White Castle Building No. 8 - Minneapolis, MN
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FSU*Noles
N 44° 56.588 W 093° 17.303
15T E 477248 N 4976673
This is the historic White Castle Building Number 8 in Minneapolis, MN - one of the few prefabricated, portable buildings built by the chain and listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Building #86002868.
Waymark Code: WM3G02
Location: Minnesota, United States
Date Posted: 03/31/2008
Views: 37
In 1926, White Castle entered the Minneapolis area. The eighth restaurant was built in 1927 at 616 Washington Avenue Southeast, originally with glazed brick. As the restaurant chain expanded, they developed standardized production methods and a standard look for their restaurants.
Porcelain Steel Buildings, a subsidiary of White Castle, manufactured movable, prefabricated structures that could be assembled at any White Castle restaurant site. The building is modeled after the Chicago Water Tower, with octagonal buttresses, crenellated towers, and a parapet wall. The founders later claimed that this design was the first successful use of porcelain as a building material.
This building, measuring only 28 feet by 28 feet, has had three different locations in Minneapolis. The restaurant was originally located at 616 Washington Avenue Southeast near the University of Minnesota campus (in the Stadium Village neighborhood) in 1936.
In 1950, the building was moved to 329 Central Avenue Southeast when the owner of the Washington Avenue property refused to renew the lease. (The reluctance of landowners to extend leases on small parcels was the reason why White Castle manufactured movable buildings.) In 1983, White Castle officials opened a new, larger restaurant a few blocks away from the Central Avenue location.
In order to save a piece of the city's architectural history, the Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission found a buyer willing to relocate the structure and save it from demolition. The building is now located at 3252 Lyndale Avenue South, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
Usually, properties on the National Register may lose their designation if they are moved or significantly altered. The federal program recognized, however, that early White Castle restaurants were specifically made to be movable.
The building is now located at 3252 Lyndale Avenue South, and is currently in use as a jewelery store.
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