1300 N 4th St

Summary

George C. Mansfield Co. Building
1300 North 4th Street
Milwaukee, WI 53212
Architect: Ferry & Clas; Unknown
Date of Construction: 1908; ca. 1919-1927

The George C. Mansfield Co. Building at 1300 North 4th Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin was the home of three leading commercial producers and wholesalers of butter, ice cream, and related dairy products in the first half of the 20th century: The George C. Mansfield Co., the Gridley Dairy Co., and the Borden Co.; The George C. Mansfield Co. Building continues to express the rising popularity of ice cream in the early twentieth century and is an early example of a highly specialized and mechanized facility used for producing and storing the product in mass quantities.

The original George C. Mansfield Co. Building was completed in 1908 with a four- and five-story addition constructed north of the building between 1919 and 1927. It originally served as the headquarters of the George C. Mansfield Co., a prominent Milwaukee industrial creamery concern, housing the company's administrative offices and cold storage facilities until 1927. The George C. Mansfield Co. would grow to be the largest manufacturer of ice cream in Milwaukee at the time it was purchased by the Gridley Dairy Co. in 1927, where it remained as the largest local supplier of dairy products. By 1928, the Gridley Dairy Co. would become part of the world’s largest dairy corporation, the Borden Co. The company continued to use the facility at 1300 North 4th Street as the center of ice cream production until 1959, when the Borden Co. moved to a larger, all-inclusive facility. At this time, the building was taken over by the Lappin Electric Company and converted to office and storage use. Today, the building is mostly vacant with a single office tenant remaining on the 1st floor.

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