Remembering the “Milwaukee Road” Southtown Yard

In 1875, the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railway (CM&St.P), also known as the “Milwaukee Road”, arrived as one of the Twin Cities’ first railways. Passing through Fort Snelling at Bdote to St. Anthony Falls, along present-day Hiawatha Avenue, the railroad attracted industry and a diverse working-class to the Longfellow Community of Minneapolis.

Through the 1950s, the Milwaukee Road Southtown Yards, a series of railroad-related shops located at Hiawatha and Lake St., continued to be one of South Minneapolis’ largest employers, particularly for immigrant populations and Minneapolis’ African-American community. Attracting mills and factories that benefited from cheap land nearby as well as railway accessibility, the Milwaukee Road played an active role in developing Longfellow Community, and making Minneapolis the “milling capital of the world” and a leading farm implement manufacturer from the 1880s to the 1920s. Its workers also played a key role in improving working conditions through protest and unionization, up until the yard moved to downtown St. Paul in 1956, and the tracks were absorbed by the SOO Line in 1986.

Those who remember the Southtown Yard reminisce about the roundhouse, as seen in the atlas above, as well as its neighbor, Minneapolis Harvester Works, which would become the Minneapolis Moline, manufacturer of the first Jeep in WWII. 

Photos and map from the Hennepin County Library Digital Collections. Learn more about railroad history in the Minneapolis History Collection located in Special Collections. Or visit East Lake Library to see a display board on the history of transportation in the Longfellow Community.