Sugar City Cooperative Creamery, 140 East Sixth Street (Highway 212), Chaska, Carver County, MN

1999 Charles E. Peterson Prize, Entry
Significance: Though the Chaska Sugar City Cooperative Creamery is not listed in the National Register of Historic Places, considered within the context of cooperative dairy production it is probably eligible according to Register Criterion A as a reflection of broad patterns of historical events. Creamery buildings still exist in many towns throughout the Dairy Belt, particularly throughout Minnesota where local butter production was the principal objective in their planning and organization. Some early Minnesota creameries were, in fact, known as "butteries." By contrast, nearby Wisconsin dairy processing facilities were overwhelmingly oriented toward cheesemaking. Three identifiable types of creamery buildings can be observed in Minnesota. The earliest are one-story, linear structures built between 1890 and 1905. The Sugar City Cooperative Creamery building (constructed in 1914) is typical of many one-and-one-half story creamery buildings constructed between 1905 and 1921. From 1915 until 1930, most creameries constructed in Minnesota were larger, two-story buildings clearly recognizable as sites of industrial production of butter. Construction of new creamery buildings largely subsided during and after the Great Depression.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N624
Survey number: HABS MN-163
Building/structure dates: 1914 Initial Construction