Minneapolis-Moline

, For nearly 100 years, this site was the location of a farm implements production facility. In 1873, a group of businessmen that included Dorilus Morrison, Minneapolis' first mayor, established Minneapolis Harvester Works. In 1880, the plant employed 200 men, many of whom lived with their families in the new housing going up around the plant., In 1902, Minneapolis Steel and Machinery Company (MSMC) purchased the property and began producing a wide range of metal products, including engines, boilers, mining machinery, and equipment. During World War I, production and employment soured as the factory was used to make war materiel. For the first time, large numbers of women worked on the shop floor to help meet production needs, replacing men who had gone to war. Near the end of the war, 6,000 people were employed at this site. , In the late 1920s, MSMC merged with two other firms to create Minneapolis-Moline. The Lake Street plant of the company specialized in the production of tractors and engines, and prospered in the 1930s and 1940s. The sprawling plant consisted of 20 shops in separate buildings, including an engineering department were the original jeep was designed in the building at 2841–47 26th Avenue South, the last remaining building of the Moline campus as of 2012., Despite continuing labor troubles, including a demonstration in 1946 that stopped traffic on Lake Street for 45 minutes and a strike that shut down the factory for two months, Minneapolis-Moline and its predecessors were valuable sources of income for neighborhood residents for many years and helped support the bustling retail and entertainment district that grew up around it., In 1962, White Motor Company of Lansing, Michigan, acquired Minneapolis-Moline. Declining profitability and a greater emphasis on truck production led to the plant's closing in 1972; 1,300 workers were laid off and pensions were lost. Unable to find a buyer for the factory, White Motor demolished all the buildings on the site. The City then purchased the land and helped redevelop it into a retail mall, anchored by Target's first inner-city store.,