Olivia MN

a small town in Renville County

Olivia is a city in Renville County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 2,484 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat.

Olivia was platted in 1878, and reportedly named for a female station agent named Olive, according to local history. A post office has been in operation at Olivia since 1879. The county seat was transferred from Beaver Falls to Olivia in 1900.

The Renville County Courthouse and Jail

is a historic building located at 500 East DePue Avenue in Olivia, Minnesota, United States; the seat of Renville County. It was constructed in 1902.

The first courthouse in Renville County was built in Beaver Falls in 1872. It was originally built as a jail, at a cost of $2000. In 1889 a 40-by-60-foot (12 m × 18 m) wood frame building was built, and the 1872 building was again used as the jail.

In 1895 the city of Olivia won a battle to become the county seat, and court business was held in a local business building. A court decision returned the county seat to Beaver Falls for two years, but then Olivia finally won the county seat permanently in 1900.

Architect Fremont D. Orff from Minneapolis designed the building, which was built at a cost of $88,000. The building has influences from a few different architectural styles.

The corner pavilions and the central tower have segmented blue-green copper domes, suggesting Second Empire architecture. The center pavilion has a porch with balusters, fluted columns, and an oculus-pierced pediment, which reflects Georgian architecture.

Corn Capital of the World

The Minnesota Senate has designated Olivia the "Corn Capital of the World". Olivia has been calling itself the "Corn Capital of the World" since 1973, when it erected its well-known 50-foot corn monument in the shape of an ear of corn.

Olivia is the home to nine seed research facilities. It is located in the middle of Renville County, Minnesota's leading producer of corn.

Corn Capital Days

Olivia celebrates Corn Capital Days during the last weekend of July. Activities include a parade, corn cob toss, corn-lympics, free corn feed, kiddie parade, Lion's walk-in, fly-in, drive-in breakfast, and live music.

ALCO Stores, Inc. (formerly Duckwall-ALCO Stores) was a retail chain operating 198 stores in 23 states, primarily in the United States Midwest. The company was founded in 1901 in Kansas by Alva Lease Duckwall.

It had its headquarters in Coppell, Texas. The company's 352,000-square-foot (32,700 m2) distribution center was located in Abilene, Kansas, where it was previously headquartered.

In October 2014, ALCO filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; subsequently the chain was sold to a liquidation firm and closed all of its stores by March 2015.