Mill City Museum

Mill City Museum

Established	2003
Location	704 South 2nd Street Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Type	History Museum
Director	Laura Salveson
Public transit access	Bus: 3, 7, 22, 55, 94, Hiawatha Line
Website	http://www.millcitymuseum.org/

Mill City Museum is a historical museum located in Minneapolis, MN. The museum focuses on the founding and growth of Minneapolis, especially flour milling and the other industries that utilized water power from St. Anthony Falls. Mill City Museum opened in 2003, built in the ruins of the Washburn A Mill located adjacent to the Mill Ruins Park on the banks of the Mississippi River. The museum is operated by the Minnesota Historical Society. The Washburn A Mill are part of the St. Anthony Falls Historic District and within the National Park Service's Mississippi National River and Recreation Area.

Exhibits

An 1879 boxcar shows how railroads transported wheat to the mills, and flour to market

A millstone used in previous flour milling processes.

Equipment used in the roller milling process.

The museum features exhibits about the history of Minneapolis, flour milling machinery, a water lab and a baking lab. The centerpiece of the exhibit is the multi-story Flour Tower, in which visitors sit in the cab of a freight elevator and are taken to different floors of the building, each designed to look like a floor in a working flour mill. Voices of people who worked in the Washburn A Mill are heard throughout the show. Visitors exit on the 8th floor, where extant equipment is interpreted by staff, and are then lead to the ninth floor observation deck to view St. Anthony Falls.

The Gold Medal Flour sign still shines at night

Local Artists

The work of local artists is featured throughout the building. Pieces by Joann Verburg, Tom Maakestad, Kim Lawler, Kathleen Richert, Paul Wrench and Becky Schurmann include murals, an art glass collage, a 15' Bisquick box, and sculpture.

Washburn A Mill

Main Article: Washburn A Mill

The first Washburn A Mill, built by C. C. Washburn in 1874, was declared the largest flour mill in the world upon its completion, and contributed to the development of Minneapolis. On May 2, 1878, a spark ignited airborne flour dust within the mill, creating an explosion that demolished the Washburn A and killed 14 workers instantly. The ensuing fire resulted in the deaths of four more people, destroyed five other mills, and reduced Minneapolis’s milling capacity by one third. By 1880, a new Washburn A Mill, designed by Austrian engineer William de la Barre, opened as the largest flour mill in the world, a designation it retained until the Pillsbury A Mill opened across the river in 1881.

After World War I, flour production in Minneapolis began to decline as flour milling technology no longer depended on water power. The mill was shut down in 1965 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. After the City of Minneapolis had cleaned up the rubble and fortified the mill's charred walls, the Minnesota Historical Society announced plans to construct a milling museum and education center within the ruins. Construction on the museum began in March 2001. Designed by Tom Meyer, principal for the architectural firm Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, the museum is a new building, built with the ruin walls of the 1880 Washburn A Mill. Efforts were made to retain as much of the historic fabric of the building as was possible. Many features of the Washburn A Mill were left intact, including turbine pits, railroad tracks, a train shed and two engine houses.

Mill City Live

Mill City Museum began an outdoor concert series named "Mill City Live" in the summer of 2004. The concerts are held in the museum's Ruin courtyard and features Twin Cities bands of various genres. "Mill City Live" was traditionally held on the first and third Thursdays of June, July, August, and September, however in 2009 and 2010 concerts will be held every Thursday in July and August

List of Bands/Performers
Year	Band/Performer	Band/Performer	Band/Performer	Band/Performer	Band/Performer	Band/Performer	Band/Performer	Band/Performer
2004	Tim Mahoney	Adam Levy	Ellis	Big Ditch Road	Kraig Johnson; Member of Run Westy Run, Iffy, The Jayhawks, and Golden Smog	Mark Mallman	Jessy Greene	The Owls
2005	Adam Levy	Nachito Herrera	The Hopefuls	Willie Walker and the Butanes	Faux Jean	Dana Thompson	Mark Olson; Founding Member of The Jayhawks	Spaghetti Western String Co
2006	The Hopefuls	Charlie Parr	New Primitives	Chris Koza	Yawo	Desdamona	Becky Schlegel	The Ashtray Hearts
2007	The Brass Kings	The New Congress	Molly Maher and Her Disbelievers	White Light Riot	JoAnna James	Salsa Del Soul	The Alarmists	Kip Blackshire
2008	The Owls	Romantica	M.anifest	Roma di Luna	Salsabrosa	Jelloslave	Kid Dakota	Little Man
2009	Jeremy Messersmith	Gospel Gossip	Caroline Smith and the Good Night Sleeps	Charanga Tropical	First Communion Afterparty	The Butanes
2010	Koerner & Glover	Aby Wolf	Joey Ryan & the Inks	Salsa Del Soul	The 757s	Idle Hands	Black Blondie

External Links

• Mill City Museum Homepage
• Mill City History Portal