Open Window

Gold Medal Flour

More from the Mill District.

In The Glow of the North Star

Dramatic Ruins

As promised in yesterday's blog, I'm going to share some of my favorite Mill City pics.

This was taken in 2010 from the inside of the ruins you saw in yesterday's shot.

Mill City Museum

Out motoring on my trike last night and spent some time around Mill City Museum.  Took one of my friends along and introduced her to the area.  Lots of interesting things to see down by the river.

I've been here many times over the years.  Love love LOVE the architecture.

I was going to link to some of my fav Mill City blog pics, but have realized that I've never blogged my favs!  I will correct this over the next several days.

I also had a photo shoot in this area in 2010.  You can reminisce here.

The "ruins" in front have an interesting history.  According to the Minnesota Historical Society:

Mill City Museum is built into the ruins of the Washburn A Mill, along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The original A Mill, built in 1874, was leveled by a flour dust explosion that claimed 18 lives. That explosion and the resulting fire destroyed much of the riverfront business area, cutting Minneapolis’ milling capacity in half.

The A Mill was rebuilt by 1880, with state-of-the-art machinery that permitted safer operations while producing higher quality flour. At the time it was the largest and most technologically advanced mill in the world, featuring new automatic steel rollers instead of traditional millstones.  During its heyday, it was said that the mill ground enough flour to make 12 million loaves of bread a day.

As technology and consumer preferences evolved, the A Mill became obsolete, and was shut down in 1965.

In 1991, it was nearly destroyed by fire.During the late 1990s, the Minneapolis Community Development Agency cleaned up the rubble and fortified the walls. Shortly thereafter, the Minnesota Historical Society announced its plan to develop a museum on the site.