The yard is located between Washington avenue and Second street, and Oregon and Ames streets, and occupies fourteen acres. (Minneapolis Daily Tribune, Tuesday, January 7, 1868, Page 3)
1878 Round House
The Milwaukee & St. Paul round house in front of these was half demolished by the concussion, while the railroad shops look as if they had been bombarded. (Daily Globe, Friday, May 3, 1878, Page 1)
At just 7 o’clock this evening Minneapolis was startled by a most frightful explosion, which shook the city from centre to circumference. The explosion took place in the milling centre on the canal that extends around St. Anthony Falls… (Daily Globe, Friday, May 3, 1878, Page 1)
…the round house of the Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad, which contained seven locomotives with a quarter of its roof crushed in, and one-half of its wall smashed down. (Daily Globe, Friday, May 3, 1878, Page 1)
The round house is split clear through the middle from the force of the explosion, nothing having fallen upon it. (Daily Globe, Friday, May 3, 1878, Page 1)
The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad round house presented the oddest aspect of all. It is west of the tracks dividing it from the leveled stone mills. It is a frame structure, yet was not even scorched, but its destruction was practically complete. It was riven in two completely - sides, roof, and rafters of the middle - and yet was never struck by a flying missile. The eastern wall, facing the fire, was inclined, evidently by the re-concussion, outward at the foot, while the upper edge rested against the eaves of the roof at an angle of about sixty degrees. None of its nine contained locomotives were damaged, and all were safely got out, with the exception of two tenders. (Daily Globe, Saturday, May 4, 1878, Page 1)
Every train brings new delegations, who hurry from the depots to the scene of the disaster as though their very lived depended upon getting there in the quickest possible time. (Daily Globe, Sunday, May 5, 1878, Page 1)
The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul round house is being rapidly put in shape. (Daily Globe, Sunday, May 5, 1878, Page 1)
The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul company yesterday made the purchase of property in lower town for the erection of round houses and machine shops. More than two years ago Mr. Nelson Williams, of the real estate firm of Williams, Menage & Co., commenced negotiations with the company looking to the purchase of eight acres of ground situated adjacent to four acres already owned by the company, and just north of the Harvester works. The property was owned by Capt. Wm. Harmon who named $7,000 cash as the price for the property, and after the extended negotiations, which have been well managed, the property was yesterday afternoon purchased for that sum. It is the purpose of the company to erect thereon a twenty-four engine round house, at a cost of $30,000. The plans were drawn last season, but the grasshopper devastation discouraged the managers of the Milwaukee & St. Paul road from taking further action at that time, and the delay was had until this spring when the directors visited Minneapolis. (The Minneapolis Tribune, Tuesday, July 9, 1878, Page 4)
They (Gregg & Griswold, Chaska brick) are also about closing a contract with the Milwaukee railroad company for 600,000 for the new round house in Minneapolis. (The Weekly Valley Herald, Thursday, July 18, 1878, Page 4)
The round-house was a wooden structure about forty or fifty feet from the Diamond Mill. The sills were drawn out toward that mill until the building burst, letting a part of the roof fall in and leaving the sides standing at a sharp angle. (On the Explosion of the Flouring Mills at Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 2, 1878, and the Causes of the Same, S. F. Peckham, The Chemical News, August 8, 1879, Volume XL, Number 1028, Page 60)
The whole side of the Milwaukee and St. Paul Round-house, a frame structure, was taken out by the rebound of the explosion, and the roof has fallen. (Scientific American Supplement, New York, July 20, 1878, Volume VI, Number 133, Page 2109)
The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad this morning commenced work on the new round house, to be located just above the Harvestor works, on the land recently purchased for that purpose. A brick building, almost circular in form, has been staked out, and which will have a capacity for accommodating thirty engines. A track is being built to the site, so that building material from along the road may be laid down where most convenient for use. Work on the walls will be commenced in a few days and the building completed before snow flies. (The Minneapolis Tribune, Tuesday, September 17, 1878, Page 4)
The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway have stuck the stakes for the new round-house which is to be constructed on the property recently bought by that corporation near the Harvester Works. The building will be commenced and completed the present fall. (Daily Globe, Wednesday, September 18, 1878, Page 3)
The new round house of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad company is being pushed forward quite lively. Several hundred feet of the outer wall is already up, and the remainder will be pushed to an early completion. (The Minneapolis Tribune, Tuesday, October 1, 1878, Page 4)
The new round house of the C., M. & St. P. & M. railroad is rapidly approaching completion. There will be room for twenty-four locomotives and will be heated by steam. The cost of the building, including the boiler room, is estimated at $35,000. When completed, it will be the largest and finest building of the kind west of Chicago. (Daily Globe, Tuesday, October 8, 1878, Page 3)
The walls are nearly ready for the roof of the new Milwaukee railroad round house. (Daily Globe, Saturday, November 9, 1878, Page 2)
The walls of the new Milwaukee round house is nearly completed and the roof will be put on in a few days. (The Minneapolis Tribune, Saturday, November 9, 1878, Page 1)
The walls of the new round house of the Milwaukee & St. Paul Company in South Minneapolis are about completed, and the work of putting the roof on will follow speedily. A force of men is also engaged on the boiler house and smoke stack. (The Minneapolis Tribune, Tuesday, November 12, 1878, Page 4)
The new brick round-house of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company, in the Southern portion of the city, is nearly completed, and is a credit to the company which is erecting it, and an evidence that the management of that company design fulfilling their promises of important improvements in this city. (The Minneapolis Tribune, Monday, December 2, 1878, Page 4)
A number of the representative business men of this city met the directors of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company this morning to formally close the arrangements of moving the entire railroad shops of the company to this city. Practically all the deeds of the land, involving one hundred acres in the south part of the city, will be signed and turned over and needful business preliminaries consummated. Since the company finally decided to move their shops to this city, Mr. S. S. Merrill, president of the road, is of the opinion that the present and prospective business of the company demands a much larger expenditure of capital than was first contemplated, and it is probable that the shops will cover one hundred acres of ground, and will be erected at a cost of $500,000. At least 1,500 men will be put on the pay roll, which will be handled by the various banks of this city, and as most of these employees have families, it is fair to estimate the population which will be added to the city by this movement at 7,000 people. The original estimate of the buildings needed is as follows: Blacksmith shop...100x240 feet, Paint shop...85x240 feet, Car-table space...80x370 feet, Car shop...85x270 feet, Planing shop...80x165 feet, Engine shop...120x330 feet, Boiler shop...120x120 feet, Table space...45x450 feet, Enlargement of round-house…45x100 feet. (The Minneapolis Tribune, Saturday, December 24, 1881, Page 7)
The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company has got together a good force of men and work is actively resumed on the car shops. (The Minneapolis Tribune, Saturday, April 29, 1882, Page 6)
Yesterday noon the bricklayers engaged upon the new Milwaukee car shops, to the number of sixty or more, went on a strike, flung down their trowels and refused to work. They demand $4 a day where they are now getting $3.50, and this the railroad management refuses to give them. The men assume that they are asking no more than first class brick masons are now receiving on other jobs about the city, and that they are really working more hours for their wages than masons employed upon work nearer the heart of the city, the suburban situation of the car shops requiring more time to be spent in going to and from the scene of their homes. The railroad management, on the other hand, think masons can be had at ruling rates, $3.50 a day, and have accordingly paid off the entire force of strikers and let them go. (The Minneapolis Tribune, Friday, June 2, 1882, Page 2)