Ramsey County History – Winter 2003: “A Flourishing Fur Trade Industry and the US Army Corps of Engineers Centre Building”

A Flourishing Fur Trade Industry and the US Army Corps of Engineers Centre Building
Author: Matt Pearcy

This is the story of a building at 333 Sibley, designed by the famous architect Clarence Johnston. It was initially constructed for Gordon and Ferguson, an important fur trading company. They had been at other locations, and their new building was, at the time, the largest manufacturing-plant commission Johnston ever had. The structure was nine stories high and covered half a city block. Gordon and Ferguson occupied the building from 1913 until 1944, when an electric company moved in and, then, for a time, the structure was vacant. In 1958, the building was refurbished and became the Nalpak Building with the Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, as its tenant. When the Corps expanded its operations in 1993, the structure was renamed the Corps of Engineer Centre.
PDF of Pearcy article