Gwinn Model Town

William Gwinn Mather, president of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, directed the design and construction of Gwinn. He was inspired both by benevolence and by a belief that a contented healthy work force was dependable and less likely to strike. In 1906 Mather hired Boston landscape architect Warren H. Manning to design Gwinn as a company town providing housing and community services for mine employees. Manning included boulevards, landscaping, and extensive green space, tenets of the City Beautiful and Garden movements, in his design. The mines closed in 1946 and company-owned properties were sold. Mather´s and Manning´s ideas became a model for other company towns of the day. Their "Model Town" of Gwinn is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.