Foreign Lands: At Least They Didn't Trade Santana For It

I was in Lincoln, Nebraska last week, and it turns out they have a nice little "warehouse" area near the railroad tracks.  I got a few pictures while I was there, but (girlfriend's) familial duties kept me from doing a thorough survey. Don't tell my girlfriend (who probably isn't reading this), but I'll probably be back and hope to grab more pictures.

Anyway, here we have the Humber Manufacturing Co., which according to the side of the building seems to have made "engines" and  "threshers."  Unfortunately, I'm not get a lot of other evidence from Google, so maybe we'll just stick close to these cool pictures:

Soylent Purple?

This is going to be a quick one.  I've been home sick from work, which means being both bored and not terribly motivated, which seemed like a good time to put up this sign.  It's not paint.  It's not technically a ghost. But I liked the combination of the aging painted metal sign and the aging metal alarm.

A Yahoo user says Global Surplus Machinery is a scientist's dream, filled with both good stuff and junk.  This is a pretty cool picture of the place from behind during twilight.  Otherwise, the place doesn't seem to have much of a footprint on the interwebs.

The alarm is from Viking.  I guess that's probably this one.  But maybe it's this one.  At least it isn't this one.

To The Moon?

If you can read this one, on the side of 708 3rd St., you have better eyesight than I. But lo!, I have a hint for you:

We have some pretty cool-looking stone work, providing a longer-lasting, readable reminder for what the side used to say in paint. And if that's not cool enough for you, check out the front entryway:

So, all this screams, "hey, there used to be a lot of money in this business" to me. It's part of my my agricultural series, and a reminder of how this region made its mark (well, its second mark) off the region's farms.

Emerson Newton, of Batavia, IL, as you can see, built this building in 1904, and, along with its neighbor (coming soon), is on the national register of historic places. Unfortunately, I've got a lot more on the building than on the company.

The historical society has a number of old images, from 1906, 1974 (with a United Warehouse painted on the side, oddly enough), and 1966, with an Allis-Chalmers sign visible on the side. It's not particularly relevant, but it has renewed significance for me because grandfather used to have a farm implement business in Clear Lake, WI. He died years ago, but I learned just last week, at his brother's funeral (just a few days short of 99), he sold Allis Chalmers machinery. So, basically, this means that these guys are sort of the competition, and, therefore, sort of evil.

The Guys From Winger Could Probably Help

I couldn't get too close to this one, and was limited to iPhone photography as I was on my bike, but I've started to venture a tiny bit out of the downtown core. This one is visible from the west bank Mississippi bike path, and drew me a tiny bit west and across the railroad tracks. This is and was a highly industrial area. The building abuts the tracks and says both "Diamond Iron Works Inc." and "Mahr Mfg. Company."

The first apparently dates to the 1880s as a repair shop for saw mill, flour mill and other industrial machinery. The company apparently assembled machinery and crushers to be sold under the brand names of others.

The second apparently was a division of the former that was active from 1937 to 1953. The historical society has a good picture from 1954 with sings for the company prominently on display. I'm not sure that this is the same location, but there is also a good one of Mahr furnaces loaded on a rail car from 1922 and a shop interior from 1926. Today it is K&K metal recycling.

Throw Some Venison On the Barbie

I promised my own shot of the front of the Deere & Webber building, and I'm a bit short on time, so I'll throw it up quickly here. Perhaps it will give me a chance to make up for the horrific double pun in that post title, for which I've taken some gentle crap on the personal front.

All I'd like to add is that I've recently discovered Bar La Grassa, which is in the building immediately to the left of this photo. If you haven't been, you should go. I looooove the gnocci.

Deere Grylls?

The Deere & Webber Company, according to one source, was an offshoot of John Deere that sold bicycles. Another source identifies it as simply the branch office, or distributor, based here in Minneapolis, providing a trademark or logo used by Deere & Webber in 1880. Deere & Webber may also have made buggies and carriages in the pre-tractor days. The company was apparently named for Christopher Webber (along with Deere of course), who ran Deere interests in Minneapolis from 1881 onward before getting his name in lights in 1893. Collection suits were apparently still being brought in the Deere & Webber name at least as late as 1942. Mr. Webber apparently married into the Deere family and came to have significant positions within the company along with prominence within the Minneapolis community.

This sign is actually on the back of the building, facing 2nd Ave. N. The front of the building, which I will feature with my own picture at some point in the future, is also quite interesting.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

One more block down Washington there are ghost signs covering an entire side of a building. The two on the right are for warehouse space (big shocker here in the warehouse district). I can't make out the top, but spanning the building in the second row of signage we have "Martin Parry Commercial Bodies." Sounds pretty cool, right? Like maybe back in the day you could buy cadavers for TV commercials or something? Awesome!?

Okay, so not quite that macabre. Martin Parry was once a vehicle manufacturer, but by 1915 was specialized in building truck bodies for the Ford Model T (click the link for a great set of illustrations from the company's 1926 catalog). An analyst report from 1923 says the company was formed in a combination of two predecessors in 1919. The company was bought by GM in 1930 (more great illustrations) and renamed the Chevrolet Body Division. This sign was therefore likely painted sometime between 1919 and 1930, and probably graced a distributor of Martin Parry bodies. You can find it at 607 Washington Ave. N.

Meanwhile Down On The Farm

This building at 312 N. Washington Ave. appears to be mostly empty, although the first floor seemed to be the home of the Institute of Production and Recording. Clearly it was once a farm implement dealer in the heart of downtown Minneapolis. There are two signs for Van Brunt Seeder, founded in the 1850s by inventors of an automated seeding machine. The company was apparently the largest farm implement manufacturer in the world as of 1911, the same year it was consolidated into John Deere. The absence of that famous name may mean that this sign dates to even earlier times.

The other ad is for Milwaukee Harvester Company, which was part of a major consolidation in the farm machinery business in 1902 that formed International Harvester and that was eventually challenged under the federal antitrust laws. The New York Times published a notice of the company's acquisition on August 13, 1902 saying that the buyer was unknown.

Agriculture is still big business in Minnesota, but its place at the heart of our culture is fading. I've watched how the Minnesota State Fair has changed over my lifetime. The machinery part of Machinery Hill keeps shrinking. Farm commodities reports are gone from the local news (although as I don't listen to WCCO anymore, maybe I just miss them). TV isn't dominated by agricultural ads. These signs are a reminder of how central farming used to be.