The North Star Woolen Mill, now the North Star Lofts, is a building in downtown

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, United States. The building, located in the St. Anthony Falls Historic District, was originally a

textile mill Textile manufacturing or textile engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful good ...

for the North Star Woolen Company. The mill was built in 1864 by W.W. Eastman and Paris Gibson on the west side of the west side canal. High quality

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

blankets, scarves, flannels, and yarns were manufactured at the facility and it became the nation's largest manufacturer of wool blankets by 1925. Entrepreneurs in the early days of Minneapolis had high hopes for developing a textile industry at the falls, similar to that of

Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, United States. Alongside Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, it is one of two traditional county seat, seats of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in ...

. However, the industry never had as much success as hoped for, mainly because Minneapolis was a long distance from eastern markets and shipping centers. The North Star Woolen Mill was an exception, and it remained a significant industry in Minneapolis until the 1940s. In 1949 the North Star Woolen Company moved its operations to

Lima, Ohio Lima ( ) is a city in Allen County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 35,579. It is located in northwest Ohio along Interstate 75 in Ohio, Interstate 75, appr ...

. In the 1950s North Star Woolen mills was used as a public warehouse, North Star Warehouse. North Star Warehouse existed from the 1950s to the late 1970s and had multiple locations, the Portland Ave location being the primary location. The building later sat empty until it was re-developed in 1998-99 into

lofts A loft is a building's upper storey or elevated area in a room directly under the roof (American usage), or just an attic: a storage space under the roof usually accessed by a ladder (primarily British usage). A loft apartment refers to large ...

. The building maintains its existing exterior including a sign reading "North Star Blankets".

References

ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE CENTRAL MINNEAPOLIS RIVERFRONTnorth star loftsNorth Star Woolen Mill Company Company records, 1869-1941.

Notes

External links

* *{{HAER , survey=MN-93 , id=mn0559 , title=North Star Woolen Mill, 109 Portland Avenue South, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, MN , photos=21 , data=19 , cap=2 Buildings and structures in Minneapolis Economy of Minneapolis Historic American Engineering Record in Minnesota Historic district contributing properties in Minnesota Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in Hennepin County, Minnesota Apartment buildings in Minnesota Woollen mills