The largest hard wheat mill in the world to be built in Kansas City was described in a story in The Star in 1913. An architect's drawing accompanied the story, which said: The new mill being built by the Southwestern Milling Company at 18th and Kansas Avenue, Kansas City, Kansas, will be the largest hard winter wheat mill in the world. The plant will be completed in ample time to take care of next year's crop of turkey red wheat, from which the company product, Aristos Flour, is made. The new building will be of fire-proof construction with concrete walls and floors and steel window frames. There will be no stairway in the main building. A tower is being constructed on the outside to give space for stairways so that there will be no opening in any of the floors for this purpose. In designing the machinery the engineers have made the plant practically automatic, no hand will touch the wheat from the time it reaches the mill until it is turned out in flour ready for delivery, insuring most sanitary conditions in the manufacturing of food. In addition to the mill there will be a warehouse, also fireproof, with a capacity of 25,000 barrels at one time. Seven railroads will bring in the wheat and take out the product. The old post card printed in color pictures the mill after completion. Smoke pours from the chimneys of the mills, a sign of prosperity at the time and long before there was awareness of air pollution. A picture of a little girl feeding the red turkey gobbler was the same design as that printed on the cotton flour sacks, and called attention to the fact that the mill made the flour from Red Turkey wheat, the famous hard winter wheat brought from the Crimea in Russia to Harvey County, Kansas, by the Mennonites in the 1880s. The strong flour sacks, holding 25, 50 or 100 pounds, were made of good quality cotton. After the sack was emptied and laundered, it was used to make tea towels, underwear and other items. Southwestern Milling Co. became part of the Standard Milling Co. in the middle 1920s. The mill was badly damaged by the flood of 1951 and was dismantled soon after. It has stood empty since that time. Kansas City Times, May 25, 1979.
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