8.05.278

Print, Photographic

1943

E. F. Johnson Company Employee. E. F. Johnson Company Building. 4 1/4" x 3" black and white photograph of a group of unidentified employees of the E. F. Johnson Co. standing beside a car parked in front of the E. F. Johnson Company located in the 200 block of 2nd Avenue S.W., Waseca, MN; employees who car-pooled or were provided bus transportation during World War II; car-pooling and buses during wartime.

Waseca business: E.F. Johnson Co.; E.F. Johnson Company; E.F. Johnson Corporate Headquarters; E.F. Johnson Company Corporate Headquarters; E.F. Johnson Co. Corporate Headquarters; E. F. Johnson Co.; E. F. Johnson Company; E. F. Johnson Corporate Headquarters; E. F. Johnson Company Corporate Headquarters; E. F. Johnson Co. Corporate Headquarters. When this building on 2nd Avenue S.W. was built in 1936 the company had 17 employees. Additions have been built on three occasions but even those could not handle the growth of the company. A warehouse was constructed across the street at the intersection of the Chicago & North Western and Minneapolis & St. Louis railroads. When the factory had pushed its way through to West Elm Avenue, then the old Kelly garage building on the north side of Elm was taken over for production purposes. Before the move was made to the 10th Avenue S.W. plant the company had offices in what was known as the Peterson building on State Street and they had taken over the Maloney residence on 2nd Street SW. In 1924 the E.F. Johnson Co. had outgrown the Johnson Woodworking Shop and had moved to a store building on State Street. Even with an expanded retail business the company could not afford the overhead of the 22 foot wide building and an area in front was sub-let to A.H. Sievert for a jewelry repair shop. Although a new factory was built in 1936 the State Street retail store was continued until destroyed by fire in January 1942.