Industry's Impact on Washington Avenue

Industry's Impact on Washington Avenue. . , [Caption:] W.E. Holm Saloon, 409 Washington Avenue South, circa 1919, Early industrial development in Minneapolis was tied to St. Anthony Falls and the power it provided to what was to become the most important milling complex in the nation., Beginning in the late 1840s, trees from Ojibwe lands upriver were being made into boards in sawmills at the Falls of St. Anthony. This industry peaked in 1899 and Minneapolis was the largest sawmilling center in the nation. By 1910, with the timber gone, nearly all the sawmills had closed., The west side milling district was created in 1858 when a great canal was constructed along South First Street to improve distribution of water to the fast-growing milling industry. By the 1880s, Minneapolis had become the flour milling capital of the nation, a distinction it held for the next 50 years., Although logs and lumber were floated on the river, grains and industrial products moved by rail. After the Civil War, steel rails were built to move freight and passengers in and out of Minneapolis. This evolving transit byway attracted merchants, service providers and workers spurring further development such as hotels, warehouses, drug and grocer wholesalers, boot and shoe sellers, banks and places of amusement turning Washington Avenue into the "Business Heart of Minneapolis." One of the businesses occupying a portion of this site was itself a place of amusement, i.e., a saloon., Image Source: Minnesota Historical Society, W.E. Holm Saloon, 409 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis. Photograph Collection ca. 1919. Text Sources: Washington Ave: from the first street of Minneapolis to 21st century boulevard Timeline 1882 page 15, 1909 page 33. http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/hpc/landmarks/St_Anthony_Falls.asp. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Minneapolis,_Minnesota.