Greening the Riverfront Series - Washburn A Mill Tour

"Greening the Riverfront" is a series of programs exploring our relationship with nature, past, present and future.  One of the programs featured three Tuesday night tours. The first two took place in July (Pillsbury A Mill and St. Anthony Falls Laboratory), and the third was August 17 at the Washburn A Mill.

During the tour, we visited the historic ruin of the Washburn A Mill, which is now home to Mill City Museum, the Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle architectural firm, the McKnight Foundation, Mill City Farmers Market and Brighton Development.

The tour was led by Tom Meyer of Meyer, Scherer and Rockcastle, the firm that designed the building.  Tom explained the challenges of preserving the 130-year-old building and ruins, discussed the materials used and showed us how the outside areas have been reinforced to withstand further damage from Minnesota weather.

Ron Kroese, Environmental Program Director for the McKnight Foundation, talked about the foundation’s work in the sustainability of the Mississippi River.

We also met Marjorie Hegstrom, Director of the Mill City Farmers Market, and a representative from Eureka Recycling, and learned how they work together on a composting program.  This is one of the many sustainability initiatives for the building.

There are more tours to come this Fall - we'll keep you posted!