75 Gould St
Winona, MN, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Winona and St. Peter Engine House ( Chicago Northwestern Railroad Engine House)

Statement of Significance: 75 Gould St. Winona, Minnesota Engine House (also known as Motive Barn) of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad (formerly the Winona & St. Peter Railroad) The engine house was built between 1884 and 1893. Probably around 1890. The architect and builder have not been identified. The search for this information and the date of construction is continuing. The building was used as an engine repair shop from its construction until the Chicago & Northwestern suspended its shop operations here. The building was sold to W.A. Hodgins Transfer & Storage Co. in 1965 and was used as a warehouse. It has since been sold and is presently a warehouse. The exterior of the building is essentially the same as it was when constructed. A boiler shop on the east side of the building has been removed. This building was the office and engine shop of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad's shop operations in Winona, Minnesota. A complex that at one time included two roundhouses, a car shop, and a number of smaller buildings. This building housed the engine repair shops of the Winona & St. Peter Railroad that provided for the maintenance and repair of the steam engines of the C&NW until it was converted in 1953 to handle diesel engines that replaced them. The Winona & St. Peter Railroad was founded in 1861 by a group of Winona business and civic leaders just five years after the Incorporation of the city. By 1866 the railroad was completed to Owatonna connecting with the Minnesota Central Railroad the mainline from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Chicago. There was at that time no direct route from Winona to the Twin Cities. In 1867 the Winona & St. Peter Railroad was sold to the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. The original name of the railroad was retained, however, until June 7, 1900, when it became the Winona & St. Peter Division of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. The Chicago & Northwestern and the Winona & St. Peter Railroads played a significant role in the history of Winona and in the growth and development of southern Minnesota. The expansion of the city of Winona and its industries depended on the development of a hinterland that would provide the market for goods produced in the city. The growth of the city depended also on the agricultural products produced on the broad plains of southern Minnesota and eastern South Dakota. Winona was a major shipping point for agricultural products as well as a thriving industrial city between 1870 and the turn of the century. The creation of Winona's hinterland was initiated by the Winona & St. Peter Railroad and later completed by the Chicago & Northwestern. Towns grew along the railroads' right of way across the state of Minnesota and into Dakota Territory. Winona businessmen established branch lumber yards and grain storage facilities in the towns along the railroad. Wheat and other agricultural products were purchased from the farmers for shipment to Winona and the East. Manufactured products from the city were sold in these branch outlets. The enterprise that occurred along the railroad provided for the rapid growth of Winona in population, wealth, and influence. Between 1860 and 1890 Winona was the third largest city in Minnesota, its influence however, outdistanced its size. Winona produced an unusual number of leaders in politics, business, education, and the church. For example, senators and members of the President’s cabinet, governors and judges; founders of the Weyerhaeuser empire; the organizer of the National Educational Association; and the founder of the Wisconsin Synod of the Lutheran Church. The building at 75 Gould St. is significant because of the part it played in the lives of the ordinary people of Winona. The Winona railroad shops on the West side of the city was a major employer. The number of people working at the C&NW shops varied from a low of forty-nine to over five hundred. The average was approximately two hundred employees. The shops employed large numbers of workers from Winona's East side. Residents recall "double-header" street cars that brought the workers from the German and Polish neighborhoods of the city to the shops. Residents also recall the sight of large numbers of workingmen who rode their bikes to work up Broadway in the morning and returned along the same path to the East side at night. According to these eyewitnesses the sight of these bicycling workingmen stretching across the widest street in town is among their fondest memories of Winona in the early years of this century. The building at 75 Gould St. the old Chicago & Northwestern Engine Shop is the sole surviving structure of the railroad shops complex that were a historically significant factor in the history of this city for almost a century. The Winona & St. Peter shops were established in 1866, the first steam locomotive was repaired in 1886 and the engine shop continued in operation until 1956.