Barrels / Bags / Bust / and Beyond

Barrels / Bags / Bust / and Beyond. . , Mill Place had several lives before its conversion to offices in 1985. It began as a barrel factory. In the early days of milling in Minneapolis, flour was packaged in wood barrels. Albert Hall and Marcus Dann established a barrel-making business downriver from the milling district in 1877. In 1880, they incorporated as the Hall and Dann Barrel Company and moved to a new building on Third Avenue, now the southwest section of Mill Place. The company erected a second building at the corner of Third Avenue and First Street four years later, and filled in the space between the buildings in 1896., In 1885, the Hardwood Manufacturing and Storage Company occupied the building. Hardwood was apparently created by Hall and two new partners as a successor to the barrel company, and its activities were expanded to include warehousing. Hardwood continued to use the Hall and Dann name as well, but barrel-making was on the decline as bags increasingly dominated the flour industry. This transition was underscored by another business that had moved into the building: a Scottish bag manufacturer., In 1892, the company's name was shortened to the Hardwood Manufacturing Company. By this time, George H. Christian was the board's president. Christian has managed the Washburn-Crosby mill in the 1860s and then established his own milling and commodities business, quickly earning a fortune that allowed him to retire in 1875. The house that he and his wife, Leonora, began building in south Minneapolis in 1917 is now the Hennepin History Museum. Both died before the house was completed two years later. A biographer noted that George served as Hardwood's president "for a number of years, building up its trade to large proportions and making it one of the leading industrial and commercial institutions of the city.", In 1915, the business's name was changed to the Northern Bag Company, acknowledging the ascendency of bags over barrels in flour and other industries. Five years later, the company constructed a new facility at 700 Washington Avenue North and moved its operations there., It sold the Third Avenue complex to the St. Anthony Warehouse Company, probably owned by the principals of Northern Bag. The property was used for general storage except during the 1930s, when it served as an emergency shelter for the Salvation Army. Northern Bag remained in existence until 1936. The warehouse deteriorated until the 1980s, when people began rediscovering the potential of the riverfront. A pioneering renovation created an office complex, Mill Place, with the aid of historic tax credits. The project upgraded the building's exterior and the interior, replacing the 1896 infill with a new glass atrium., A product of Northern Bag, probably from around 1920. (Richard Ferrell Flour Milling Industry History Collection, Minnesota Historical Society), World War I brought labor shortages as men joined the military. Northern Bag's 1918 advertisement encouraged "young woman and girls" to apply for jobs at the factory as an act of patriotism. (Minneapolis Morning Tribune, October 10, 1918), This photo, taken around 1940, looks under the First Street Bridge towards where you are standing. The St. Anthony Warehouse, now Mill Place, is on the right. (City of Minneapolis Department of Public Works Bridge Office), The renovation of the St. Anthony Warehouse (left) into Mill Place, an office complex, appears to be underway in this 1985 photo. The earlier First Street truss bridge had been replaced by the bridge in the foreground in the mid-1950s. By the 1980s, the deck of this bridge was deteriorating. The city installed a new deck around 1994 and replaced the entire structure in 1999. (City of Minneapolis Department of Public Works Bridge Office),

Most companies that made barrels were "co-operatives" – collaborations between the coopers who worked there and mill owners. Hall and Dann followed a different model and had become the "most important" of the "non-co-operative barrel shops" in the city by 1893, according to a contemporary: "This concern began with ample capital, erected large buildings at the corner of Third Avenue South and First Street, equipped them with the latest machinery and commenced the production of barrels at the rate of 6,000 per day, when running at full capacity. Employment was given to 175 men, the number having since been increased at times." The writer noted, though, that "of late years, the cooperage business has declined to some extent on account of large shipments of flour in sacks instead of barrels." By 1900, the company claimed 300 employees and offered a variety of products including bags and twine., Albert R. Hall was better known for his political activities than for his business acumen. Born in Vermont, he had moved west by 1861 and enrolled in a Minnesota volunteer infantry company. Although seriously wounded in a Civil War battle, he recovered and returned to the conflict. After the war, he represented a Minneapolis district at the state legislature for seven terms, serving as speaker three times., He continued his political involvement after moving to Dunn County, Wisconsin, in 1880, the same year that Hall and Dann built the barrel factory on Third Avenue. He oversaw the mills that supplied the company's lumber, including one in Knapp, where he lived. He had six successive terms in the Wisconsin legislature, supporting the controversial reform movement led by Bob La Follette. Hall's death in 1905 at the age of 64, caused by a fluke accident, was noted on the front page of the Minneapolis Tribune., Photograph by Charles A. Zimmerman, Minnesota Historical Society. Letterhead from Hess, Roise and Company files.