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
Website	http://www.millcitymuseum.org/

Mill City Museum is a historical museum located in Minneapolis, MN. The museum is focused on the flour milling and food production history of Minneapolis. 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 and Mill Ruins Park are part of the St. Anthony Falls Historic District and within the National Park Service's Mississippi National River and Recreation Area.

Exhibits

An exhibit showing how barrels of flour were loaded onto a railroad boxcar

A millstone used in previous flour milling processes.

Equipment used in the roller milling process.

The museum features exhibits on 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. In the centerpiece display of the museum, visitors are seated in a large elevator in the Flour Tower, where they are taken, floor by floor, to an animatronic recreation of the machinery that used to be in the mill. At the end of the tour, visitors are taken to an outdoor observation area at the top of the mill structure, where they can overlook the old complex as well as view the riverfront area.

At the top of the adjoining grain elevator, the "Gold Medal Flour" sign still shines at night. Across the river, the former competitor Pillsbury A Mill is topped with a sign reading "Pillsbury's Best Flour."

Local Artists

Throughout the exhibit is artwork created by local artists including Joann Verburg, Tom Maakestad, Kim Lawler, Kathleen Richert, Paul Wrench and Becky Schurmann. The pieces include a mixed-media collage, a 15’ Bisquick box, murals, and sculptures made of wood and fabric.

Washburn A Mill

Washburn A Mill was designed by Austrian architect by William de la Barre. The building completed construction in 1800 and at the time was declared the largest flour mill in the world. At the peak of the Washburn A Mill's production, it could grind over 100 boxcars of wheat into almost 2,000,000 pounds of flour 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.

On May 2, 1878, a spark ignited airborne flour dust within the mill, creating an explosion that demolished the seven story Washburn A Mill. The dust explosion destroyed two other nearby mills and an ensuing fire decimated the surrounding business district. Fourteen Washburn workers died as well as four workers in neighboring buildings. Known as the Great Mill Disaster, the explosion made national news and served as a focal point that led to reforms in the milling industry. In order to prevent the buildup of combustible flour dust, ventilation systems and other precautionary devices were installed in mills throughout the country.

By 1880, Washburn had rebuilt the A mill as the largest flour mill in the world until the Pillsbury A Mill was built across the river the following year. 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.

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. The Minnesota Historical Society left many features of the original mill intact, including flour bins, milling machinery, the engine house, rail corridor and a wheat house.

External Links

• Mill City Museum Homepage
• Mill City History Portal