IBM's manufacturing and development facility in Rochester, Minnesota.
In February 1956, IBM president Thomas J. Watson, Jr., announced plans to establish new manufacturing, engineering and educational facilities on a 397-acre site near Rochester, Minnesota.
Before the year was out, employees at the new facility already were shipping their first products. And over the next 50 years, IBM Rochester went on to develop and manufacture a rich harvest of popular products such as the System/3, System/32, System/34, System/36, System/38 and the AS/400.
IBM Rochester had begun in 1956 with 174 employees and the initial site encompassed a half-million square feet of space. But in the years to follow, the site's population grew to more than 8,000 employees and its size to more than 3.5 million square feet of owned and leased space. And in that first half-century of operations, IBM Rochester became one of the 10 largest private employers in Minnesota and earned the distinguished Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the highest award in the United States for quality.
You can help celebrate Rochester's Golden Anniversary and learn more about the site's 50-year record of achievement and success by visiting:
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