Last updated: March 19, 2019
Place
Strutwear Knitting Company Building
Photograph courtesy of Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office
Quick Facts
Location:
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Significance:
Social History
Designation:
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places
OPEN TO PUBLIC:
No
MANAGED BY:
Privately Owned
The Strutwear Knitting Company Building represents one of the most important labor victories in Minneapolis's history. The property is locally significant under Criterion A in the area of Social History. Its period of significance is 1935 to 1936, when Strutwear employees were on strike against the company's anti-union policies. It was not only a battle against Strutwear officials but against the Minneapolis Citizens Alliance, an antilabor business association and militant defender of the city's open-shop reputation. Thousands of industrial workers from across all trades, skill levels, and genders joined the eight-month-long standoff, which marked a turning point in Minneapolis's labor movement. It was particularly a triumph for Strutwear's nearly 900 female operatives, who were initially excluded from the union's member drive. Prior to the Strutwear strike, the American Federation of Hosiery Workers had not included women among its ranks, but their participation was crucial to the strike's success.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation's historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America's historic and archeological resources.