Tuesday, May 04 2010
Evansville Cotton Mill Mead Johnson has been an Evansville institution since 1915, but the site of this world-renown company goes back even further. The premises was originally that of the Evansville Cotton Mill. The expanding mill moved from downtown to just west of town at the foot of St Joseph Ave in 1875. The main building had a tower that is clearly visible in many pictures and housing was built to the south for its workers. In 1910, however, the plant ceased operations and closed. The mill sat vacant for a while until E. Mead Johnson's company bought it in 1915. Mead Johnson Co was located in New Jersey, but moved to Evansville to be close to its corn supply. The company remodeled the buildings, installed new equipment, and began manufacturing baby food products by March of 1916. Tremendous growth followed as have several additions over the years. In the 1940s, offices were built on the southwest corner of St Joseph Ave and Pennsylvania St (now the Lloyd Expressway), and sometime around 1990 new offices were built on the southeast corner. Much of the original building has been subsumed, but you can still make out the base of the tower looking along Ray Becker Parkway (see slideshow). Mead Johnson Nutritionals is still going strong as a company and is presently expanding once again, ever committed to making Evansville its home. Evansville Cotton Mill / Mead Johnson at HistoricEvansville.com Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-33082-Evansville-History-Examiner~y2010m4d29-Evansville-Cotton-Mill |