Rahr Malting Company

Photographer

Kadow, Francis M.

Date

• ca. 1940-ca. 1949

Summary

• East façade of the Rahr Malting Company at Hancock and South Seventh Streets in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. This view looks west from the Lake Michigan shoreline across a parking lot and railroad tracks to the malting towers of the Rahr plant. During World War II submarine blueprints were secretly stored inside the Rahr Malting plant. The designs, called “linens” because they were printed on heavy linen-like material, were used by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company to produce 28 submarines for the U.S. Navy during the war. Reflecting security concerns of the day, one set was located at the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company where the submarines were built, and a backup set was kept in the malting plant in case the shipyard would have been destroyed. (Information taken from Wisconsin Maritime Museum’s Anchor News, Fall, 2005.) This photograph was taken by Francis M. Kadow, owner of radio station WOMT, and is stamped at the upper right “Radio station WOMT-Photo Manitowoc, Wis.”