The Shops at Gladstone

The Gladstone Shops were completed in 1888 at a cost of more than one quarter of a million dollars. Rail lines crossed the site alongside fuel and raw material sheds, maintenance shops, a well, 1800 feet of sewer, and a 100-foot smokestack. The steam-heated shops had tall windows and whitewashed interiors that spread ample light through the large main buildings. For 28 years, the Gladstone Shops built, refit, and maintained the St. Paul & Duluth Railroad's engines and cars, upgrading existing equipment and keeping pace with railroad improvements as better engines and track grades allowed larger-capacity cars to be built. With a fleet of nearly 2,500, this was a substantial task, and in its heyday the shops reflected the prominence of railroading in Minnesota. After 1915 the shops were shuttered and work moved to the Como and Mississippi Street Shops. Various businesses later tried to repurpose the property, and in the late 1940s a 150-foot water tower was added. In the fall of 1979 the remaining buildings were completely demolished, and the site remained vacant until the City of Maplewood bought the land from Burlington Northern in 1995. In 2012 Maplewood worked with archaeologists to learn what remained underground after demolition. Archaeo-Physics, LLC used ground-penetrating radar to identify the roundhouse, transfer table, and a shop foundation, and during cleanup and restoration Summit Envirosolutions, Inc. documented 37 features, including foundations, tracks, the well, and buried shop ruins. By 1903 the maintenance yard included numerous shops in addition to the roundhouse, turn and transfer tables, including a brass foundry, large machine and erecting shops, blacksmith, tin, paint, wheel, and cabinet shops, as well as office and storage sheds and two sets of privies on the north and south sides of the yard.

Maplewood, Minnesota · United States