The Barrel-Makers' Co-ops
The red brick building at the corner of Third Avenue and First Street was one of many factories that supplied the barrels used for flour. Called coopers, the skilled workers who made barrels pioneered a new role for labor in Minneapolis. When their wages were cut in 1874 and a strike was broken, some of them formed a co-op. The idea spread, and by 1886 two-thirds of the coopers at the falls belonged to shops owned and managed by the workers. They prospered until flour sacks replaced barrels after 1900.
Marker is on West River Parkway ¼ mile west of Portland Avenue South, on the right when traveling west.
Courtesy hmdb.org
