The Largest Flour Mill in the World

Article by Michael Rainville, Jr.

For 100 years starting in the 1850s, Minneapolis truly earned the nickname “Mill City.” We were a leading producer of lumber and flour, we had the most mills, and we built the largest mills in human history. At the peak of the flour milling industry in the city, we were known as the flour milling capitol of the entire world, and the biggest mill in the world at the time was the Pillsbury A-Mill.

1885 photo of the A-Mill taken from Hennepin Island

The first Pillsbury to come to the area was John Sargent Pillsbury, who would later become Minnesota’s eighth governor. He left New Hampshire for St. Anthony in 1855 and opened a hardware store. After not having the most success in the hardware business, he wrote back home in 1869 and requested that his nephew Charles Alfred Pillsbury join him in St. Anthony. Later that year on June 4th, Charles purchased a run-down mill for $10,000, or over $194,000 after inflation, that was producing 200 barrels of flour a day. Two years later, he bought the Alaska Mill, which he leased the year prior, and the C.A. Pillsbury & Company was born.

Even though the Pillsburys had no flour milling experience, they quickly caught on and made great advancements to the industry. Charles first made improvements to a device called a middlings purifier that cleaned and graded the middlings, the product of flour milling that is not flour, from the cracked wheat. This resulted in a higher food value in the wheat berry that is ground into flour. For the following decade, the Pillsbury Company would continue to improve and grow their brand of “Best” flour.

Image of a Pillsbury ad from the late 1880s

In 1879, Gov. John S. Pillsbury announced his company was going build a new, state-of-the-art flour mill that would be the largest in the world. The Pillsbury's hired local architect Leroy Buffington, who is also known as the father of modern-day skyscrapers. Unfortunately for the Pillsbury’s, Buffington was not a fan of industrial engineers, so when they consulted about the design, he barely gave them the time of day. Buffington wanted his mill to look grand and beautiful and stick out along the riverfront. What Buffington didn’t take into consideration when ignoring the industrial engineers was that the machinery in the building would be constantly running. The machines are powered by the river and you can’t turn off the river, so you can’t turn off the machines. After five or so years of constant grinding, the building literally started shaking itself apart, even with its eight-and-a-half-feet thick foundation walls. Concrete buttresses and thick metal cables were used to synch up the building, and they were in use until the latest renovations in 2013.

The “A” in A-Mill meant that it was the Pillsbury Company’s largest mill, but it also beat out its competitor across the Mississippi River, the Washburn A-Mill, to become the largest flour mill in the world. The mill immediately began producing 4,000 barrels of flour a day, and once the entire building was up-and-running, the mill produced 7,200 barrels of flour a day during a time with 500 barrels was considered a lot. During the next decade and a half, the Pillsbury Company continued to improve their facilities and production, and shortly after 1905, the mill would top out at 17,500 barrels a day!

In 1975, the A-Mill began to be phased out of operation but continued as a mill until 2003. Developer Shafer Richardson purchased the property, and in 2006 they proposed plans to renovate the mill, rebrand to East Bank Mills, and expand the campus into high-end loft-style condominiums. The 2008 financial crisis ended that vision for the development company, and in 2013, local developer Dominium bought the complex, renovated it, and turned it into affordable lofts for artists. The finishing touch on the Dominium renovation was to restore and update the A-Mill’s original 2,400 horse-power water turbine that powered the mill. Once that was complete, the building was producing 75% of its own electricity. The total cost for the project was $175 million.

Present day A-Mill Artist Lofts, with Mill & Main to the right. 

While the vast majority of flour mills have been razed and replaced with housing and park land, we Minneapolitan’s are very fortunate that milling complexes like the Pillsbury A-Mill have stuck around. Once the largest flour mill in the world, the iconic Pillsbury A-Mill continues to make a positive impact in Minneapolis by housing talented artists and providing opportunities for them to showcase their works in the Mill City. 

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About Michael Rainville, Jr.

A 6th generation Minneapolitan, Michael Rainville Jr. received his B.A. in History from the University of St. Thomas, and is currently enrolled in their M.A. in Art History and Certificate in Museum Studies programs. Michael is also a historic interpreter and guide at Historic Fort Snelling at Bdote and a lead guide at Mobile Entertainment LLC, giving Segway tours of the Minneapolis riverfront for 7+ years. Contact: mrainvillejr@comcast.net. Click here for an interactive map of Michael's past articles.