Viola Cooperative Creamery
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions.(December 2007) |
| Viola Cooperative Creamery | |
|---|---|
| U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
  |
|
| Nearest city: | Viola, Minnesota |
| Coordinates: | Coordinates: |
| Built/Founded: | 1924 |
| Architect: | Crawford, Harold H. |
| Architectural style(s): | Colonial Revival |
| Added to NRHP: | November 12, 1999 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 99001310 [1] |
| Governing body: | Private |
The Viola Creamery is a rural building on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
[edit] History
In March of 1924 March, the construction of the creamery was completed. Designed by architect Harold Crawford, this more modern brick building replaced the old creamery. The previous creamery was a wood-frame building that burned down in the winter of 1923. The creamery produced high quality, specialty butter used in upscale restaurants in New York and Chicago.
On 16th, 1947, the last shipment of butter stamped "Viola Creamery Specials" left the Creamery destined for Chicago. During World War II, higher demand and competition for refrigerated milk trucks made larger creameries viable. Most smaller specialty creameries were forced to close.
Between 1946 and 1961, the creamery was used for various purposes. A cabinet-making shop and a boat building business are just two mentioned in written histories of the building.
In 1961, the creamery was purchased and used to produce honey, handling every step of the process from hive to jar. This business operated until it was closed down by the USDA in 1987.
Between 1987 and 1998, the creamery remained vacant and slowly deteriorated. Vandals began to destroy the building. Windows were broken out and the 12-foot-tall copula was stolen from the roof. Because of the gaping hole left behind, hundreds of pigeons took over the second level of the building and mice inhabited the rest.
In August of 1998, the creamery was purchased by a bricklayer. He began to restore the creamery to its original condition and had it placed on The National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
In August of 2002, the creamery was renovated into a fine-dining restaurant, The Viola Creamery Steakhouse, which closed 3 years later in the Winter of 2005.
In April of 2007, the creamery was purchased and converted into a single-family residential home.
[edit] References
- ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).
[edit] External links
|
||||||||||
