Minnesota's Hidden Ford Plants

Beautifully designed by noted architect, Albert Kahn, the Twin Cities Ford Plant, which was located on Ford Parkway in St. Paul's Highland Park district, is now history, demolished and environmentally scoured to make way for a retail/residential mixed use development. It was built in 1925 and revolutionized the assembly of automobiles with 2 long assembly lines. This plant was nearly self-sufficient with hydro-power from the Mississippi and glass production from the silica mined from the river bluffs. This plant was the forerunner of Detroit's Rouge River plant which expanded the self-sufficiency model to include it's own steel mills. 

Note: TPT, in its Minnesota Experience series, has produced a wonderful documentary on Ford in Minnesota: Made In St. Paul

Ford Plant 1920's

Railway passthrough

But before this advance in the automobile production process, Ford utilized "vertical assembly" plants in virtually every large population center in the country. Parts were shipped by rail to these regional assembly plants and Model T's were assembled where they would be sold.  The Minneapolis building, built in 1912,  had a railway "pass-through" to facilitate the unloading of parts and loading of completed Model T's. The assembly began on the top floor of the building and was augmented floor by floor until the Model T drove out the ground floor exit. However, even as this process was being implemented, Ford was developing the more famous "horizontal" assembly line, making this building "behind the times" even as it opened. But .. this factory produced 250-300 Model T's per day until 1925.

Ford Center 2019

The Minneapolis Ford Center is still standing although it ceased to be an auto plant after the establishment of the Highland Park Plant. It became a Honeywell thermostat production plant in the 40's and it was totally refurbished (beautifully) in 2012 and now is home to several firms and a radio station.  It is located directly across the light rail tracks from Target Field.

St. Paul Ford Plant

In 1914, a St. Paul plant was constructed on University Ave, a stone's throw from the State Capitol. However, this was much smaller and probably a political move by Henry Ford to keep peace between the two competing cities. It produced only 500 automobiles per year. The building still stands but is currently vacant.

Chronology 
1912: Ford starts assembling Model T's in a converted warehouse at 616 S. 3rd St. in Minneapolis.

1914: The Ford Centre is built on 420 N. 5th St. in Minneapolis, and production shifts there.

1923: Attracted by cheap hydropower, Henry Ford starts building the Twin Cities Assembly Plant in St. Paul.

1925: Model T cars and Model TT trucks start rolling off the assembly line.

1933: Great Depression closes plant for two years.

1942-45: Plant converts to defense work, producing armored cars and components for aircraft engines.

1978: Plant converts to all-truck assembly operation.

1999: Ford Ranger trucks peak in popularity, reaching annual sales of 348,000 in North America

2006: Ford Motor Co. announces plans to close the St. Paul plant in 2008.

2007: Ford says plant to close in 2009.

2008: Ford decides to keep producing Ranger pickups at the plant until 2011.

2010: Minnesota  leaders meet with Ford executive in Dearborn, Mich., in last-ditch effort to keep plant open.

2011: Plant to closes - the oldest Ford Plant then in operation

Source: Ford Motor Co. , Star Tribune

Note: I love to explore the Twin Cities by bicycle - except in the fear-of-falling months, more numerous in MN than most places.  I then resort to searching out points of interest reachable by light rail.  I thought this "walk/train-about" was interesting enough to warrant a post.

2023 Addendum

The Highland Ford Plant has been demolished and replaced with a mixture of office, apartment, row house and single family dwellings.  The St Paul Ford Plant is slated for demolition in Jan 2024. Only the Ford Center, across from Target Field remains of the Twin Cities Ford presence.

Highland Bridge Development

Copyright © 2019 Dave Hoplin

A Life

When I proposed to my wife, she said that if I would turn out half as nice as my father, she would marry me. She settled for somewhat less. But in my defense, I have never met anyone as nice as my father, so even the half-height bar is daunting. 


Actually, "kind", rather than nice, is a better term for his character. We often hear the call to reintroduce civility to our interactions and practice "random acts of kindness". My father saw needs and acted upon them in both small and large ways, without fanfare. A new Sunday School space, the new sewage treatment facilities, the fire department's equipment, the school's tennis court, a relative needing plumbing or electrical help, a ballpark's groundskeeping, a skating rink's lighting, a church's call committee, a friend or family needed advice. 

Typical. Sunday afternoon plugged 
sewer at wedding reception

He was a bit of a renaissance man, smart, curious but also mechanically talented, able to fix most anything at a time when our current throw-away society was unfathomable. He volunteered to assist friends and family with their construction projects even though this was his livelihood. One terrible winter storm period, he slept at the hardware store for several days, answering calls for people with furnace, water, electrical problems. There was no possibility of a service call so he would talk them through how to fix their issue themselves, although in one case a furnace outage for a young mother and child whose husband was stranded in Fargo, caused him to tie a rope to the stop sign on Hwy 55 to guide him back and trudged through the whiteout to the home "across the tracks" to get the heat back on. And I recall countless phone calls at dinner or the middle of the night from people desperate for help. Doctors had nothing on Dad. This list could go on and on and I'm sure I don't know the half of it. There were few people in the Lowry area who were not beneficiaries. 

He served as the volunteer fire chief for many years, organizing volunteer firemen training through the state of Minnesota and procuring a 3rd truck to fight grass fires. He organized "practice fires" using buildings people wanted to be rid of. One memorable occasion was the torching of the Molander Implement/Apartment building. Great reality show.

My father was born in 1920 in the small village of Lowry, MN, the 3rd of 7 children. He attended Lowry School through grade 8 and then to the big high school in Glenwood where he graduated in 1938. 






During the depression years, Lowry was the beneficiary of a WPA project to install city water and sewer. My father, a teen, wrangled a job with the Starbuck contractor for $1/day, hauling soil pipe, digging ditches and general gopher. He was also called upon to fire up the lead pots at 5 AM every day, so the lead would be melted for the 7 AM work start leading the soil pipe joints. He was supposed to get an extra 25¢ a day for this but that somehow got overlooked. Indeed, locals resented the fact that such a young whippersnapper should get such outrageous pay.


The depression years were difficult. The family most certainly would have lost their home but for the generosity of a couple bachelor farmers who held the lien on the 1929 house and tolerated many missed payments. The mortgage was not fully paid until after WWII. I am told that on occasion lunches consisted of lard sandwiches. But the hobos knew that this home would not begrudge them a meal. See Depression Years post.

He attended St. Cloud Teachers College for one year and transferred and graduated from Augsburg College in 1942. While at Augsburg he stayed at the Albinson Funeral Chapel as a place to sleep and to answer night calls. He washed dishes at Opals Café on Chicago Ave for 3 hours / day which provided a 25 cent allowance for breakfast and 35 cent allowance for dinner and supper. Tuition at Augsburg was $40 / semester. 























He joined the US Navy in July 1942 and after training at Moorhead State College, KY and Con Edison in New York City, mustered in the inaugural crew on the battleship New Jersey as an electrician's mate.

As with most veterans, the war years were rarely spoken of, but he did write about it. This for a future post.  

A few notes his own words:

• Every Saturday, breakfast consisted of a scoop of baked beans and cornbread quickly consumed followed by a quick dismissal to prepare for inspection.
• Sailors slept in hammocks tiered 4 high - so close together that lying on your side was problematic.
• The only time the New Jersey suffered shell fire, it was friendly fire - killing several sailors as a shell went through multiple decks. Note: at the end of the war, the battleships were essentially anti-aircraft platforms trying to protect the fleet from kamikaze attacks.
• The local newspaper article about ferrying him to his brother's ship in mid-ocean was made up to make the home folks happy. It never happened.
• The worst loss of shipping for Task Force 34 was due to a typhoon in 1945.
• The New Jersey served as Admiral "Bull" Halsey's flag ship - until the Missouri showed up.
• There was a bit of competition between the sister ships - BB 61 Iowa, BB62 New Jersey, BB63 Missouri, BB64 Wisconsin, . The Japanese surrender signing to Douglas MacArthur in Tokyo Bay was on the USS Missouri because Harry Truman, from MO, was President.

He married an Iowa girl, a nurse, on June 4, 1945. They built a home in Lowry in 1952. It took two years to acquire a loan of $8500, being refused by 3 financial institutions, including the Lowry State Bank. It was deemed the mortgage amount and the income were incompatible. Finally a direct government loan @ 3% from the Veterans Administration was negotiated, with payments of $38/month. Previous to this, the family lived in a small apartment above the “Dahl House” restaurant for 6 years. 

There followed 60 years of service to family & community. My father died in 2012 and not a day has passed since without a silent conversation with him.

with 80 year old mother

Copyright © 2019 Dave Hoplin