Washburn "A" Mill
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| Washburn A Mill Complex | |
|---|---|
| (U.S. National Historic Landmark) | |
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| Location: | Minneapolis, MN |
| Built/Founded: | 1879 |
| Added to NRHP: | May 04, 1983 |
| Reference #: | 83004388 [1] |
| Governing body: | Minnesota Historical Society |
![The Mill City Museum [1] built around the ruins of the Washburn "A" Mill.](../../../upload/thumb/1/1d/Mill_City_Museum.jpg/180px-Mill_City_Museum.jpg)
The Washburn "A" Mill was the largest flour mill in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The original mill was built in 1874 by Cadwallader C. Washburn, but destroyed in an explosion in 1878. The mill was later rebuilt, and for nearly 50 years, the Washburn "A" Mill was the most technologically advanced and the largest mill in the world. At the peak of its production, it could grind enough flour to make 12 million loaves of bread per day. An ad from the 1870s advertised, "Forty-one Runs of Stone. Capacity, 1,200 Barrels per Day. This is the largest and most complete Mill in the United States, and has not its equal in quantity and quality of machinery for making high and uniform grades of Family Flour in this country." Advertising hyperbole aside, the mill, along with the Pillsbury "A" Mill and other flour mills powered by St. Anthony Falls, contributed greatly to the development of Minneapolis. Washburn later teamed up with John Crosby to form the Washburn-Crosby Company, which later became General Mills.
After World War I, flour production in Minneapolis began to decline as flour milling technology no longer depended on water power. Other cities, such as Buffalo, New York became more prominent in the milling industry. Later on in the mill's lifetime, General Mills started putting more emphasis on producing cereals and baking mixes and shifted away from flour milling. Also, since the Washburn "A" Mill was only equipped to produce white flour, it was unable to cope with the increase in demand of whole-wheat flour and other products. The mill was shut down in 1965, along with eight other of the oldest mills operated by General Mills, and left in disuse. In 1991, a fire nearly destroyed the old mill, but during the late 1990s, the city of Minneapolis, through the Minneapolis Community Development Agency, worked to stabilize the mill ruins. The Minnesota Historical Society now operates the Mill City Museum within the structure. The museum features exhibits of the history of milling, examples of the machinery that was used to grind wheat into flour, and a tour that shows the jobs that were performed on each of the eight floors of the mill.
[edit] References
- ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2006-03-15).
- Mill City Museum. Minnesota Historical Society. Retrieved on May 13, 2006.
- Hofsommer, Don L. (2005). Minneapolis and the Age of Railways. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0-8166-4501-9.
