Aines Farm Dairy Building

This Kansas City structure was home to the Aines Farm Dairy from the 1940s until the late 1950s, when it was acquired by another dairy company. The building served as a dairy until the late 20th century and plans are in place to convert the structure into apartments and retail space. The building serves as a reminder of the dairy industry's evolution from small family businesses into large corporations similar to other agricultural businesses. The Aines family sold its interests in the family dairy farm in 1921 at a time when they were processing 1,000 gallons of milk per hour (roughly 20,000 gallons per day). By the 1940s, the company operated under Aines name within the Foremost Dairy corporation. Foremost Dairy built this structure during those years, and it is still known as the Aines Farm Dairy Building to this day. The 50,000-square-foot facility allowed the operation to process 100,000 gallons of milk daily, along with numerous other dairy products.

The Aines Farm Dairy Building illustrates mid-twentieth century trends in the dairy industry occurring both locally and nationally. The Aines Farm Dairy was formed in 1912 and soon became Kansas City's leading milk producer and distributor. Like many dairy operations, it was a family-owned company. The company built its first plant on a lot just north of the nominated building in 1916. But the costs of producing milk safely, from pasteurization to shipping and production costs, put a strain on smaller dairy farms. By 1921, the Aines family sold its interests in the company and the company was later acquired by a large corporation. The increased demand and a need to modernize the facility led the Aines Farm Dairy (a part of Foremost Dairy at that time) to build this dairy plant. 

As the nation increasingly grew urban by the Gilded Age and into the twentieth century, a need arose for farmers to transport milk to city dwellers. By the end of the nineteenth century, dairy farming evolved into a significant part of the American agricultural industry. By the early twentieth century, Kansas Citians consumed more than twelve million gallons of milk each year. 

Area dairy farmers sold their milk in one of three ways. 

• Some farmers sold milk in large cans to a corporate distributor, who collected milk from the farm twice per day. The distributor would pasteurize, bottle, and sell the milk under its name. 
• Others farmers processed and bottled their milk under their own name. A corporate distributor would then take the bottled milk to market. 
• The last group of farmers bottled and distributed their own milk. 

However, physicians and researchers discovered that tainted milk (sour, spoiled, etc.) contained various bacterial diseases during the late nineteenth century. Early dairy farms operated in rural areas located on the outskirts of urban centers, which allowed them to efficiently deliver milk and dairy products to retail outlets and homes. However, many farms lacked the space necessary to properly house animals, leading to unsanitary conditions. In contrast, farmers located in rural locations (further from cities) could easily maintain sanitary environments, but the longer travel times to urban centers allowed for bacterial growth in the dairy products; refrigeration technology had yet to emerge. Thus, milk quality became a significant public health issue. 

So, lawmakers, social reformers, and consumers demanded stricter controls on dairy production, which led to state-regulated milk production as health inspectors graded dairies on the state of their equipment and their production methods. A news report in 1911 showed that roughly half of the dairies listed in the article failed to pass the inspection. Many dairy farmers rejected industry regulations, claiming that they would increase production costs. Some dairies even knowingly added sugar, bicarbonate of soda, chalk, or other substances to the milk to hide the taste and smell of spoilage. However, larger dairies welcomed the regulations, realizing that the added costs would force many smaller dairymen out of business.

Finally, by 1920, most dairy companies practiced pasteurization, and every state regulated the production, processing, and distribution of milk. As a result, death rates declined. In 1924, the United States Public Health Service developed the Standard Milk Ordinance, known today as the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance. However, as feared by smaller dairy companies, the requirements necessary to produce safe milk and dairy products benefitted larger companies as it proved expensive to accomplish. In 1912, Kansas City supported more than 100 dairies, with eighty percent small, family-owned operations. By 1917, the number of dairies fell to forty-eight, with seventy-five percent family-owned. By 1935, only sixteen dairies remained, and all of them were corporate entities; Aines Dairy transitioned from a family-owned operation to one that became part of a corporate dairy conglomerate. 

Lewis Gilbert Aines and his sons Lewis H. and Carroll H. Aines established the Aines Farm Dairy in Overland Park, Kansas, around 1912. A native of Whiting, Vermont, Lewis G. Aines (born in 1867) worked for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company, which brought him to Missouri. After thirty-two years with the railroad, Lewis G. purchased farmland in Overland Park, Kansas, just outside Kansas City, Missouri. Aines' sons, Lewis H. and Carroll, were young men when the family started the dairy. After studying at Central College in Fayette, Missouri, Lewis H. completed a one-year dairy course at Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science (now Kansas State University) in Manhattan, Kansas, before joining his father in business. (Carroll H. also studied at Kansas State, but his course of study is unknown.) The brothers initially sold Aines Dairy milk from a wagon. As the company grew, they opened a Kansas City production and distribution plant in 1914, with Lewis H. serving as general manager. 

The first dairy plant, located at 3834 Main Street, produced cheese and butter in addition to pasteurized milk. Two years later, with Lewis H. as company president, the Aines Farm Dairy Company built a new, grand facility just north of the now-historic property. The facility became a regional collection center for raw milk with a capacity to pasteurize 1,000 gallons of milk per hour. It also produced ice cream, butter, cottage cheese, and condensed milk. Aines and his sons ran the company until 1921 when they sold their interests to an investor. The company eventually joined the American Dairies conglomerate; the Aines Dairy flourished under that corporate umbrella. The company began planning to construct a new, significantly larger production facility just south of the existing building on Gillham Road around 1940, but World War II delayed construction. The new, state-of-the-art Aines Dairy plant was 50,000 square feet and could process 100,000 gallons of milk and milk products daily. 

The Aines Farm Dairy operated from this building until 1957. Foremost Dairies, one of the world's largest dairy operations that was founded by famed retailer J.C. Penny, moved into the facility in 1958 and occupied the building until well into the late twentieth century. (In 1962, the Federal Trade Commission decided to break up Foremost into smaller companies due to its dominance in the milk industry.) As of April 2021, Exact Partners, LLC, announced a plan to convert the Aines Dairy building into a mixed-use property known as Aines Dairy Lofts with fifty-two apartments and a ground-floor, 10,000-square-foot grocery store. 

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