Butler Square (originally the Butler Brothers Company building) is a former

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities ...

and office building in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, United States. The building is located within the Minneapolis warehouse district and was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1971. It is significant for its restrained Chicago School design by major Minneapolis architect

Harry Wild Jones Harry Wild Jones (June 9, 1859 – September 25, 1935) was an American architect based in Minneapolis who designed throughout the country and the world. Born two years before the start of the American Civil War, Jones, a twelfth-generation New Eng ...

, and as a leading example of the older warehouse/office buildings in

Minneapolis–Saint Paul Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a metropolitan area in the Upper Midwestern United States centered around the confluence of the Mississippi, Minnesota and St. Croix rivers in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is commonly known as the Twin Cities ...

. Jones designed other buildings in Minneapolis such as the Minneapolis Scottish Rite Temple, Calvary Baptist Church, the

Lakewood Cemetery Lakewood Cemetery is a large private, non-sectarian cemetery located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is located at 3600 Hennepin Avenue at the southern end of the Uptown area. It is noted for its chapel which is on the National Re ...

Chapel, and the

Washburn Park Water Tower The Washburn Park Water Tower is a landmark in the Tangletown neighborhood of south Minneapolis, Minnesota, built in 1931. It is located on top of one of the highest points of south Minneapolis. The tower is considered an unofficial "beacon" f ...

. It was originally built as a warehouse for

Butler Brothers Butler Brothers was a retailer and wholesale supplier based in Chicago. It was founded in 1877 as a mail-order company by Charles Hamblet Butler, George Henry Butler, George H. Butler and Edward Burgess Butler. History In the 1920s, Butler Brothe ...

, a mail-order firm, on the land that formerly housed the Athletic Park baseball stadium. It had rather heavy construction in keeping with its function as a warehouse, featuring thick interior

masonry Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...

walls with thin, recessed windows topped by

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

led

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

s. The interior is built with heavy timber posts and beams, cut from

Douglas fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...

grown near

Aitkin, Minnesota Aitkin ( ) is a city in Aitkin County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 2,168 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Aitkin County. History Before the establishment of City of Aitkin, a transient community of Lexington was loc ...

. The columns are wide at the bottom level, gradually diminishing to wide on the top level. The basement included a

horse stable A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...

, to accommodate deliveries, and the building had three large coal-fired

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central h ...

s for heating. Mechanical

elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...

s were used to move goods throughout the building. The building had a rail spur to facilitate boxcar loading. Gradually, as truck transportation became more competitive with rail transportation, the urban location of the building rendered it inefficient as a warehouse. In 1972 real estate developer Charles Coyer purchased the building with plans to rebuild the east half of the building as an office-retail complex. As part of the renovation, a central atrium in the eastern half of the building was built to allow natural light into the building. This made the retail and office space more marketable, since the large floor space and small windows made it difficult to get enough natural light into the interior. James H. Binger purchased the building in 1979 with similar plans to develop the west half of the building. The atrium on western side was built with more of the heavy timber construction exposed, and more efficient mechanical systems were installed. The renovation of the building has served as a catalyst for additional development and preservation within the Minneapolis Warehouse District.

References

External links

Butler Square
{{National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Commercial buildings completed in 1908 Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in Minneapolis Office buildings in Minnesota Warehouses on the National Register of Historic Places 1908 establishments in Minnesota Chicago school architecture in Minnesota

See also

References

External links