working," owner Rosie Rosenthal said.

Rosenthal's business is named after her great-grandmother, the original founder.

"One-hundred twenty-eight years and four generations just doesn't happen and there are very few family businesses that last that long," Rosenthal said.

When the light rail was built a decade and a half ago, the company had to come up with some clever, edgy advertising, featuring Rosenthal's mother and two dogs, to let people know they were still there behind the passing trains.

Rosenthal now sees the impact her family business has had on the entire community.

"So many people have come in from the past, that have bought from my grandfather my parents, and I had no idea we made such a niche in the community," said Rosenthal.