Monday, December 27, 2021

Fort Wayne, IN: Mayflower Mills Grain Warehouse and Elevator

Old: (Satellite, address from caption in FireFighter-v5_2119)

"New" in the above satellite label is relative. It was built in 1912, and it probably has been a long time since this facility stored grain.

The research of Mayflower Mills was motivated by this post:
Barbara J Anderson posted, cropped
This is currently Jackson Oil and Solvents, can anyone tell me what it used to be? (Leesburg Road, near to St Francis)
[Of the several answers, Mayflower Mills was the correct one.]
 
This proves that they milled flour.
And they had more than one brand of flour.
Their original location was downtown by the Wabash & Erie Canal. The right-of-way of the canal is now occupied by the NS/Nickle Plate railroad. This fire is another reminder that grain dust is very flammable.
Allen County Public Library
Fire at Mayflower Mills, Columbia Street between Calhoun and Harrison, Fort Wayne IN, 21 May 1911. Includes Fischer Bros. Paper, and seed store.

Is this the side of the building that faced the canal instead of Columbia Street?
Allen County Public Library
Mayflower Mills, Fort Wayne IN: 1913. reproduced from a printed source.

The 1913 photo must have been of the remnants of their old location because after the $125,000 May 21, 1911, fire, Mayflower Mills rebuilt at the new location. [FireFighter-v3_1535] Concrete silos would have been a relatively new development in 1912. It appears that their old location was a grain warehouse instead of an elevator because grain was handled in bags during the canal era.
FireFighter-v3_1536

FireFighter-v5_2119

Evidently Mayflower Mills was still grinding flour in 1968.
FireFighter-v3_1491

Mayflower Mills was on a 1972 list of buildings that were too tall to reach all of the floors with a ladder truck. [FireFighter-v4_1795]

3D Satellite

Street View




























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