Saint Paul, MN

1217 Bandana Blvd. N.
St. Paul, MN 55108

Phone: 651.644.8080
Fax: 651.647.0888

 

About Our Corporate Headquarters

 

Our Corporate Headquarters is located in St. Paul, Minnesota and resides in the former Blacksmith’s Shop of the Como Shops.

Established by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company (now Burlington Northern) in 1885, the Como Shops complex was used to build and service railroad passenger cars.

It was the only passenger car shop complex operated by the Northern Pacific east of the Rocky Mountains. The Como Shops are significant to the history of the railroad industry in general, and played an important role in the development of the railroad industry in St. Paul.

The exterior form of this building includes rows of tall interior end wall chimney stacks on the north and south walls of the building. The original building was constructed in 1885 of Little Falls cream colored brick with Mankato limestone trimmings, and St. Cloud granite sills. An addition was added to the eastern portion of the building in 1917.

Originally, twelve fires were kept burning in this structure. It also possessed a 1000-pound steam hammer manufactured by the Morgan Engineering Company of Alliance, Ohio. The 1917 addition to the blacksmith shop expanded the number of chimneys to eighteen.

The primary function of the blacksmith shop was to repair and manufacture iron and steel parts that could not be purchased or repaired economically elsewhere. Typical operations included: straightening and buildup of breakbeams and levers; manufacture of grab irons and buffer pins; buildup and annealing of stabilizer bars, swing hangers, and draw bars; cutting and shearing of steel plate and bar stock; and repairing chains, sharpening picks and bars. By 1967 the shop had a force of only eleven workers and in 1969, the building was closed.

In 1984, as part of Energy Park development, the Minnesota Children's Museum was established in the building. Energy Park uses groundwater to heat and cool the buildings across the area.

Summit renovated the building for office space and built a shop specifically for environmental work in the Spring of 1998.