William Bros Boiler Works and Manufacturing Company was a manufacturer of boilers and other heating equipment in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is one of the few surviving industrial buildings on Nicollet Island, and its former building is now the Nicollet Island Pavilion. [1]
William Bros Boiler Works was founded in 1893 on Nicollet Island in Minneapolis, Minnesota. [2]
Nicollet Island was first developed in the 1860s by William W. Eastman, a lumberman, and John Merriam, a St. Paul–based broker, who had initially proposed the area as a park (which was ultimately struck down). The pair designed the layout of the island with residential buildings on the north side of the island and industrial buildings to the south. In 1879, the Island Power Building was constructed on Merriam Street to power those industrial operations. In 1887, the Lintges, Conwell Company, another boiler manufacturer, set up shop on the island. They were based in a one-story wood-frame building. [3]
In 1893, most of these structures were destroyed in the Nicollet Island-Northeast Fire. On the afternoon August 13, 1893, a blaze burned buildings on the island including Lenhart Wagon Works, Cedar Lake Ice House and stable, the Clark Box Factory, and the Minneapolis Brewing Company. The fire also eventually spread to Boom Island. [4]
The William Bros Boiler Works opened soon after the fire, building on the former Lintges, Conwell Company site. The initial building was a one-story brick building with a steel-truss gable roof. In the early 1900s, the company expanded to a new plant that was located on the corner of east Hennepin Avenue and Johnson Street. [5] The Nicollet Island boiler factory eventually become part of the Durkee-Atwood complex, a rubber manufacturer, in 1923. [6]
While conversations about the land on Nicollet Island becoming a park had begun when the land was developed in the 1860s, they did not come to fruition until nearly 100 years later. The first park on Nicollet Island was at its southernmost tip and had been designated in 1944 as Bicentennial Park. [7]
In 1971, the National Park Service included the land around the nearby St. Anthony Falls on its list of National Historic Districts, and a 1972 report by city manager Tommy Thompson proposed redevelopment of the former industrial and railroad land on the island. In 1976, the Minneapolis Parks Board began plans to acquire the Nicollet Island property to create a new park, and purchased the former Boiler Works Building in 1981 (then being used by the Durkee-Atwood company). At $6.1 million for the sale, this was the parks board's most expensive land purchase to date. [7]
At the point of becoming a park, only the Boiler Works building and the Island Sash and Door Company building remained of the former industrial locations. The latter has since become the Nicollet Island Inn, and the former Boiler Works building is now the Nicollet Island Pavilion. [6] The pavilion was enclosed in 2003 for year-round use. [8]
The William Bros Boiler Works' east Hennepin plant location is now an office park off of the I-35W highway. [5]
Saint Anthony Falls, or the Falls of Saint Anthony, located at the northeastern edge of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the only natural major waterfall on the Mississippi River. Throughout the mid-to-late 1800s, various dams were built atop the east and west faces of the falls to support the milling industry that spurred the growth of the city of Minneapolis. In 1880, the central face of the falls was reinforced with a sloping timber apron to stop the upstream erosion of the falls. In the 1950s, the apron was rebuilt with concrete, which makes up the most visible portion of the falls today. A series of locks were constructed in the 1950s and 1960s to extend navigation to points upstream.
Nicollet Mall is a twelve-block portion of Nicollet Avenue running through Downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is a shopping and dining district of the city, and also a pedestrian mall and transit mall. Along with Hennepin Avenue to the west, Nicollet Mall forms the cultural and commercial center of Minneapolis.
Nicollet Avenue is a major street in Minneapolis, Richfield, Bloomington, and Burnsville in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It passes through a number of locally well-known neighborhoods and districts, notably Eat Street in south Minneapolis and the traffic-restricted Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis.
The Stone Arch Bridge is a former railroad bridge crossing the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the only arched bridge made of stone on the entire Mississippi River. It is the second oldest bridge on the river next to Eads Bridge. The bridge was built to connect the railway system to the new Union Depot, which at that time was planned to be built between Hennepin Avenue and Nicollet Avenue. The bridge was completed in 1883, costing $650,000 at the time. 117 Portland Avenue is the general address of the historic complex.
Nicollet Park was a baseball ground located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The venue was home to the minor league Minneapolis Millers of the Western League and later American Association from 1896 to 1955.
Minneapolis is officially defined by its city council as divided into 83 neighborhoods. The neighborhoods are historically grouped into 11 communities. Informally, there are city areas with colloquial labels. Residents may also group themselves by their city street suffixes: North, Northeast, South, and Southeast.
Nicollet Island is an island in the Mississippi River just north of Saint Anthony Falls in central Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to the United States Census Bureau the island has a land area of 194,407 square metres (0.075 sq mi) and a 2000 census population of 144 persons. The island makes up a large part of the city-designated Nicollet Island/East Bank neighborhood. The island is named for cartographer Joseph Nicollet, who mapped the Upper Mississippi in the 1830s.
Grain Belt is a brand of beer brewed in the American state of Minnesota, by the August Schell Brewing Company. The beer has been produced in a number of varieties. Grain Belt Golden was the original style introduced in 1893. The current offerings are: Grain Belt Premium, first introduced in 1947; Grain Belt Premium Light; Grain Belt Nordeast, introduced on April 7, 2010; and the newest offering, Grain Belt Lock & Dam, introduced in 2016. It was originally produced by the Minneapolis Brewing Company which formed with the merger of four smaller brewers in 1891. Soon after introduction, Grain Belt became the company's flagship product. It was brewed at the original Grain Belt brewery in Minneapolis, Minnesota until 1976. A series of other owners followed, and Schell took over the product line in 2002.
Lake Street is a major east-west thoroughfare between 29th and 31st streets in Minneapolis, Minnesota United States. From its western most end at the city's limits, Lake Street reaches the Chain of Lakes, passing over a small channel linking Bde Maka Ska and Lake of the Isles, and at its eastern most end it reaches the Mississippi River. In May 2020, the Lake Street corridor suffered extensive damage during local unrest following the murder of George Floyd. In August of the same year, city officials designated East Lake Street as one of seven cultural districts to promote racial equity, preserve cultural identity, and promote economic growth.
Saint Anthony Main is an stretch of buildings on Main Street across from Saint Anthony Falls in the Marcy-Holmes and Nicollet Island/East Bank neighborhoods of Minneapolis. The area is part of Southeast, Minneapolis, as it was originally the Main Street through the township of St. Anthony, Minnesota prior to most of that township's annexation in 1872. It opened as a festival marketplace in the 1980s.
Northeast is a defined community in the U.S. city of Minneapolis that is composed of 13 smaller neighborhoods whose street addresses end in "NE". Unofficially it also includes the neighborhoods of the University community which have "NE" addresses, and the entirety of the Old Saint Anthony business district, which sits on the dividing line of "NE" and "SE" addresses. In the wider community, this business district, which is the oldest settlement in the city, is often identified as the heart of Northeast, in part because it lies across the Mississippi River from Downtown Minneapolis. Northeast is sometimes referred to as "Nordeast", reflecting the history of northern and eastern European immigrants and their language influence.
Minneapolis is the largest city by population in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The origin and growth of the city was spurred by the proximity of Fort Snelling, the first major United States military presence in the area, and by its location on Saint Anthony Falls, which provided power for sawmills and flour mills.
Minneapolis is the largest city in the state of Minnesota in the United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County.
Charles Morgridge Loring was an American businessman, miller and publicist. Raised in Maine to be a sea captain, Loring instead became a civic leader in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he was a wealthy flour miller and in Riverside, California where he helped to build the first city hall. He was a popular and generous man who enjoyed many friendships and business associations.
Northwestern Consolidated Milling Company was an American flour milling company that operated about one-quarter of the mills in Minneapolis, Minnesota, when the city was the flour milling capital of the world. Formed as a business entity, Northwestern produced flour for the half-century between 1891 and 1953, when its A Mill was converted to storage and light manufacturing. At its founding, Northwestern was the city's and the world's second-largest flour milling company after Pillsbury, with what is today General Mills a close third. The company became one of three constituents of a Minneapolis oligopoly that owned almost nine percent of the country's flour and grist production and products by 1905. This occurred as a result of their attempt at a United States monopoly.
The Mill District is an redeveloped former industrial within Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, and a part of the larger Downtown East neighborhood. The area contains several former flour mills left over from the days when Minneapolis was the flour milling capital of the world. With almost none of the mills still active, a number of these have been converted into condominiums leading to a revitalization of the neighborhood.
Franklin Steele was an early settler of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, of Scottish descent, Steele worked in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, post office as a young man, where he once met President James Buchanan.
The following are all the contributing resources to the Saint Anthony Falls Historic District in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, thus these properties are on the NRHP. The "period of significance" of the District was 1858–1941. The district's archaeological record is considered to be one of the most-endangered historic sites in Minnesota.
The Eastman tunnel, also called the Hennepin Island tunnel, was a 2,000-foot-long (610 m) underground passage in Saint Anthony, Minnesota, dug beneath the Mississippi River riverbed between 1868 and 1869 to create a tailrace so water-powered business could be located upstream of Saint Anthony Falls on Nicollet Island. The tunnel ran downstream from Nicollet Island, beneath Hennepin Island, and exited below Saint Anthony Falls.
The Northwestern National Life Insurance Company Home Office, was also known as the Loring Park Office Building, and is now a 75 unit boutique apartment complex known as 430 Oak Grove located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was designed by the architecture firm of Hewitt and Brown in the Beaux-Arts style as the headquarters of the Northwestern National Life Insurance Company. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 16, 2012.
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