Friday, November 12, 2021

Agway Grain Elevator in Huron – Nov. 1971


Here’s a familiar landmark to motorists and boaters passing through Huron on Route 6 in the 1960s: the old Agway silos and plant on the river.
The photo and caption ran in the Journal on November 19, 1971.
Pillsbury had just recently purchased the Agway grain mill, and eventually the familiar blue Pillsbury logo adorned the structure. According to the Huron Historical Society, Pillsbury used the property "as a Great Lakes and international grain shipping terminal.
I remember thinking how neat it was that a big, well-known company like Pillsbury (home of the chubby Doughboy from the TV commercials) had operations in Huron. 
ConAgra Foods eventually acquired the facility in the late 1980s. It was closed around mid-2006 and the property was donated by the company to the State of Ohio for redevelopment.
Demolition of the iconic buildings began in January 2012.
A vintage view
(Courtesy OhioMemory.org)

6 comments:

Drew Penfield said...

When was that place originally built? 1950s?

Dan Brady said...

Hi Drew,
According to the Huron Historical Society website, the Eastern States Farmer Exchange (predecessor to Agway) was completed in 1952.

Anonymous said...

Hi Dan There are a lot of videos on youtube, showing the implosion of the ConAgra plant. here is a link to one of them.. Bill N https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrxRZ3_Alks

Dan Brady said...

Thanks for the link, Bill. That’s a particularly nice view of the demolition in that video.

LHS Blazer Man said...

The population of the United States has nearly doubled since the 1960s yet factories and jobs for seemingly essential goods (food!!!) keep disappearing from our area. The question is why?

Anonymous said...

Plain old fashioned capitalism is the culprit.Just take a look on the tv show "Shark Tank".The first words out of the sharks mouths are "you need to make this in China".So instead of investing in America for the good of the country-by giving an American a job,the entrepreneur will instead go to China and get his product made for pennies on the dollar.Then the entrepreneurs are guaranteed to obtain maximum profits for themselves.Sure the Chinese worker is exploited,but he or she is either forced or is willing to do the slave labor work.So China wins out.And America loses.And the entrepreneur can be happy about "creating" a job,but it's not an American who will get the job.And the entrepreneur then gets to become a millionaire overnight.So the only one who is benefiting from this whole process is the entrepreneur.Oh yes,he or she invented a product,thought it up,and nursed it along to fruition.So they should enjoy the final reward,but when a countries wealth is so lopsided that people have to work 2-3 jobs each just to make ends meet,that's when socialism needs to be put into play.Call socialism bad or call it whatever but socialism protects a countries own people.Socialism puts a countries people first because socialism levels the playing field and protects the community as a whole,instead of one person having all of the wealth.Just think about it,does Elon Musk really deserve to have $250 Billion dollars of wealth?No he does not.And he didn't invent Tesla like everybody wants you to believe either.He just invested in it.He just lucked out and was at the right place at the right time.People like Elon is why socialism exists.But America was built on capitalism so it's only going to get worse.Unless the people take it upon themselves to make a stand and demand just reward like what is happening with the labor shortage.People are finally realizing that they are worth more than minimum wage after being brainwashed for decades.