This was Once the Largest Underwear Manufacturer in the World

Northwestern Knitting Company Factory - Munsingwear Plant, Minneapolis Minnesota

Date added: September 22, 2024

Categories:
Minnesota
Industrial

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The Northwestern Knitting Company was incorporated in 1887 "for the purpose of carrying on a general business in the manufacture and sale of all kinds of knitted fabrics." After spending three years in rented quarters in the Minneapolis wholesale district, the firm moved its operations to the corner of Lyndale Avenue North and Third Avenue North, where it constructed a new factory building. Over the next quarter of a century, the company gradually expanded its facilities until, by 1915, its plant covered the entire square block bounded by Lyndale Avenue North, Third Avenue North, Aldrich Avenue North, and Glenwood Avenue. During this period, Northwestern Knitting Company became one of the nation's largest manufacturers of underwear. Since it marketed its products under the brand name of "Munsingwear," its factory was commonly called the Munsingwear Plant. In 1919, the firm reincorporated as Munsingwear Corporation, "primarily for the purpose of more closely linking together the name of the corporation and the trade-mark name or brand of its product."

The Munsingwear Corporation is one of the few Minneapolis firms dating from the nineteenth century that achieved and maintained national prominence in its industry. During the period 1915-1950, Munsingwear ranked with such industrial giants as Pillsbury and Washburn-Crosby, two Minneapolis flour companies.

To quote one observer in 1917: "The success of the Munsingwear Plant has been phenomenal … and outside of the flour mills, none is better known than this, or is a greater source of civic pride, #4 And another in 1935: "Almost as closely allied with the city of Minneapolis as our milling industry, is … the world's largest manufacturer of underwear -- the Munsingwear Corporation."

There is good reason to compare Munsingwear with the Minneapolis flour milling industry, which was founded in the 1850s and 1860s at the Falls of St. Anthony by such families as the Washburns, the Morrisons, and the Pillsburys. Like most of the city's first settlers, these early milling families were from New England, and, to quote one historian, "their dreams of future glory were New Englanders' dreams. In their eyes, the new milling district was destined to become a major center for textile manufacturing, as well as for lumbering and Howdan. Although the waterpower at the Falls of St. Anthony soon proved to be most profitable for flouring and lumbering, two prominent millers, Clinton Morrison and Charles A. Pillsbury, helped keep the city's textile dream alive by becoming the first financial backers of the Northwestern Knitting Company, which opened a hand-powered operation in a warehouse on Third Avenue North in 1887. Apparently Pillsbury's support was particularly crucial, for the new knitting company quickly adopted several of his corporate flour-milling strategies, including an insistence on technological innovation, the promotion of a single brand name, and the use of imaginative advertising.

From the beginning, Munsingwear assumed a pioneering role in the American garment industry. The company's founder, George Munsing, had invented a method of plating woolen fibers with silk to take the "itch" out of woolen underwear. Patented in 1888, the company first used this process in manufacturing a full-fashioned, two-piece, knitted underwear suit styled after the red flannel suits in vogue at the time. The plating idea proved successful, and the company was encouraged to try still another innovation. In 1891 it patented and manufactured the first one-piece union suit. Instead of the bulky, uncomfortable undergarments available up until that time, customers could now purchase a single, sleek piece of underwear that kept them warm without irritating their skin. By 1912, Munsingwear had become the nation's leading producer and distributor of underwear for the entire family, with annual sales in excess of six million garments. The company was justified in its advertising slogan: "Don't say underwear, say Munsingwear.

In 1912 Munsingwear began to acquire factories in other parts of the country, and by 1950, it owned a total of twelve plants located in Arkansas, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The Minneapolis plant, however, remained the company's home base and largest manufacturing facility. With the completion of Building 7 - 7A in 1915, the Minneapolis workforce included approximately 1,700 employees, prompting the Minneapolis Journal to observe that Munsingwear contributed to the support of one out of every forty households in the city.

After the First World War, Munsingwear began to experiment with new fabrics and products. The company pioneered in the use of rayon in the early 1920s, and eventually diversified into hosiery, sleepwear, high-fashion underwear for women, and sportswear. Establishing the apparel industry's first research-and-development laboratory at the Minneapolis plant in 1933, Munsingwear continued its innovative tradition by inventing and manufacturing the nylon-reinforced, T-shirt neckband, the Kangaroo pouch for men's briefs, and the first permanent-press golf shirt. By the mid-1960s, the Minneapolis plant had become the country's largest integrated knitting mill for men's sportswear, handling all manufacturing processes from yarn to finished product. When a deteriorating national economy forced the company to close its Minneapolis plant in 1981, Munsingwear acknowledged its long Minneapolis tradition by maintaining its corporate offices in the city. As chief executive officer Raymond Good explained at the time, "Our roots here are nearly a century old, and it's important for us to stay here".

Although reinforced concrete was occasionally used in Minneapolis buildings during the 1880s and 1890s, the material had always appeared in conjunction with structural steel. In 1904 the newly completed Building 4 of the Munsingwear Plant became the city's first, pure, reinforced-concrete building. "The building is the wonder of the public generally," observed the Minneapolis Journal of January 21^st, 1905. "To the uninitiated, it has seemed impossible that a building could stand without steel or wood framework." Building 4 had an immediate influence on local construction practices. As the Journal of September 9^th, 1905 noted: "Since the Northwestern Knitting warehouse was built of pure concrete, without steel beams or pillars, interest in the new form of using the material has been intensified until now nearly every new structure has some form of concrete in its makeup."

The structural system of Building 4 was designed by the Minneapolis engineer C.A.P. Turner. In 1905, shortly after the building's completion, Turner introduced a new method of reinforced concrete construction that is generally credited with having revolutionized American building technology. In American Building, Carl W. Condit describes Turner's innovation in the following way: "The flat-slab system invented by Turner greatly increased the economy of concrete construction by eliminating the girders and beams … The distinguishing feature of the flat-slab frame is the flaring column capital, or mushroom capital, a conical spreading out of the cross-sectional area to reduce the concentration of shearing stress around the circular disc where the slab meets the column".

In designing Building 4, Turner apparently experimented with several new features that presaged flat-slab construction. Most notably, he used a streamlined column-girder-and-slab system that eliminated the need to stiffen the slabs with ribbing. He also used vertical reinforcing rods that "bent outward at the top of the column so as to penetrate the girder concrete and tie the column and girder together. These reinforcing rods gave the column capitals a slightly flared appearance that foreshadowed the shape of the true mushroom column. In 1912 Building 4 received an extensive addition that expanded the original floor space. This new construction was built with mushroom columns. Building 4 therefore offers a unique opportunity to examine on the same floor of one structure the progression of Turner's engineering art.

Building Description

In its present form, the Munsingwear Plant consists of five major buildings constructed during the period 1904 - 1915. The buildings are variously linked by passageways. According to their traditional designations, the structures are known as Building 1, Building 4, Building 5, Building 6, and Building 7 - 7A (Buildings 2 and 3 were demolished in 1914 to make way for Building 7-7A). With the exception of Building 5, which originally served as a powerhouse, the structures share several Neo-Classical Revival details that help create the impression of a single, extended industrial plant. These unifying features include a slightly projecting cornice with scallop motif; a fretwork frieze; and fluted Doric columns at the principal entrances. The structures are further integrated by the use of white, pressed brick on the principal facades. Although much of the original sash was replaced by glass blocks during the mid-1960s, the plant has experienced little structural change since the completion of the last major building in 1915. Each of the five major buildings at the site is briefly described below.

Building 1

Constructed in 1906, Building 1 is a flat-roofed, L-shaped structure measuring approximately 76 feet in width and 220 feet in length. It comprises five stories and a basement. The foundation work is stone; the exterior walls are brick; and the interior construction is reinforced concrete, with slab flooring, girders, and columns. In 1911 the flooring was strengthened with steel beams. In its exterior design, the building's Lyndale Avenue facade is divided into five bays with an entrance centered in the northernmost bay. The entrance was originally ornamented with a three-bay portico featuring fluted, Doric, concrete columns. The portico and columns were removed in the 1970s and replaced by a less ornamental entrance.

Building 1 was originally used for yarn storage, napping, drying, winding, and knitting.

Building 4

Measuring approximately 140 feet in width and 185 feet in depth, Building 4 is a flat-roofed structure consisting of five stories and a basement. The foundation work is stone; the exterior walls are brick; and the interior construction is reinforced concrete. The building was erected in two stages. The first three floors and basement of the eastern half of the structure date from 1904. The remainder of the building dates from 1912. The older portion utilizes an interior system of slab flooring, girders, and columns; the newer portion a system of flat-slab construction with mushroom columns. In its exterior design, the building presents Glenwood Avenue with a double facade. The eastern half consists of five bays, with the center three bays forming a bowed projection. The western half displays five bays set back from the eastern half. The original covered entryway on Glenwood Avenue was removed in 1948 and replaced by the present entrance. The building was originally used as a company office and as a warehouse for finished stock.

Building 5

Measuring approximately 95 feet square, Building 5 is a one-story, flat- roofed structure of brick and reinforced concrete construction. The eastern half of the structure was erected in 1906 as a boiler house; the western half in 1912 as a generating room. At present, the building houses three oil- and gas-burning boilers that date from the period 1936 - 1940.

Building 6

Measuring 150 feet square, Building 6 was constructed in 1910 as a flat-roofed, five-story structure with a full basement, two roof-top monitors, and an eight-story, tower wing adjoining its northeast corner. The exterior walls are brick, and the interior construction is reinforced concrete with mushroom columns. The building also has a two-story, kitchen-and-fan-room addition flanking its northern facade that was apparently constructed in stages during the period 1910 - 1920. In its exterior design, the building's Glenwood Avenue facade is divided into eight bays, with a concrete pavilion extending along the central four bays. The pavilion features fluted, concrete, Doric columns. The Lyndale Avenue facade also consists of eight bays, augmented by three bays in the tower wing. The entrance on this facade is situated along the central bay of the tower wing. It is ornamented with a three-bay, concrete portico that incorporates fluted, Doric columns. The building originally housed an employees' cafeteria, and served a variety of manufacturing purposes, including pressing, ribboning, mangling, sewing, cutting, and knitting.

Building 7 - 7A

Building 7 - 7A is essentially a rectangular structure measuring approximately 100 feet in width and 300 feet in depth. The building was erected in two stages. The earliest portion, located on the corner of Aldrich Avenue North and Third Avenue North, was constructed in 1912 as a four-story, brick- and- reinforced-concrete tank house. At the time of its construction, the tank house stood just to the west of an 1890s vintage factory building, which was demolished in 1914 to make way for a more modern structure. This new building was completed in 1915, and it consists of eight stories, with a one-story structure flanking its southern facade, and an eleven-story tower section adjoining the tank house. The 1915 building has brick exterior walls and reinforced concrete interior construction. In its exterior design, the 1915 building displays five bays on its Lyndale Avenue elevation and eighteen bays on its northern elevation, which overlooks a parking area. This structure was originally used for waste storage, baling, bleaching, fleecing, cutting, sewing, and knitting.