1. Introduction, Twin Cities
Shortly after Remington Rand bought out ERA, a new engineering, manufacturing,
and management building was built along the Mississippi across the river
from historic Ft. Snelling. As the new St. Paul corporate headquarters
it was labeled Plant 1, Sperry Park while the facility
on Minnehaha was labeled Plant 2. Business was growing
so a Plant 3 manufacturing facility was leased on Prior
Avenue three blocks south of Plant 2, the original ERA facility.
The local commercial operations also grew out of the Plant
1 facility so in 1961 the company began leasing buildings in the suburb
of Roseville - called Plant 4. The last of these buildings
was still occupied by UNISYS until June 23, 2017 as they
merged operations in Eagan. Building 3 was the site of just about half of the
VIP Club meetings through 2016.
In the late '50s even more engineering space was needed
so a large building just South of Plant 2 on Prior avenue was rented
to become Plant 5. Yet more space was needed in the
early '60s so a small building along side the Mississippi just North
of the Ford plant became a training facility and document storage building
- Plant 6. Another small building alongside Hwy 280
just north of East Hennepin Ave. was rented, Plant 7,
was close to Plant 4. The old Northwest Airlines office building on
University Avenue was leased and called Plant 6 because
the original Plant 6 was no longer being leased. There is some
controversy in that some VIP Club members recall that the Northwest
Airlines building was also called Plant 8. Plants 2, 3, 5, and
Plant 6/8 were within walking distance of each other.
Lunch breaks, dinner breaks for evening workers, and occasional
project parties all took place at Esslinger's. A few napkin designs
over a cold brew often led to problem solutions thus "Slinger's" was
occasionally called plant 9, albeit tongue-in-cheek.
In 1967 a new headquarters facility in Eagan opened,
named
Plant 8 because the University Ave site was closed.
In 1987, shortly after Burroughs bought Sperry to form UNISYS,
the corporation occupied 28 facilities in the Twin Cities area, as
listed
in the table below.
Note that the original ERA building is discussed in the
Locations Chapter [lab]
2. 1987 Twin Cities Facilities
All twenty eight of these buildings were occupied by UNISYS personnel
in January, 1987 shortly after Burroughs had purchased Sperry to form
UNited Information SYStems.
Name |
Street |
MN City |
ZIP |
Notes |
Building 1 |
2276 Highcrest Road |
Roseville |
55113 |
Plant 4 & Credit Union |
Building 2 |
2391 Walnut Street |
Roseville |
55113 |
Plant 4 |
Building 3 |
2470 Highcrest Road |
Roseville |
55113 |
Plant 4 |
Building 4 |
1301 Industrial Blvd. |
Minneapolis |
55413 |
An old post office |
Waters Edge |
1500 W. Co. Rd. B-2 |
Roseville |
55113 |
Mn/DOT since 1995 |
Midway |
1902 Minnehaha Ave. W. |
St. Paul |
55104 |
Plant 2 |
Shepard Road |
2751 Shepard Road |
St. Paul |
55116 |
Plant 1 |
Sperry Park |
3333 Pilot Knob Road |
Eagan |
55121 |
Plant 8 - Lockheed Martin MS2 |
Semiconductor Operations |
1500 Tower View Road |
Eagan |
55121 |
Defense Systems |
Consolidated Facilities |
3199 Pilot Knob Road |
Eagan |
55121 |
MACS Building |
Materials Management Ctr. |
1200 Trapp Road |
Eagan |
55121 |
? |
Eagandale Business Campus |
1301 Corporate Center Dr. |
Eagan |
55121 |
Defense Systems |
Eagandale Business Campus |
1270 Eagan Industrial Rd |
Eagan |
55121 |
Defense Systems |
Eagandale Business Campus |
1285 Corporate Center Dr. |
Eagan |
55121 |
Defense Systems |
Eagandale Center |
1305 Corporate Center Dr |
Eagan |
55121 |
Defense Systems |
Federal Information Systems |
2535 Pilot Knob Road |
Mendota Heights |
55121 |
was Burroughs |
Reconditioning Center |
2465 So. Lexington |
Mendota Heights |
55120 |
was Burroughs |
Education Center |
2001 Killebrew Drive |
Bloomington |
55420 |
was Burroughs |
Metro |
3001 Metro Drive |
Bloomington |
55420 |
? |
Corporate Square C |
3110 Neil Armstrong Blvd. |
Eagan |
55121 |
Defense Systems |
Corporate Square D |
3140 Neil Armstrong Blvd. |
Eagan |
55121 |
Defense Systems |
Corporate Square E |
990 Apollo Road |
Eagan |
55121 |
Defense Systems |
Yankee Square 4 |
3459 Washington Drive |
Eagan |
55122 |
Defense Systems |
ARTS III Test |
6301 34th Ave. S |
Minneapolis |
55450 |
Defense Systems (at airport) |
Regional CSE |
5215 Edina Industrial Blvd |
Edina |
55435 |
was Burroughs |
CSE Parts |
5259 Edina Industrial Blvd |
Edina |
55435 |
was Burroughs |
Branch Marketing |
251 Lafayette Road |
St. Paul |
55107 |
was Burroughs |
Branch Marketing |
6130 Blue Circle Drive |
Minnetonka |
55343 |
was Burroughs |
This chart data was provided by Bernie Jansen
3. Facility Descriptions
3.1 Plant 1
Plant 1 opened about September of 1956 according to Jim Hyslop who was
hired in December 1956. The 'freeway' road at the top of the picture
is West 7th Street. West 7th to the right leads
to down town St. Paul. To the left crosses the Mississippi River to
Ft. Snelling, Minneapolis, and the airport. The roadway along the front
of the UNIVAC building ended at the parking lot. Near the top center
along the frontage road was Gannon's restaurant, the site of the first
'First Friday' luncheon meetings.
The rectangle in the picture's center behind Plant 1 shows the footings
for a 1965 plant expansion - to become a 35,000 sq. ft. area for manufacturing
the Nike-Zeus computer's film memory. Later this facility housed the
first automated back-panel wire-wrap machines brought on board for the
CP-901, UYK-7, ..., manufacturing.
Today, this road is an expressway following the river (Shepard Road)
to downtown St. Paul. This second UNIVAC photo shows an addition
on the east side with a finished freeway like Shepard Road along the
Mississippi river.
3.2 Plant 3,

Awaiting inputs. In 1965, the Defense Systems Division1
announced the acquisition of 11,000 sq. ft of existing floor space at
Plant 3. This plant was walking distance from Plant 5, Plant 2, and
Esslinger's Restaurant.
3.3 Plant 4
In 1961 near the intersection of Highways
36 and 280, the company1 became the first 'Space Center'
tenet as they leased 130.000 square feet of space [Building 1] from
the owners, St. Paul Terminal Warehouse Co. The Univac Data Processing
Division continued to grow, adding 23,700 sq. ft. in 1962 in Building
2, 25,000 in 1963, 24.300 sq. ft. in 1964, then an additional 182,640
square feet in 1965 as they opened building 3, the current Plant 4.
{Editor's note: Building 3 was vacated on 23 June 2017 as Roseville
operations were combined with the UNISYS Eagan operations. [lab]
During our LEGACY, the commercial operations
transitioned to independence from the defense operations during the
60s. Through the
late 50s to the late 60s, Plant 1 housed a military computer center
and a commercial computer center with an 1107 across the hall from each other. During
the 70s and 80s the two organizations held annual joint technology exchange
forums at Craguns' Resort in Northern Minnesota.
Another aspect of the LEGACY was the almost free transfer
of talented managers and engineers between defense and commercial as
projects started or waned. Glen Kregness, Bob Oulicky, and Tom Soller
are three that immediately come to mind. Brothers Tom Petschauer worked
at Plant 8 while Dick Petschauer worked at Plant 4 - both in engineering
management. [lab]
In 2009 Buildings 1 and 2 were razed to make space for re-development.
At the left is building 1 as photographed in June by Bruce Hyslop - UNISYS
employee and son of Jim Hyslop who is a UNIVAC retiree.

At the left is building 2 as photographed by UNISYS employee Gary Rist in
July 2009.
1 UNIVAC NEWS TWIN CITIES SECTION
June-July, 1965
3.5 Plant 5
The 'Motley Crew' component engineering group. This 1970 photo commemorates
the creation of the automated component tester. The tester in the picture
was the DC & Functional tester that Dave Kirkwood designed. Of course,
you probably know that the piece of equipment off to the left (in front
of Chuck Beltz) is a 1232 I/O Console that was tied to the 1218 computer
next to it. This tester was in the mezzanine in plant 5. It was designed
and built through the efforts of those in the photo.
Standing in back, left to right: Chuck Beltz, Ben Peterson, Bob Nelson,
John Sanden, (obscured) Marv Burns, Ed Genereau, Ralph Kerler, John
Gould, Dick Marschafava, Glenn Younquist, Ron Christianson, Mike Farrell
Kneeling, left to right: Jim Gengler,
Joe Clysdale, Tom Szenay, Al Norlander, Bob Ginsky, Hal Rogers, and
Walt Makos
Standing at the right: Dave Kirkwood and John Schoeberl
We had some bright people designing and building items like this
which were strictly for internal use. Many of these people were later
at the Plant 8 semiconductor facility. Photo submitted by Larry D. Bolton
- names from John Gould, Bradley Hinman, and Harvey Taipale.

3.6 Plant 6.
Chuck Homan told me [LABenson] that he'd worked
in Plant 6 across from the Ford plant when UNIVAC first leased it.
They called it the Micro-Tone building because that was the previous
tenant. This building was the training site for a period of time,
both programmers and field service engineers. The snapshot at
the right
shows a card punch, a magnetic tape unit, and a computer along with
an instructor and two students using an oscilloscope. I think that Dan
Newton is on the left and Hal Rogers on the right.
3.7 Plant 6, the second.
Many people are familiar with the old Northwest Airlines building
located on University Avenue in St. Paul, just East of Prior Avenue.
This was originally identified as plant 8 although a few knew it as
the second Plant 6.
3.8 Plant 7.
This building was along the west side of Highway 280 between Hennepin
Avenue and Broadway. For awhile during the early '60s there was an old
airplane shell underneath some of the adjacent power line stanchions.
These has long since been razed and been replaced with a truck servicing
operation.

3.9 Plant 8.
The Eagan home of Lockheed Martin MS2 was built in the 60s, [see
the Sept. 6, 1967 news, left] expanded
in the 70s and has been modernized a few times since then. Note
the newspaper clipping proudly states that this
is the "Twin Cities' 8th". Shortly after opening, the Military
Computer Test Center was moved into the basement from its former location
behind the visitor's entrance of plant 1.
45 1/2 years later (March 2013) the facility was razed to make
way for new business developments. Most of the defense industry projects
have been phased out or transferred to other facilities around the
US since November
2011 when LMCO made their 'facility closing' announcement.
The Air Traffic Management
(ATM) engineering group and a small 'think
tank' group of engineers are continued an LMCO presence in Minnesota
in 2013 at a leased facility on Quarry Road, which intersects with Pilot Knob
Road. The ATM group was spun off into the Liedos corporation in 2016
- a very small group of engineer/scientists reporting to the LMCO
Advance Technology Department remains. [lab]
Below is a 2013 snapshot of the Eagan facility razing before
the ground was bared for development of a shopping center.

3.10
MACS Building:
Shown at the right, just to the North of Plant 8 is the 'MACS' building, a UNISYS commercial
systems support building.
This building was erected in 1987 to
consolidate the various Burroughs facilities that had been in several
places around the cities. The north facing visitor's entrance is
the VIP Club's meeting entrance when scheduled with management. In 2017, the Roseville operations will be moving
into the building wing at the right of the flags. [lab]
The original semiconductor research and manufacturing facility was in the basement of the west
wing of the plant 8 facility. They later expanded and constructed a
separate new semiconductor facility at the NW corner of the Eagan property.
The center of the building was separately isolated on air cushions to
isolate it from ground vibrations which might have compromised the photolithography
steps during semiconductor processing. [LDBolton]
Early products of this semi-conductor facility included MNOS memory chips for an Air Force project
and custom VLSI devices for the UYK-43 and UYK-44 projects. It
was also the site for research into radiation hardened CMOS
technology under Dr. Wells. I
believe this building is now a NW Airlines computer center. [lab]