Stanard-Tilton Flour Mill, Dallas Texas

Date added: January 17, 2024 Categories:

Texas
Mill

The Stanard-Tilton Flour Mill arose during the redevelopment of Dallas' industrial sector following a devastating flood on the Trinity River in 1908. The largest flour milling operation in the community, the mill evolved from a grist mill founded in the 1850s and was run for much of the century by Sarah Horton Cockrell. In 1892 the Stanard-Tilton Milling Company of St. Louis purchased the concern from her as part of an effort to expand into southern markets. In 1912 the firm commissioned plans for this site, which provided direct access to the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe and the Texas and Pacific rail lines, as well as the local road network. Construction coincided with a period of intense growth in Dallas fostered in part by an explosion in local industrial production. In 1941, the Russell-Miller Milling Company of Minneapolis purchased the successful operation to enhance a distribution network embracing the entire Great Plains region. This firm began a campaign of expansions in 1948 to add a packing room, blending plant, laboratories, and 27 grain storage bins to the facility.

With its roots in the invention of the water wheel by the Romans, the milling industry for centuries relied on water as a power source to turn millstones to grind grains like corn and wheat into flour. Early English colonists introduced the waterside grist mill to America in 1631 at Watertown, Massachusetts. Flour milling nevertheless remained a largely local concern until innovations by Oliver Evans of Delaware during the late 18^th century led to automated milling systems. One of the first such mills in Texas was associated with the Spanish colonial era mission established near modern San Augustine in northeast Texas. The subsequent introduction of Anglo-American settlements by Stephen F. Austin spread this tradition. During the 1840s for example, Austin colonist James Cummins established a combination sawmill and gristmill in Colorado County. German immigrants to the state also brought a tradition of milling, resulting in the 1851 establishment of the Pioneer Flour Mills in San Antonio by German millwright Carl Guenther.

By the Reconstruction era, extensive wheat and corn production was underway on the fertile plains of north Texas, facilitated by technological innovations such as the McCormick mechanical reaper. A steady influx of immigrants provided a ready market for milling services and the final products that resulted, making it practical and profitable to establish a commercial flour mill. In response, Alexander and Sarah Horton Cockrell established Todd Mills as Dallas' first such commercial venture.

Southern immigrants to Texas in the 1840s, the Cockrells settled in the fledgling community of Dallas after their 1847 marriage. In 1853 they purchased John Neely Bryan's interest in the Dallas town site and ferry rights across the Trinity River for $7,000. Their entrepreneurial investments soon included a cattle ranch, a freighting company, a brick kiln, a grist mill, a sawmill, a hotel, and a wooden bridge over the Trinity. Sarah oversaw these operations during Alexander's frequent absences on freighting trips. Following his untimely death in 1858, she continued expanding her investments, eventually organizing a consortium to finance a steel bridge over the Trinity. Following its completion in 1872, she turned her attention to a steam-powered flour mill, the Todd Mill. Within five years it was contributing significantly to the $3 million worth of flour milled locally on an annual basis. Facilitated by the initiation of rail service, this activity established Dallas as the focal point of the milling industry in North Texas during the 1880s. In response Sarah and her son, Frank, built a larger steam-powered facility in 1884 at a site served by both the Houston & Texas Central and Southern Pacific rail lines. Within two years, the six-building plant was producing 50,000 pounds of flour daily. The Cockrells sold these operations to the Stanard-Tilton Company of St. Louis in 1892, a year before Sarah's death.

This purchase signaled a shift in the milling industry during the late 19^th century. While St. Louis dominated the industry during much of the century, the dramatic expansion of the rail network into the Great Plains region in the last quarter of the century fostered new milling centers such as Dallas and Minneapolis. Seeking proximity to sources of raw materials, lower shipping costs, and improved market information, industry leaders in St. Louis pursued opportunities to consolidate the industry by purchasing smaller mills such as the Cockrells' operation. Proximity to wheat-producing farms lowered shipping costs, as the bulkier shipments of wheat (145 pounds of wheat produced 100 ponds of flour) traveled shorter distances before being refined and sent on to market. These regional centers also typically offered cheaper land to expand or create storage space. Proximity to the farming areas also improved access to information about climatic and crop conditions that shaped the harvest and thereby affected the industry's production capacity.

The transportation network played a significant role in this process, of course. Early roads and river transport were often subject to seasonable conditions that rendered them unreliable. With the advent of national rail networks in the late 19^th century, easy shipment of raw and processed goods encouraged the development of cash crop economies based on cotton, wheat, and corn throughout the Great Plains region. As lines such as the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railroad linked Dallas with commodities markets in St. Louis and Chicago, north Texas farmers began producing surplus quantities of these cash crops. Agricultural production of cotton and wheat in particular became a mainstay of the regional economy during the late 19^th century, attracting the attention of Midwestern conglomerates interested in expanding into new markets in the south and southwest.

Led by Missouri industrialist and politician E.O. Stanard, the Stanard-Tilton Milling Company operated several plants in the St. Louis region. Incorporated as the E.O. Stanard Milling Company in 1882, the firm changed names when son-in-law Edgar D. Tilton signed on. Their purchase of the Cockrell facility in Dallas reflected an industry-wide movement to decrease overhead and increase profits by consolidating milling operations. During the 1890s companies such as Pillsbury-Washburn, Sperry Flour and Hecker-Jones-Jewel consolidated operations in Minnesota, California, and New York, respectively. The expansion into the Dallas market augmented Stanard-Tilton's milling capacity and provided better access to markets in southern and southwestern states. Several milling conglomerates likewise used Texas plants to funnel the region's grain products into southern markets via rail links to New Orleans and Atlanta.

Dallas' role as a center of agricultural processing and equipment manufacture, as well as commodities trading, was firmly established during this period. Sales and manufacture of modern farming equipment in particular played a prominent role in the development of agriculturally based industries in the community. The Dallas Chamber of Commerce chronicled this industrial growth, noting the establishment of 112 new industrial facilities and a doubling in the volume of distribution of processed goods between 1910 and 1913. With a total of 393 industries employing nearly 9,000 people, Dallas generated $42.6 million in products in 1913 alone (Dallas Spirit Magazine, January 1914).

With three major mills including Burrus Mills, the Morten Milling Company and Stanard-Tilton operating during this period, Dallas played a significant role in the state's milling industry. Ranking sixth in the nation in flour production, Texas boasted 117 flour mills by 1900. Although this number declined in subsequent decades, the industry maintained its position as a leading force in the nation through increased productivity and mergers.

Purchase of the Cockrell plant added 500 cwt. (hundredweight or 100 pounds) to the Stanard-Tilton Milling Company's daily flour production capacity. Run as a separate enterprise by Edwin Stanard's son, and then his son-in-law Joseph R. Brown, the mill continued at this capacity for over a decade. In 1908, however, a devastating flood of the Trinity River destroyed many local industries, including the mill. Milling operations quickly resumed at a temporary location at Main and Houston streets.

In 1912 the company commissioned plans for a new site a half mile from the flood plain and adjacent to the tracks of both the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad and the Texas and Pacific Railroad. Building permits issued in June and October 1913 respectively called for a 6-story brick building with a basement for $50,000 and a brick mill, warehouse, and office for $115,000. Grain elevators, noted in pencil on the second permit, added $56,000 more for a total cost of $221,000. The new mill would boast a daily flour production capacity of 4,000 cwt. By the time of its completion in 1913, many of Dallas' manufacturing and industrial plants had joined the mill in an area offering easy access to rail service, safety from floodwaters, and proximity to a large pool of workers.

The Stanard-Tilton Flour Mill typifies the massive industrial complexes built in the state during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. The American industrial structure represents the legacy of the 18^th century riverside textile and grain mills. Its evolution from hydraulic to internal combustion power facilitated the shift from riverside locations to other urban areas. While this mill exhibits little of the ornamentation of earlier factories, its regular fenestration pattern, sheet metal dock awnings, rooftop collectors, and steel smokestack convey its industrial character. The mill label, especially in connection with flour or corn processing plants, reflects the heritage of water mills using streams and rivers as their principal power source. Examples from the 20^th century employ manufacturing equipment such as rollers, blowers, chutes, and augers powered by belts or chains to carry out the refining process. The reliance on gravity to pull the product through the refining process dictated the development of vertical structures such as those seen at the Stanard-Tilton plant.

The milling process did not change greatly, although newer equipment was installed and older equipment was upgraded. The grain was cleaned and conditioned at the mill before the grinding process. Raw grain typically contained vegetable matter such as weeds, plant residues, and fungal impurities, as well as animal matter such as insects or rodent excreta and hair. Mud, dust, stones, binder twine, and other foreign objects accidentally incorporated through the harvesting process also required removal before the wheat was scoured dry and aspirated to lift away the impurities. These processes occurred as the wheat moved through the ductwork to the upper floors of the mill. As the moisture content of the grain dramatically affected both the grinding and sifting processes, the grain was also conditioned in large tanks. The complicated process of moistening and drying the wheat resulted in a maze of tanks, blowers, and ducts. The hard wheat of the region was then ground between rollers to separate the wheat heart from bran and waste chaff. The grain fragments were then separated by a system of sieves and blowers that grouped particles by weight and size. The final sifting occurred in boxes with vertically stacked trays, each with a finer mesh. Vibration allowed the finest particles of flour to reach the bottom trays. Coarser particles were sidelined for use in the production of cereals and animal feed.

Flour mill construction and operation must account for the risks of an explosion caused by ignition of grain dust, the collapse of walls due to the great weight and pressure of the grain, and contamination by insects or rodents. The high-capacity silos found at this mill were a late 19th-century innovation made possible with steel-reinforced concrete. This method allowed for the efficient and safe storage of large masses of grain. The elimination of wood as a combustible structural material and the use of galvanized metal doors improved fire safety. Fire hoses fed by high-capacity standpipes also served all sections of the plant. Regular shutdowns of the mill for cleaning facilitated pest control and reduced the risk of grain dust buildup. An internally piped vacuum system throughout the mill assisted this process.

From these beginnings, the new mill prospered throughout the early decades of the 20^th century. Wheat products served as a primary source of nutrition for the American working class during this period. Technological innovations boosted daily production to 5,300 cwt. by 1920 in response to dramatic increases in demand prompted by World War I. While falling prices for wheat offset production costs in subsequent years, however, these decades also marked the onset of a decline in per capita consumption in the United States. An increased emphasis on nutrition education coupled with higher purchasing power and improved transportation capacities fostered rising vegetable, fruit, and meat consumption at the expense of cereal-based products. An escalating reliance on sugar as a cheap source of calories also cut into wheat and flour consumption. American consumption dropped by 40 percent, even as the population rose by more than 30 percent during this period. In response, Stanard-Tilton sold all their mills to the Russell-Miller Milling Company of Minneapolis in 1941. Its acquisition of the Dallas plant provided greater capacity for distribution to the Gulf of Mexico region.

As the consequences of World War II became apparent, this shipping outlet proved significant to the fate of the Dallas mill. With European farm production hampered by the war, new markets for exported American grain products emerged. The strength of this market enabled the mill to operate 24 hours a day, six days a week, thereby maximizing the profit potential. On the seventh day, extensive cleaning of the mill reduced the risk of flour contamination and grain dust explosion. To capitalize on the new demand for corn-based products in particular, Russell-Miller expanded the Dallas plant in 1948 to a daily capacity of 8,500 cwt. This represented approximately 20 percent of the state's total milling capacity at the time. The new addition included a packing room, blending plant, laboratories, and 27 bins for bulk storage of finished grain products. High-speed packers were considered the most modern in the industry. This new capacity made the mill the largest such facility in the region.

Even with these state-of-the-art improvements, however, the mill eventually fell prey to shifting market demands. Changes in the wholesale and consumer baked goods markets imposed more rigid standards on flours used to produce a wide variety of processed baked goods such as cakes, breads, waffles, biscuits, crackers, and cookies. Each product required a different formula, moisture content, and packaging. Consumers also demanded additives such as niacin, riboflavin and iron be included to replace nutrients lost in the milling process. As each of these changes necessitated ever more complicated equipment to meet shifting consumer demands, Russell-Miller faced escalating costs even as its customer base contracted. Coupled with increases in rail shipping costs, these factors prompted Russell-Miller to sell the Dallas plant to the Peavy Milling Company of Minneapolis in 1963.

Founded in 1874 as a grain brokerage by F.H. Peavy, the company entered the milling industry in the late 1920s. The Dallas plant was the tenth mill obtained by the conglomerate, with its daily production the third largest in its holdings. Peavy used the plant to manufacture American Beauty flour exclusively for the Texas market. Although only 34 mills remained in operation in Texas during this period, they produced more than 15 million cwt. (1.5 billion pounds) of flour each year. Improvements in crop management and irrigation facilitated the maintenance of high levels of wheat production in the region to provide raw materials to the mills.

Despite the efficacy of their market strategy, however, escalating costs and the burden of obsolescent equipment forced Peavy to close the Dallas plant in July 1973. The Cargill Corporation of Minneapolis purchased the plant in the following year, scrapping its equipment and redirecting its production to their plant in Saginaw, Texas. One of the world's largest millers and the largest family-owned corporation in the country, Cargill oversaw the dissolution of several of Dallas' milling operations during this period. To protect their Saginaw plant, the corporation also purchased and closed the Morton Mill on nearby Cadiz Street. It eventually sold that property to the state to facilitate the construction of Interstate Highway 30. The firm also purchased Dallas' third large mill, the Burrus Tex-O-Kan facility, concentrating on export production at the mill until dismantling it in 1992. Fewer than ten mills remain in operation in Texas today.

Indeed, the only other comparable industrial building surviving in Dallas is the Lemp Brewery near the intersection of Oakland Avenue with the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks. The 1893 brewery also resulted from an investment by St. Louis entrepreneurs in Dallas' industrial sector. While the brick brewery retains much of its form and detail, however, its current use as an icehouse resulted in the bricking up of its fenestration. While some sizable 19th-century commercial warehouses and many examples of large industrial buildings built in the 1920s survive, the Stanard-Tilton Flour mill is a rare surviving example of its type and form. This significant representative of Dallas' industrial heritage is currently being rehabilitated through a Tax Act project which will preserve its character-defining features while continuing its useful life in the community.

Building Description

Initial construction of the rambling concrete and brick complex occurred in 1912-13 on a site with direct access to rail service and the highway network. Efforts to modernize its manufacturing capabilities significantly expanded the facility in 1948. The resultant plant incorporates a 6-story mill, a 7-story elevator head house, warehouse space, office space, a grain silo and mechanical shop and power generation functions, as well as three auxiliary metal sheds.

The mill occupies a 2.07-acre tract in the J.M. Reagan Subdivision of Dallas, approximately one mile south of the central business district and a half mile east of the Trinity River (see Map-15). The rights-of-way for the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad (GC&SF), and the Dallas Terminal Railway (DTR) border this site. The DTR tracks are embedded in Coombs Street, which was abandoned to the line in 1895. They still service a functioning steel fabrication plant on the mill's eastern property line. Along the western edge of the property, South Ervay Street was originally at grade. A 1952 underpass depressed it beneath the GC&SF tracks and severed the DTR line west of the mill.

Completed in 1913 and expanded in 1948, the building incorporates five functional sections, including the 6-story mill (6,000 square feet per floor), warehouse space (25,000 square feet), a mechanical shop and power generating plant (7,000 square feet), and office space, as well as a grain silo with storage units measuring 100 foot tall by 18 feet in diameter. These components were constructed in a single phase resulting in an irregular plan rising one, two, and six stories. In 1948 the 7-story corn milling facility was added above the trackside portion of the original warehouse, with general interior renovations of the plant continuing until 1954. A large hopper bin on the roof also dates to this period. Three auxiliary metal sheds on the site house a truck scale, a vehicle repair shop, and storage for empty grain sacks.

The milling and distribution process involved transferring grain either by rail or truck, which a 250-foot train dock and eight truck doors facilitated. Dump cavities opened into hoppers connected with vertical conveyors that carried the grain to a silo for storage or to the processing sections of the mill. Buckets attached to a belt inside sheet metal sleeves facilitated this vertical movement, while rotating augers in troughs moved the grain horizontally. The process of grinding, cleaning, refining, and sifting took place in a vertical sequence on the upper floors, with gravity pulling the product through the milling processes, occasionally assisted by blowers. Bags of finished products including yellow corn, feed and bran meals, as well as white, dark rye, pumpernickel, cake, pastry, cracker, cookie, bread, and self-rising flours were filled on the lower floors and sent to the warehouse for storage and distribution.

The mill features reinforced concrete construction coupled with brickwork and industrial steel sash. Ground floors on all but the mechanical section lie four feet above grade. Steel-framed sheet metal awnings shelter the loading docks. Wood doors featuring steel-reinforced muntins and rails with glass inserts provide access from these docks. The doors hang on pipe rails to facilitate horizontal operation. Steel-framed awning windows occur throughout the original sections, with 2-pane transoms just below ceiling height in the warehouse section and full-height windows elsewhere. A second-floor office section rises one story above this composition parallel to the tracks. A false concrete arch distinguishes the double door entry to its internal staircase. The adjacent mechanical section features 10-foot steel doors enclosing a boiler room. Serviced by a steel stack, the 1914 Casey-Hedges gas-fired boiler is separated from the rest of the building by a firewall and double fire doors. The 6-story mill section features broad expanses of industrial steel sash between its reinforced concrete piers. Crenelated parapets surmount these sections of the building, featuring reddish brown brick from the Globe Brick Company of El Paso laid in a running bond pattern. Concrete coping capped by tiles finishes these parapets. Most brick has been coated with weatherproof sealer to prevent moisture penetration.

A parallel series of columnar concrete silos dominates the trackside (north) elevation of the mill. The silos are surmounted at the seventh-story level by a head house lit by bands of industrial steel sash. Adjacent to this composition, the 1948 corn mill facility rises six stories above the warehouse section. Also built of reinforced concrete, this section is marked by external concrete ribs separating rows of rectangular fenestration. These windows combine glass blocks with operable glass panels to provide light and ventilation to the interior. The asymmetrical plan of this section incorporates 30 rectangular internal silos occupying about 30 percent of the floor space on the third through sixth levels. Most exterior surfaces of these sections remain unpainted.

The mill's internal spaces display utilitarian finishes such as raw masonry or painted plaster. As grain dust posed a serious danger of explosion, safety features such as weighted fire doors with fusible links predominate. Sliding, swinging, and rolling fire doors consist of wood panels covered with seamed sheet metal and reinforced with steel strapping. The Philip Manufacturing Company of East Hampton, Massachusetts provided the swinging doors, while the sliding doors were made by the American Sheet Metal Works of New Orleans. Roll drop doors consist of linked horizontal steel panels. All stairwells, elevator openings, and passages between sections are protected by such fireproof doors. Circulation systems for the workers originally consisted of a single stairwell and two belt-driven man-lifts. The 1948 renovations added a cable hoist freight elevator and a second stairwell on the west. Locker rooms with two showers for 30 employees were also added on the second floor at that time, with a second locker room wedged in over the main entry in the 1950s. Approximately 180 men were employed at the mill when it closed in 1974. Current plans call for its conversion to housing as part of a Tax Act rehabilitation effort.