On This Date in Minnesota History: March 11

March 11, 1971 – Butler Square, a brick wholesale warehouse and office building designed by Harry Wild Jones in Gothic Revival style, was placed on the National Record of Historic Places on this date.¹

“It was originally built [in 1906–08] as a warehouse for Butler Brothers, a mail-order firm. It had rather heavy construction in keeping with its function as a warehouse, featuring thick interior masonry walls with thin, recessed windows topped by corbelled parapets. The interior is built with heavy timber posts and beams, cut from Douglas fir grown near Aitkin, [Minn]. The columns are 24 inches wide at the bottom level, gradually diminishing to 9 inches wide on the top level. The basement included a horse stable, to accommodate deliveries, and the building had three large coal-fired boilers for heating.

Mechanical elevators were used to move goods throughout the building. The building had a rail spur to facilitate boxcar loading. Gradually, as truck transportation became more competitive with rail transportation, the urban location of the building rendered it inefficient as a warehouse.

In 1972, real estate developer Charles Coyer purchased the building with plans to rebuild the east half of the building as an office-retail complex. As part of the renovation, a central atrium was built to allow natural light into the building. This made the retail and office space more marketable, since the large floor space and small windows made it difficult to get enough natural light into the interior. James H. Binger purchased the building in 1979 with similar plans to develop the west half of the building. The atrium on that side was built with more of the heavy timber construction exposed, and more efficient mechanical systems were installed. The renovation of the building has served as a catalyst for additional development and preservation within the Minneapolis Warehouse District.”<sup>2

1</sup>http://nrhp.mnhs.org/NRDetails.cfm?NPSNum=71000437
²http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butler_Brothers_Company_(building)

Butler Square
Photo taken by Pamela J. Erickson. Released into the public domain March 11, 2013,
as long as acknowledgement included.