Watkins Products: A Winona, MN Landmark

When we visit in Winona I always make a trip over to the Watkins headquarters to pick up some spices and extracts.

This time I was tipped off to the fact that Watkins was having a big sale on their “factory seconds” 2 oz extracts and flavorings. Nothing was wrong with the product but the labels might have been smeared or set on the bottle crooked. It was a serious sale too… with the bottles going at 25% of regular price!!!

So of course I stocked up…

After I made my purchase, Himself and I looked around the small museum.  There were displays of the products from years ago;  

A Watkins horse-drawn buggy…    

…crates (wouldn’t these be cool to have now?)…

… and crocks that transported the products…

…plus all sorts of company promotional material. 

One section was devoted to their herbs and spices. 

After browsing in the museum for a while, we went around the corner to the lobby of the administrative building to enjoy the beautiful mosaics (the Prairie style building was designed by George W Maher, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright)…

…the 70 foot high gold-leafed rotunda dome…

… and the windows by Tiffany.

http://www.watkinsonline.com/