Minnesota Linseed Oil Company in Minneapolis

The Minnesota Linseed Oil Company was incorporated in September 1870. Around 1878, company managers decided to use linseed oil to manufacture house paint. The venture was so successful that it led to the incorporation of a separate business, the Minnesota Linseed Oil Paint Company, in 1889.

The linseed oil company’s production levels soon outgrew its facility at Washington Ave S and Eleventh St in Minneapolis. So new office and manufacturing space was built at Eleventh Avenue and Third Street. The five-story headquarters building was designed by Franklin and Louis Long and completed in 1905. By the early twentieth century, the Minnesota Linseed Oil Company was the largest manufacturer of linseed oil in the state.

The growing importance of paint to the company’s business, however, led to the formal adoption of the name Minnesota Paint in the following year. In June 1970, Minnesota Paint merged with Valspar Paint Co. and Minneapolis became the headquarters for the company. Sherwin Williams acquired Valspar in 2017.