In the Beginning an Idea The growth of 3M from its modest beginnings in 1902 to an international corporation was due to vision and persistence. The four company founders had a vision of mining…

Industry and Business 3M’s location by the railroad tracks was bounded on the west and south by the commercial streets of Arcade and East Seventh. It was centered within a thriving urban community…

3M promoted its products to a wide variety of markets and used many methods.

Early Years in Saint Paul When the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company relocated from Duluth to Saint Paul in 1910, all of the company offices and manufacturing operations were housed in one…

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing initially raised capital by selling stock at $1 per share in 1903. In the early years, it was essentially worthless as the company struggled. 3M paid its first…

The 66-foot tall steel flagpole was installed at the corner of Bush and Mendota by the administration building (Building 21) in September 1941. On October 4, 1941, the 3M Club sponsored a flag-raising…

3M constantly improved its machinery and technology to develop, produce, and sell its products. Nonetheless, it was dependent on its people to get the job done. Some of these jobs no longer exist or…

It was -12 degrees F. at 8:20 A.M. on February 8, 1951, when an explosion rocked the six-story Minerals Building (Building 12). It destroyed two floors, plunging them into darkness, damaged the…

On May 5, 1943, Brig. Gen. Carl R. Gray, Jr., head of U.S. Army railroad operations in North Africa, sent a request to President William L. McKnight: "[Please send] your Scotch Cellulose Tape, 3/4 x…

“Scotch” as a brand name for 3M tapes is believed to have its origins in a disgruntled auto-body painter who was using the new 3M masking tape. It was not sticking properly because it was not…

Meet a 3Mer and you will often find that he or she has family members who also work at 3M, part of a long 3M tradition. Otto Meissner was a prime example. Living at 668 Greenbrier, he did not have far…

3M stands for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company. Except for limited efforts to extract low-grade corundum from Crystal Bay, Minnesota, for abrasives in 1904, the company has done no mining. …

The Euclid View Flat Apartment building was designed by Hermann Kretz and built in 1895. Kretz, a German-born architect who immigrated to America in 1880, was responsible for other local buildings…

Although this vigorous Italianate house has lost its corner tower and part of its wraparound porch, it still offers many exuberant details, such as the attenuated columns and ornate brackets found on…

A mix of rigor and romanticism. The main mass of the house is quite subdued, its forms outlined by long bands of precisely detailed ornament. By contrast, the house’s pointy-headed tower, from which a…

An exceptionally well-preserved Italianate house that includes a Hamm’s Brewery and whose wife, Emma, was the sister of their next-door neighbor, Otto Muller. This house was built in 1880.

A historic limestone church, built for what is now Minnesota’s oldest Baptist congregation, founded in 1847 when pioneer teacher Harriet Bishop established a Sunday School. The first church was on…

[Built in 1874, Assumption Church is] St. Paul’s oldest functioning church structure and a nationally significant example of the nineteenth-century revival style variously known as Romanesque,…

The first bridge here opened in 1886 and served until the early 1920s, when a higher bridge was required to accommodate a raised railroad platform at St. Paul Union Depot. Designed by Toltz, King and…

The first bridge here opened in 1859; at that time, only two other bridges- the Hennepin Avenue Suspension Bridge (1855) in Minneapolis and a railroad bridge (1856) at Rock Island, IL- spanned the…