A Tribute to the Henderson Feed Mill

If anyone has driven down south 4th street lately, they’ve probably noticed the recently completed leveling of the old Henderson Feed Mill site. Although I regret seeing a historic building come down, I began this project out of a need for building materials and the value I see in saving lumber from a building that would otherwise be demolished and burned. So, piece by piece, I tore that old building down.

Armed with a pry bar, a truck and trailer, sawhorses, and a hammer, I went to work removing the roof and de-nailing every piece of steel roofing and roof boards. The white steel siding came off next, and I discovered the original layer of siding beneath, 3’ X 5’ sheets of galvanized sheet metal stamped with a brick pattern. This siding is now covering a portion of my new house. The 2X6 rafters became the primary wall structure of my new kitchen.

Before plywood, lumberyards stocked Douglas fir boards with a shiplap edge profile for the purpose of wall sheathing. The feed mill was covered in about 4,000 sq. ft. of these boards that have gathered a very nice patina after 80 years of exposure to a warehouse environment. I will be re-using much of these boards (that my father laboriously de-nailed) as ceiling and floor coverings. A light sanding and a coat of oil is all that will be needed to achieve the rustic look I’m after.

I often think of how these trees cut from the Rocky Mountains in the 1920’s made it to my new house. They were lumbered, delivered to a sawmill, cut into boards, shipped to Minnesota via train, built into a structure, used for 80 years, dismantled, de-nailed, shipped to my building site, and re-cut to useful lengths for wall framing, flooring, ceilings, and trim. I am proud to give new life to such a useful natural resource. Sure, I could have purchased new lumber, but I chose to trade my free time for a nearly unlimited supply of free wood for my building site. Plus, I am recycling and have reduced the demand for cutting more live trees. In my opinion, that new lumber is inferior to the densely-grained, hard-as-a-rock, old-growth fir that I now have.

As if the lumber and the machinery from the feed mill wasn’t enough, I wanted the foundation stone for future building projects. The basement walls of the feed mill were primarily dolomite (Kasota stone), quarried in nearby Ottawa or Kasota, and fieldstone. As our excavator was digging out the stone, he discovered more walls and foundations of much older buildings from Henderson’s past.

Perhaps the most interesting of the finds was an old brick-lined tunnel beneath the alley that presumably ran to mill creek before it was channeled by the city. I’m wondering if there used to be a waterwheel that turned in the creek with a shaft running through this tunnel to the equipment inside. We also found a foot-thick layer of ash and debris around the foundation, with nails, charred grain, and burned lumber. There have been a number of milling operation on this site, and the structure I tore down was built after the old Henderson Roller mill burned in 1927, on the same foundation. This explains the ash, and the old shaft to the creek.

I will miss seeing the Henderson Feed Mill. My family used to do business there when we were farming, and I have had many people stop by during the demolition to tell me their own stories. In fact, the history and personal accounts I have heard about this building from curious onlookers was an unexpected benefit of this project. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels nostalgic when driving by the empty site of the feed mill.

I hope someone finds a good use for that lot, and given Henderson’s community of progressive builders and developers, I’m sure it will. I thank everyone in Henderson’s history that built and sustained that old building so I could eventually turn it into a house for my family. At times I thought I was crazy for undertaking such a project, but looking back now it was totally worth it, and a building that would have otherwise gone to waste has a new life.

I would like to thank everyone who helped me out with this project, you know who you are. I certainly couldn’t have done this by myself, and I am grateful to you all (you know who to ask for help in the future!)