Expert Essay: Architectural historian Larry Millett, author of Lost Twin Cities and numerous other books, offers a colorful tour of notable Minnesota buildings and building styles, from American Indian burial mounds to Beaux Arts monuments and suburban big boxes.
The exterior of Flour City Ornamental Iron Works (2637 Twenty-Seventh Avenue South), damaged after strike activity and a violent police response on September 10 and 11, 1935. Printed in the Minneapolis Star on September 11, 1935, 15.
Washburn A Mill was one of twenty-six Minneapolis flour mills that lined the Mississippi River below St. Anthony Falls during the city’s industrial heyday. By the early 1900s, its company (Washburn-Crosby) was the leading flour miller in Minnesota. The historic building has had five reincarnations in its more than 150 years: an original mill (1874–1878); a rebuilt second mill (1880–1924); a renovated mill (1924–1965); a warehouse (1965–1990); and a museum operated by the Minnesota Historical Society (2003–present).
The Washburn A Mill complex, Minneapolis, June 1978. Visible are the elevators, the mill building (the northeast end and northwest side), offices, and a utility building. Photograph by George R. Adams.
The side of Mill City Museum closest to the Mississippi River, with the iconic Gold Medal Flour sign topping the complex. Photograph by Wikimedia Commons user Runner 1928, March 26, 2017. CC BY-SA 4.0
The rear side of Mill City Museum, closest to the Mississippi River, with the iconic Gold Medal Flour sign topping the complex. Photograph by Wikimedia Commons user McGhiever, June 16, 2014. CC BY-SA 4.0
Diagram of the Washburn A Mill complex as it appeared in 1978. Sketch by G. R. Adams included in the National Register of Historic Places nomination form submitted in 1978.
