Mill City Museum facts for kids
 |
|
 |
|
| Established | 2003 |
|---|---|
| Location | 704 South 2nd Street Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA |
| Type | History Museum |
| Public transit access | Bus Routes 3, 7 and 22, METRO Blue Line, METRO Green Line |
The Mill City Museum is a cool place to visit in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It's built inside the old ruins of the Washburn "A" Mill. This historic spot is right next to Mill Ruins Park and the Mississippi River.
The museum opened in 2003 and is part of the Minnesota Historical Society. It teaches you all about how Minneapolis grew, especially focusing on flour milling. This industry used the powerful hydropower from Saint Anthony Falls. The old mill building itself dates back to the 1870s. It's so important that it's listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It's also part of the St. Anthony Falls Historic District.
Contents
What Can You See at the Museum?
The museum has lots of fun things to explore. You can learn about Minneapolis's past and see old flour milling machines. There's even a water lab and a baking lab where you can try things out.
The most exciting part is the Flour Tower. You get into a special elevator that looks like a freight elevator. It takes you to different floors of the building. Each floor is set up to look like a real working flour mill. You'll hear voices of people who used to work there.
When you finish the Flour Tower, you'll exit on the 8th floor. Here, museum staff will explain the old equipment you see. Then, you'll go up to the ninth-floor observation deck. From there, you get an amazing view of St. Anthony Falls!
You can also see the famous Gold Medal Flour sign. It still lights up at night on top of the grain elevator next door. Across the river, you'll spot another old mill, the Pillsbury A Mill. It has a sign that says "Pillsbury's Best Flour."
Art Around the Museum
Local artists have created cool artworks all over the museum. You can see murals, a colorful glass collage, and even a giant 15-foot (4.6 m) Bisquick box! There are also interesting sculptures to discover.
The Story of the Washburn A Mill
The first Washburn A Mill was built by Cadwallader C. Washburn in 1874. When it was finished, it was the biggest flour mill in the world! This mill helped Minneapolis grow into a big city.
But on May 2, 1878, something terrible happened. A spark caused flour dust in the mill to explode. This explosion destroyed the Washburn A Mill and killed 14 workers right away. The fire that followed killed four more people. It also destroyed five other mills. This meant Minneapolis lost one-third of its ability to make flour.
This event was called the Great Mill Disaster. It was big news across the country. But it also led to important changes. To stop flour dust from building up and exploding, new ventilation systems were put into mills everywhere.
Rebuilding and Innovation
By 1880, a new Washburn A Mill opened. It was designed by an engineer from Austria named William de la Barre. This new mill was also the biggest flour mill in the world for a short time. Then, the Pillsbury A Mill opened across the river in 1881.
At its busiest, the Washburn A Mill could grind enough wheat to fill over 100 train cars every day. That made almost two million pounds of flour! An old ad from the 1870s said it was the "largest and most complete Mill in the United States."
This mill, along with others powered by St. Anthony Falls, really helped Minneapolis become a major city. In 1983, the mill was named a National Historic Landmark. This was because of its new technology and its importance to the history of General Mills.
Later, Cadwallader Washburn teamed up with John Crosby. They formed the Washburn-Crosby Company, which later became General Mills.
The Mill's Later Years
After World War I, flour production in Minneapolis started to slow down. New technology meant mills didn't need water power as much. Other cities, like Buffalo, New York, became more important for milling.
Over time, General Mills started focusing more on making cereals and baking mixes. They moved away from just making flour. The Washburn A Mill closed down in 1965.
The mill sat empty for many years. In 1991, a fire almost destroyed the old mill completely. Fires and explosions were always a danger for flour mills. The A-Mill had a serious fire in 1928 too. The mill had a good sprinkler system that could have stopped the 1991 fire quickly. But since the mill was empty, it wasn't heated, and the sprinklers weren't working.
In the late 1990s, the city of Minneapolis worked to make the mill ruins safe. After the city cleared the debris and made the damaged walls strong again, the Minnesota Historical Society announced a plan. They decided to build a milling museum and education center inside the ruins!
Construction on the museum started in March 2001. The architects designed a new building that uses the old ruin walls of the 1880 Washburn A Mill. They tried to keep as much of the original building as possible. Many parts of the Washburn A Mill were left just as they were. This includes the pits where the turbines used to be, old railroad tracks, and train sheds.
Images for kids
-
An 1878 picture showing the Great Mill Disaster.
-
This 1879 boxcar shows how trains moved wheat to the mills and flour to markets.
-
A millstone was used in older ways of grinding flour.
-
This equipment was used in the newer roller milling process.
