Tag Archives: grain elevator

‘Stored Potential’ will expand art themes at Tillotson’s Vinton Street elevator

by baggyparagraphs

Illustration from Emerging Terrain, a Nonprofit Research & Design Collaborative

The Vinton Street elevator represents a bellwether for Tillotson Construction Co. Not only was it high and mighty but also close at hand for the company with headquarters in Omaha. Family and friends who never went to the small grain-belt towns where Tillotson put up elevators could see this one for themselves. In fact, they couldn’t miss it. And this was particularly true after Interstate 80 was completed: the superhighway went right past the complex that had risen and then expanded and finally fallen into abandonment.When I worked for a time at Omaha’s very first Federal Express office, a part-time job during my freshman year of college, I reguarly drove past the complex while on my way to the airport, having no idea my grandfather’s company had built the key elevator. And in the many times I’ve gone by since then on my return visits to Omaha, I still had no idea.The other day, speaking with my Uncle Tim Tillotson, he mentioned Vinton Street and said that Uncle Charles, the oldest son of Reginald and Margaret Tillotson, worked the night shift during the construction phase.

He also told me about the public art project.

Photo from Emerging Terrain

The abandoned elevator and silos are “bombproof,” as he put it, not readily lending themselves to any scheme for demolition. Even though my own grandfather and uncle had a hand in putting up this structure, I will admit it became rather tedious.

But I object to the invective of the blogger who used the term “visual pollution” and casually denigrated the elevators. Tillotson Construction took pains to erect symmetrical buildings with graceful cupolas.

In language more suitable for a grant proposal than a black eye, Anne Trumble, a thoughtful woman, describes the Vinton Street elevators as a blank canvas for “a large-scale installation re-purposing a prominent grain elevator no longer used for its original purpose.”

In September of 2010, her nonprofit, Emerging Terrain, weighed in with “Stored Potential: Re-Purposing the Mid-Century Grain Elevator” exercise, which allowed artists to work on a large canvas, draping thirteen banners, each of twenty-by-eighty-feet, on the silos.

The theme was land use, and the result was stunning.

Good news: next month, thirteen new banners will be added, this time addressing transport–the physical kind, not the ecstasy some will experience when seeing the finished result. 


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Omaha World-Herald went high above the Vinton Street elevator in ’47

by baggyparagraphs

Omaha World-Herald photo in 1947 by John S. Savage, from http://www.historicomaha.org

From www.historicomaha.org

During the summer of 1947, the Omaha World-Herald published a series of 45 aerial photographs depicting the city of Omaha. The pictures were later published in a book entitled “Omaha From the Air.” The photographs were taken by World-Herald staff photographer John S. Savage. The plane was piloted by Marion Nelson of the Omaha Aircraft Company.

Omaha is known around the world for many things. Not the least is its giant grain and milling industry.

This view from the Magic Carpet shows just a segment of the industry which employs thousands here, puts bread and cereals on tables over the world.

From the Magic Carpet you are looking south. The large structure in the foreground is the 1,750,000-bushel elevator of the Westcentral Co-operative Grain Company. Seemingly rising out of the elevator at the rear are the buildings of the Maney Milling Company. South of the elevator is the plant of the Famous Molasses Feed Company.

At far left in the background is the Omar, Inc., mill. Nearby, but not shown, is the Allied Mill. The Butler-Welsh Grain Company elevator is behind the span shown in the background. Also not shown is the Kellogg plant. It is off to the right in the foreground.

The span in the foreground is the Bancroft Street viaduct. Behind it is the Vinton Street viaduct. Far in the background is the Dahlman Crossing. The street at far right is Twenty-seventh.

The two sets of tracks shown at left in the foreground are those of the Burlington. The center string belongs to the Union Pacific and the area is known as its Summit yards. At right are yards of the Chicago and Great Western Railroad.

Through the yards shown here come much of the grain that makes Omaha the nation’s fifth largest grain and milling center.

Carload grain shipments so far this year total 46,508.

Most of the grain pours into Omaha through the Omaha Grain Exchange, organized in 1904. Actually, only little pans of samples appear on the floor of the Exchange. The rest stays in box cars until it is bought, or is stored in elevators.

The market’s 18 elevators have a capacity of 28,185,000 bushels. They include one of the largest in the world, the 10 million bushel elevator of Cargill, Inc.

The railroads serve the grain market.

A good share of Omaha grain receipts is turned into food products here. There are three flour mills, with a daily milling capacity of 10,800,000 pounds. Allied Mills, Inc., has a capacity of 1,200 tons daily in its feed and alfalfa meal plant. The Kellogg Company‘s daily corn products capacity is 7,200 bushels.

A major Omaha grain consumer is the Farm Crops Processing Corporation’s alcohol plant. It can gulp up 40 thousand bushels a day.

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One more view, approaching driveway, of Tillotson’s Dallas Center elevator

by baggyparagraphs

 

Photo by Kristen Osborn Cart

Approaching Tillotson Construction’s Dallas Center, Iowa, elevator from a different angle yields a view of the driveway used by co-op members when unloading grain.

This original elevator built in 1955 boasted capacity of 250,000 bushels and rose 166 feet in height.

Dallas Center Farmers Cooperative had contracted Tillotson to do the job for $151,000.

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Handsome headhouse adds distinction to Tillotson’s Dallas Center elevator

by baggyparagraphs

Story by Ronald Ahrens

Photo by Kristen Osborn Cart

In a phone conversation today with my Uncle Tim Tillotson, who lives in Virginia, he initially had no recollection of Tillotson Construction Company’s elevator in Dallas Center, Iowa.

He put this down to his hitch in the Army from 1955 to 1957.

After a while, though, the name Dallas Center started to come back to him a little. Uncle Tim reckoned it was indeed among the dozens and dozens of Tillotson Elevators.

This was the first he had heard about Our Grandfathers’ Grain Elevators. (We played phone tag in January and now finally got in touch.) He said he would look at it at one of his neighbors’. He doesn’t have a computer.

We’re hoping he can come up with some pictures and maybe a few documents, and that his memory is sparked.

One question to me was whether we’re aware of the distinctive architectural styles of individual construction companies. I could answer that indeed we are, thanks in large part to Gary Rich’s expositions through words and pictures.

A Tillotson characteristic is the rounded headhouse, also called a cupola, which Kristen has so graphically captured in this image.

It’s good to see the window panes have been replaced as they’ve broken: I presume that explains the checkerboard pattern.

But then after all, in Dallas Center, as Kristen points out, the Tillotson elevator is at the center of the community, so naturally it’s kept up.

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After 57 years, springtime blossoms enhance Tillotson’s Dallas Center elevator

by baggyparagraphs

Story and photos by Kristen Osborn Cart

On the way home from spring break in Nebraska, we went through Dallas Center, Iowa, on a perfectly beautiful day.

The kids got ice cream cones while I took out my camera.

A worker at the complex let me wander around and take pictures. He pointed out the older elevator with the rounded headhouse.

This elevator (seen far right in the photo above), built by Tillotson Construction Company in 1955, is connected by a run to the annex, which adjoins a T. E. Ibberson elevator (far left), built in 1967.

A grain dryer stands between them.

No railway is in evidence, other than the re-purposed station.

Everything appears to be in good working order with a fresh coat of paint.

The elevators dominate Dallas Center as a true prairie landmark, rising at the end of the main street and extending more than a block, with a library and ice cream shop next door.

A blooming redbud tree brightens the scene.

Standing before the annex: a veterans memorial.

The whole property exists in harmony with the town, unlike the many derelict elevators in Midwestern towns where progress has moved past, and only the wrecking ball awaits.

This elevator complex is worth a visit. It’s a beauty.

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Osborn letterhead reveals new dimensions to the elevator story

by baggyparagraphs

Story and drawings by Kristen Osborn Cart

Note: Kristen recently visited Nebraska and located a batch of family papers. 

William Osborn retired from building elevators in 1955, but he continued maintaining them.

It was not until sometime in the Sixties that he switched careers and started a tropical fish business, breeding fancy beta fighting fish and guppies in tanks he welded himself. The fish shop was in his basement. It made a fascinating place for a young granddaughter to explore.

Apparently, he still had some elevator repair company letterhead paper lying around, because I found it and used it for some of my drawings. How they survived all of these years is a mystery to me.

All I ever drew were girls and horses. 

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Tillotson Construction will build 350,000 additional bushels at Tribune

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More Elevators Being Built

Bucklin–Chalmers and Borton Construction Co. of Hutchinson has been awarded the contract to build 305,000 bushels of additional bin space at the Bucklin Cooperative Exchange elevator here. 

Plans call for 10 circular bins 20 feet in diameter and 110 feet high. In addition there will be five interstice bins.

The addition will just about double Bucklin Cooperative’s bin space. Plans call for the new unit to be ready for use by Sept. 1, in time for the milo harvest.

The existing elevator was completed Aug. 15, 1949.

♦ ♦ ♦

Tribune–Greeley County Grain Co. awarded contract for 350,000 bushels of additional grain storage space here to Tillotson Construction Co. of Omaha, Owner E. L. Rickel announced. 

The new concrete structure will be a separate unit. It will be erected across the road west of the present Rickel elevator at the west edge of Tribune.

L.K. Stephan, local manager, said it will give the company 825,000 bushels of bin space here.

Rickel indicated construction will be started soon, utilizing local labor, and is scheduled for completion ahead of next fall’s maize harvest.

Hutchinson (Kan.) News Herald, May 24, 1954

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Seed money: Roggen safecrackers use welding torch, net $34 for the trouble

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Roggen Elevator Safe Robbery Investigated

Sheriff’s officers Thursday investigated a safe robbery at the Farmers Grain and Bean Association elevator at Roggen. The safecrackers got $34 in cash.

Photo by Gary Rich

A similar safe job, but unsuccessful, was done in Denver Thursday night, Sheriff William C. Tegtman was informed.

Deputies Harry Mills and Robert Patterson reported that the Roggen building had been entered by breaking a south window. The office window was then broken, and welding equipment moved to the safe to cut it open.

Greeley (Colo.) Tribune, Feb. 18, 1955

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Mayer-Osborn’s new Roggen elevator contrasts with the old wooden one

by baggyparagraphs

New Elevator at Roggen Skyscraper of the Plains

A skyscraper on the plains of Weld county is the cement and steel grain elevator of the Farmers Grain and Bean association at Roggen. 

It is 119 and a half feet to the top of the bins and 157 feet to the top of the head house. The eight silos in the elevator have a network of 19 bins with a total capacity of 250,000 bushels.

Completion of the elevator in September gave the association a total storage capacity of 330,000 bushels, with the old elevator, shown in the foreground.

It also provided the association with the most modern equipment for grinding, rolling and mixing grain.

The contractor was Mayer-Osborn company of Denver.

Photo by Robert Widlund, Greeley (Colo.) Daily Tribune, undated (1950)

 

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Engaged in sales, William Osborn spent serious time on the road

by baggyparagraphs

Gerald Osborn makes this point in an email to Kristen Osborn Cart:

Just for the record, your grandfather [William Osborn, of Mayer-Osborn Company] spent a lot of time on the road selling elevators. I remember waiting in the car during one stop he made; I believe it was at Le Mars, Iowa. I don’t believe it is correct to attribute all the sales to Gene Mayer.

In fact, my understanding was that Gene spent most of his time in the office in Denver and likely was involved with drawing up the contracts, doing the cost analysis, and issuing the bid package. There was also the financial side of things that I don’t think my dad was very involved with:  payroll, purchasing, accounting, et cetera.

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