John D. Van Allen (1850-1928) arrived in Clinton, Iowa in the summer of 1892. He had spent the previous thirty years working in the mercantile business and was at last ready to build his own dry goods empire in the thriving river port community of Clinton. Van Allen's broad mercantile experience began in Chicago where he worked for Field, Leiter, and Co. as a retailer. Ambition eventually led Van Allen to New York, where he worked as a retailer for A.T. Stewart and Co, and then left the retail side of the trade to work for the New York import firm of Morris and Harriman as director of distribution for the western United States.

John Van Allen had several reasons for electing to establish his new business in Clinton. First, the city was located 138 miles west of Chicago, and served as the first major rail stop for travelers headed west. Secondly, the community boasted a strong population base of 15,000 residents. Finally, Van Allen was able to purchase a partnership in an existing dry goods business in an ideal location on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Second Street. When Van Allen first entered the business in 1892, the store was one 2,500 square foot room. Less than a decade later, in 1905, the store had expanded to four rooms and over 11, 000 square feet. By 1908, John D. Van Allen and Son had become the most respected retailer in Clinton and was grossing over $300,000 per year.

In 1909, Van Allen found his plans to further expand the existing facility hindered by an inability to acquire any of the surrounding street level property. Therefore, in 1910 Van Allen purchased the land at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Second Street and began preparing plans for a multi-story department store. In September of 1910, John Van Allen received a letter from Frederick H. Shaver, Vice President of the People's Savings Bank in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In the letter, Mr. Shaver wrote that he had heard Van Allen was considering construction of a new department store and strongly encouraged Van Allen to consider hiring Chicago architect Louis Sullivan, who was currently building the bank's new facility. Two weeks later, Louis Sullivan himself sent a letter to John D. Van Allen requesting an interview for the position of project architect.

As a former Chicago retailer, John Van Allen was familiar with Mr. Sullivan's works in Chicago and was particularly impressed with Sullivan's design of the Carson Pirie Scott building. Van Allen commissioned Louis Sullivan as the project architect in March of 1911 and pair spent the following two years corresponding by mail, making plans for the new multi-story department store. Rather uniquely, Van Allen and Sullivan planned the building around intended use of the interior space. The men carefully laid out floor plans and designed displays, showcases, and aisles before creating plans for the building itself. The main floor of the new store was for general dry goods and men's furnishings. The second floor was women's costumes, and the third floor household fabrics, bedding and rugs. The top floor was not planned for immediate use and intended as an area for future growth. The resulting interior design included a plan with only two interior column lines on all four floors, creating open interiors for shopping. The column lines feature three rows of interior columns spanning east -west, which allowed for three spacious retail bays averaging over 28 feet in width.

The exterior of the building was designed to have urban appeal with plain surfaces, clean lines and harmonious proportions. In order to avoid anonymity amongst other buildings, the structure featured ornamentation with a strong sense of Sullivan's signature natural design motifs. Themes of dark brick and terra cotta ornamentation dominated the building's exterior design. The clean and simple lines and earth tones were intended to compliment three unique ornamental terra cotta mullions. While at first glance, the mullions appeared to be little more than creative personal flourish on the part of Sullivan, careful study of the building's structure reveals the genius behind the design. Sullivan used the ornamental mullions to visually correct imbalances in the building's proportions which were the result of designing the interior spaces first. Additionally, the decorative mullions serve to accentuate the height of the building and emphasize the wide spans of the interior aisles which made the building so unique.

The Van Allen and Son Department Store is the only small retail building that Louis Sullivan designed. In January of 1912, Sullivan wrote a letter to Van Allen summarizing his impressions of the planned building "the elevations are studied with a simple, but distinguished and impressive effect in view. This effect is based on the plain surfaces, the elegance of chaste lines, and harmonious proportions….My idea in short is a simple quiet building; yet with an air of distinction that comes from know how to do it."