A witness to the rapid evolution of agriculture and home to the J.I. Case Threshing Machine Company, one of the country’s major farming equipment manufacturers, this century-old building has stood prominently on the corner of South Washington Avenue and Park Avenue in the Minneapolis Downtown East neighborhood since 1907.  The J.I. Case Threshing Machine Company erected (architects Kees and Colburn) and occupied the building for over 50 years as a branch house, distributing and marketing its farming equipment across the Midwest. This building stood tall through a pivotal time in our country’s history as the mechanization of agriculture was crucial to keeping up with the explosive growth of the population, which doubled in thirty years. During this time, the manufacturing and distribution of farming equipment had even surpassed the flour and grain industry in Minneapolis in dollar volume.

The J.I. Case Company eventually dropped “threshing machine” from its name as its product offering expanded and it later relocated to Eagan in 1959, when many other businesses as well as families were moving to the suburbs. In 1959, Minneapolis House Furnishings occupied the space as its warehouse and showroom, until the 1980s. Architects Liebenberg and Kaplan completed an addition shortly after the furniture company moved in. In the early 1990s, the building was remodeled for office space and a restaurant, the Old Spaghetti Factory, which closed in 2019. Sherman Associates acquired the building in 1999 and has since occupied the space as its corporate headquarters.