The main office of Advance Thresher Co., one of Battle Creek's largest industries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was leveled in May 1971. The office was the keystone of a maze of buildings that occupied about 50 acres on Kendall Street between the tracks of the Michigan Central and Grand Trunk Western railroads. In 1886, the Case & Willard Thresher Co. became the Advance Thresher Co., with some 800 employees.