Viola Cooperative Creamery

Infobox_nrhp | name =Viola Cooperative Creamery
nrhp_type =


caption =
nearest_city= Viola, Minnesota
lat_degrees = 44 | lat_minutes = 3 | lat_seconds = 52.52 | lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 92 | long_minutes = 16 | long_seconds = 9.54 | long_direction = W
locmapin = Minnesota
area =
built =1924
architect= Crawford, Harold H.
architecture= Colonial Revival
added = November 12, 1999
governing_body = Private
refnum=99001310 cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-01-23|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]

The Viola Creamery is a rural building on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

History

In March 1924 March, the construction of the creamery was completed. Designed by architect Harold Crawford, this more modern brick building replaced the old creamery. The previous creamery was a wood-frame building that burned down in the winter of 1923. The creamery produced high quality, specialty butter used in upscale restaurants in New York and Chicago.

On 16th, 1947, the last shipment of butter stamped "Viola Creamery Specials" left the Creamery destined for Chicago. During World War II, higher demand and competition for refrigerated milk trucks made larger creameries viable. Most smaller specialty creameries were forced to close.

Between 1946 and 1961, the creamery was used for various purposes. A cabinet-making shop and a boat building business are just two mentioned in written histories of the building.

In 1961, the creamery was purchased and used to produce honey, handling every step of the process from hive to jar. This business operated until it was closed down by the USDA in 1987.

Between 1987 and 1998, the creamery remained vacant and slowly deteriorated. Vandals began to destroy the building. Windows were broken out and the 12-foot-tall copula was stolen from the roof. Because of the gaping hole left behind, hundreds of pigeons took over the second level of the building and mice inhabited the rest.

In August 1998, the creamery was purchased by a bricklayer. He began to restore the creamery to its original condition and had it placed on The National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

In August 2002, the creamery was renovated into a fine-dining restaurant, The Viola Creamery Steakhouse, which closed 3 years later in the Winter of 2005.

In April 2007, the creamery was purchased and converted into a single-family residential home.

References

External links

* [http://www.mnhs.org/about/publications/planner/summer2000.pdf Minnesota Preservation Planner: Summer 2000]