After George M. Black built the Black Building, which replaced his own store, he decided to open a new store. The new store was located in the Walker Building at 621-623 First Avenue North.

Black had a contest to name the new store, calling it the Store Without a Name in the meantime.

Mrs. Al (Jean) Fagerwick, Fargo, put the first letters of Store Without a Name together and suggested SWAN as the new name, and it won the contest. Some people began referring to the store as the SWAN. But apparently more called it the Store Without a Name, so George gave up the SWAN idea. He'd offered $100 to the winner of the contest. But he wrote in his biography that he sent $5 to each of the 40 people who suggested he stick with Store Without a Name. It is not clear if Jean ever got her first prize money.

A visitor to this site, Ole, recalls several cases of Store Without a Name advertising which included a dominant picture of a swan. Most memorable of these were billboard ads starting many miles out of town which also indicated the number of miles to Fargo from these coincidental spots on the highway through the prairie. A swan motif would, of course, have no meaning if the story were not true.

Because of its unusual name, the store was once mentioned in Ripley's "Believe It or Not" newspaper feature.

The store eventually changed its name to Black's and moved to 110 Broadway in about 1961.

The advertisement below right is from 1956.