Floyd County Museum

J.Wondergem

Well-known Member
Location
Rockford, Mi.
Early view of the Minneapolis-Moline Plant in Minneapolis, MN.







mvphoto18423.jpg
 
I've lived in Minneapolis area for a long time, and I don't recognize any of this picture as being the Minneapolis Moline plant. My father worked in the MM Como Ave foundry in 1949, and we lived just a bit west of that plant... no river close by. I am aware of the Lake St main plant, but do not think the Mississippi River is that close to it. And the Hopkins plant was a big part of their operation, but that was close to swamp areas and no major river. The size of these buildings and lack of open ground space for tractor storage just does not seem correct. Am I wrong??

Paul in MN
 
I agree with Paul. Had a friend and a co-worker--both worked at the Hopkins plant and never heard of anything near the river. Don't know where in the Minneapolis area that would be with all of the open land on the far side of the river.
 
Paul in Minnesoda,

Years ago I delivered groceries to the building that was the Twin-Cities plant in Hopkins, Minn.
That was 25 years or so ago. The name of the company was, Country Club Foods.
In the receiving room they had a big picture on the wall showing Twin-Cities tractors lined up to be put on rail flat cars.
Every time I was there I told them I would buy the picture, they said it would be mine if they ever got rid of it.
Went there one Monday morning and it was gone. They said over the weekend one of the top mucky mucks came in and wanted every thing clean up and it was thrown away with several pictures of interest.
 
That food warehouse is even bigger now, and owned by Super Value, the parent company for Cub Foods, probably the largest grocery chain in the Twin Cities metro area (and probably all of Minnesota). Up until about 3 years ago, we had an annual meeting of former MM employees, collectors of MM tractors and equipment, and anyone else who was interested in the MM company and its history. The Minnesota historical society (in St Paul) has thousands of MM company photographs, many available for purchase (copies that is). I have seen many of the photos and have a book showing a few hundred of them, but the one shown in the above posting just does not seem to be correctly identified.

Good Day!

Paul in MN
 


The only thing I know about it, is this was on face book by the Floyd County Museum. Thought it was a pretty good picture. On the roof of one of those building's is some writing, but probably just had been wrote on the photo.
 
I always like photos of the plant, do you have any of the Hopkins plant, I"ve seen a few before but if you have some I"d love to see, thanks for
sharing.
 
I have seen several photos of the Lake Street plant and the Hopkins plant. I was at the Hopkins plant about the time it was closed. , this does not look anything like either one. In fact, look at other tractor factories , they have similar looks . Not so many floors , but spread out over more area.
Still a very nice photo of a factory some where . clint
 
That is NOT Minneapolis, but rather the former Moline Plow Factory in Moline, Illinois. Looks to be a 1930's Photograph, perhaps 1940's, hard to tell on such a small photo. John Deere now owns much if not all of that property. The building with 2 pitched roofs, to the right of teh building with the Minneapolis-Moline sign is the "John Deere Pavilion."
 
The Lake Street plant was several miles from the Mississippi River & the Hopkins plant considerably farther. A no-brainer on this picture NOT being one of them.
 
G 1355, I mite have a pic or two of the Hopkins factory, but I have no idea where to start looking for them. Our photos are the wifes department, I will ask her about the pic. clint
 
(quoted from post at 21:36:56 04/01/15) G 1355, I mite have a pic or two of the Hopkins factory, but I have no idea where to start looking for them. Our photos are the wifes department, I will ask her about the pic. clint

The photo is of the Minneapolis Moline factory on 3rd Avenue in Moline, Illinois. The Bridge is the Moline arch bridge to the Rock Island Arsenal, which was replaced in the 1970s. The railroad tracks are the mainline of the Rock Island Lines, and the Burlington Route (CB&Q) line to Rock Island.
 

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