Swift and Company operated a slaughterhouse and meat packing plant on this site that grew into the company’s largest plant in the United States. Founded in Chicago in 1869, the company came to this location in 1897 after Alpheus B. Stickney, president of the Chicago Great Western Railroad, negotiated a 999 year lease with Gustavus Swift to take over a small packing plant here. As the Twin City area grew and demand for meat increased, the plant expanded across 28 acres with 30.5 acres of floor space in multi-storied buildings, slaughtering and processing cattle, hogs, and sheep obtained from the adjacent Saint Paul Union Stockyards and driven across overhead ramps to the killing floors. The plant produced fresh, smoked, table-ready, and canned meats, including PREM and baby foods, along with soap, lard, shortening, adhesives, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, hides, and animal feeds. Refrigerated railroad cars shipped perishable products across the country, first using ice harvested mainly from the Mississippi and Saint Croix Rivers until mechanized refrigeration came into use, and products also went overseas, especially during war years to supply the United States and allied forces. Its 72 year operation was interrupted at times by labor strikes and floods, including a 10 week strike in 1948 and floods in 1951, 1952, and 1965. The workforce included managers from other Swift locations such as Chicago and Omaha, European emigrants, and local men and women, and the company encouraged immigrants to become naturalized citizens. Employment rose from 300 in 1897 to 5000 at its World War II peak, averaged 3500 workers, and stood at 2400 in 1969, while the payroll topped $23 million in 1962 and wages were supplemented by bonus pay known as "B" money. In 1919, the company’s 50th anniversary year, stock became available to the public. The nation’s number one Swift meat packing plant closed in 1969 because its aging buildings and equipment no longer fit an industry shifting to smaller, specialized plants. After processing millions of animals into billions of products and employing thousands of workers, its closure devastated South Saint Paul by eliminating 2400 jobs and a steady tax base. Meat packing and related businesses had shaped the community’s economy, supported civic life and public services, set daily routines by the blowing of the Swift whistle, and left a legacy preserved in the local high school teams’ name, the Packers.