William Bros Boiler Works

[2] Nicollet Island was first developed in the 1860s by William W. Eastman, a lumberman, and John Merriam, a St. Paul–based broker, who had initially proposed the area as a park (which was ultimately struck down).

On the afternoon August 13, 1893, a blaze burned buildings on the island including Lenhart Wagon Works, Cedar Lake Ice House and stable, the Clark Box Factory, and the Minneapolis Brewing Company.

[4] The William Bros Boiler Works opened soon after the fire, building on the former Lintges, Conwell Company site.

In the early 1900s, the company expanded to a new plant that was located on the corner of east Hennepin Avenue and Johnson Street.

[8] The William Bros Boiler Works' east Hennepin plant location is now an office park off of the I-35W highway.