Reader Jim Kay has helped us to answer a question. Kay went to the Ottawa County Historical Museum, where he’s an advisory board member, and dug into the files. Therein he found a photo of a wood elevator ablaze in Minneapolis, Kan. near the concrete elevator built in 1947 by Tillotson Construction Co.
The caption beneath the photo reads: “Remember the elevator fire of 1947? The blaze was at the Farmers Elevator in Minneapolis. The fireman walking toward the truck is thought to be the late Floyd Forney. Photo Courtesy of Lew Wilcox.”
Kay adds his own note: “Date should read 1952.”
Blog partner Kristen Cart first visited Minneapolis years ago, a visit I’d forgotten when I went there on my road trip and as I wrote a subsequent post. Kristen had already identified the elevator as Tillotson’s 100,000-bushel job that’s listed in our records.
With more than 500 posts and 1,700 images since 2011, it’s not always easy to remember.
Kristen’s listed all the specifications of the 1947 job and inserted some nice photos, including the one above. At the time of its construction and for some years after, the elevator was unique because of the integrated cupola (below). It was later retrofitted with the boxy high-rise cupola seen in the more recent photos.
Tillotson returned in 1948 to build the mill building.
Kristen wrote:
The elevator was starkly beautiful, balanced, and gracefully situated in its surroundings. Though it was small, its graceful proportions made it seem monumental.
On my visit, photo above, I missed the embossed manhole covers Kristen had already identified. The employee who came out of the office to greet me said the whole complex was the work of Chalmers & Borton, and instead of prowling around I took him at his word and then listened to him say the Tillotson elevator must have been the one destroyed by a fire, which he thought was in the 1990s.
Jim Kay has now verified that there was a fire. The rest of the tall tale I was given doesn’t match other facts we’ve turned up. What is now known thanks to Jim’s diligence is that the Tillotson elevator escaped a fire, then served as the anchor for an expanded operation, with a retrofitted cupola and storage annex by Chalmers & Borton.
The graceful Tillotson elevator is a survivor, still on the job. All gratitude to Jim Kay for his legwork, helping to flesh out the story.
