Minneapolis Warehouse District, Wisconsin Central Freight Station, 10-12 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, MN

Significance: The Wisconsin Central Freight Station (Chicago Great Western Warehouse) is sited at "Bridge Square" at the eastern end of the Minneapolis Warehouse Historic District, where the primary downtown street, Hennepin Avenue, crosses the Mississippi River. This area is the historic gateway to Minneapolis' downtown, where the central business district, milling district, and warehouse district all come together. When this freight station was constructed, railroads were the principal mover of freight in and out of the city. The 30-car rail yard contiguous to this station and the freight station itself provided a rail link to downtown Minneapolis for the less-than-carload-lot freight. The Wisconsin Central Freight Station is an example of the work of Minneapolis engineer Claude Allen Porter (C.A.P.) Turner, whose reinforced concrete systems were widely used after the turn of the century. The driveway on the southwest side of the building is the earliest known extant example in the City of Minneapolis of Turner's use of mushroom column and flat slab reinforced concrete construction. The main structure is the third earliest known extant example of Turner's reinforced concrete beam and slab system in the City of Minneapolis. The building was listed as a contributing building when the Minneapolis Warehouse Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in November 1989.
Survey number: HABS MN-110-AC
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 89001937