6.2. HRSR 05-28-2002 City of
Elk -�-�
River
MEMORANDUM
TO: City Council
Housing & Redevelopment Authority
FROM: Steve Rohlf, Building & Zoning Administrator
DATE: May 28, 2002
SUBJECT: Review Historic Context Study & Phase II Inventory
The Heritage Preservation Commission was able to review the Historic Contexts
Study in mid-April. Suggestions made by the HPC were incorporated into the Study,
completed by Landscape Research, Inc.
Please review for consideration of final approval at the May 28, 2002 joint meeting of
the City Council and Housing & Redevelopment Authority.
•
LANDSCAPE RESEARCH
1 466 Hythe Street
St. Paul, Minnesota 55108
(651) 641-1230
(651) 644-5553 FAX
April 11,2002
TO:
Elk River Heritage Preservation Commission
Elk River Housing and Redevelopment Authority
FROM:
• Landscape Research
(Carole Zellie)
Review copies of Elk River Historic Contexts and Phase II Inventory
Your comments on places,names,and anything else are greatly appreciated. Of special
interest are changes you have observed along Highway 10 and downtown,and new
construction throughout the township.
The final report will include full footnotes and bibliography,and additional maps and
photos.
111/
•
Historic Contexts Study
and
Phase II
Inventory. (Downtown Elk River)
Elk Rver, Minnesota
' ,,� ��
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Elk River Housing and Redevelopment Authority
Elk River Heritage Preservation Commission
By
Carole Zellie
Landscape Research
St. Paul, Minnesota
Draft for Review and Comment
May 2002
•
• Table of Contents
Chapter I
Historic Contexts
Introduction 1
1. Landscape Setting,ca. 1848-1950 4
2.Agriculture, 1850-1950 8
3. Transportation,1848-1950 15
4. Industry and Commerce, 1851-1950 22
5. Residential Architecture, 1851-1920 33
6. Schools,Churches,and Local Institutions, 1857-1920 36
Endnotes
(in final draft)
Bibliography
(in final draft)
Chapter II
Phase II Inventory
Findings
Inventory Forms
•
• Chapter I
Elk River Historic Contexts
Introduction
This historic contexts study was commissioned in 2002 by the
Elk River Heritage Preservation Commission and the Elk River ,N„,„ ,Housing nd Redevelopment Authority. t was conducted by Zellie of Landscape Research.The results of the study
will provide a framework for long-range heritage preservation
porn�. r
planning in the community.
Report Organization
Chapter I of the Historic Resources Study includes six Elk
River historic contexts that analyze the historical and The Blanchette Hotel in ca.
architectural development of the community.The contexts 1890.Once Elk River's leading
begin with permanent Euro-American settlement in the 1850s downtown hotel.
and extend to about 1950.Chapter II contains the results of a
companion study,an intensive survey of the downtown
commercial area and an inventory map.
Methods
The research was based on published histories such as N.H.
• Winchell's History of the Upper MississippValley(1881),Edward
Robinson's Early Economic Conditions and the Development of
Agriculture in Minnesota(1915),historic maps,photos and aerial
views,local newspapers,and federal census records. The files
of the Sherburne County Historical Society provided much
information compiled by local historians over the past eighty
years.Windshield inventories compiled by the Minnesota
Historical Society and the Sherburne County Historical Society
(ca. 1980-1998)were also consulted.
In addition to the Sherburne County Historical Society
archives,the Minnesota Historical Society collections were a
primary source of information.The City of Elk River also
supplied maps and other materials.
Of interest for future research are various manuscript
collections at the Minnesota Historical Society related to early
Elk River families.They include the papers of Charles Babcock,
Ard Godfrey,W.H.Houlton,and John Q.A.Nickerson.
A general windshield survey of Elk River accompanied the
development of the historic contexts.Fieldwork in
commercial district included an inventory of historic properties
within an area bounded by the Mississippi River at the west,
Highway 10 at the east and south,and Quincy Street at the
north.
The study was conducted in compliance with the Secretary of
• the Interior's Standards and Guidelines for Archaeology and
Historic Preservation.
• Historic Contexts Defined
Historic contexts are part of the foundation for preservation
planning,and assist in making decisions about planning,
identification,evaluation,registration,and treatment of
historic properties.'Historic contexts provide a framework
with which to evaluate the historic,architectural,and
landscape architectural significance of inventoried properties.
A property can be significant within one or more historic
contexts.Properties grouped within historic contexts share a
common theme,geographical area,and time period.Elk
River's historic contexts intersect with broader statewide
historic contexts such as Lumbering,Agriculture,and
Transportation developed by the Minnesota State Historic
Preservation Office(SHPO).
When combined with an intensive historic resources inventory,
the historic contexts study will provide the City of Elk River
City with comprehensive information about the location and
significance of its remaining historic resources,including its
downtown,mill sites,and residential areas.
The following Elk River historic contexts were identified:
1.Landscape Setting,1848-1950
2.Agriculture,1850-1950
• 3.Transportation,1848-1950
4.Commerce and Industry,1851-1950
5.Residential Architecture,1851-1920
6.Schools,Churches,and Local Institutions,1857-1920
The National Register of Historic Places
One objective of developing historic contexts and historic
resources inventories is to determine which properties might
be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places(NRHP).
The National Register was established by the National Historic
Preservation Act of 1966.It is the official federal listing of the
nation's cultural resources deemed worthy of preservation.
The National Park Service maintains the list that includes
properties of local and state significance as well as those of
national significance.
A property listed on the National Register must meet at least
one of four criteria.Under the first criterion,a property may be
registered if it is associated with events that have made a
significant contribution to the broad patterns of national,state,
or local history.Under the second,a property may be
registered if it is associated with the lives of persons important
in the past.The third criterion addresses architectural
• significance,and the fourth addresses archaeological
significance.In addition,listed properties must be at least fifty
years old,should not have been significantly altered,and
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
2
• should have not been moved.National Register nominations
must receive approval from the State Historic Preservation
Review Board,the State Historic Preservation Officer,and the
National Park Service. The Oliver Kelley Farm is the only Elk
River property currently listed on the National Register.
•
•
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
3
• Elk River Historic Context:
Landscape Setting,
1851-1950
Al
° �;
• bluffs and marshes.The river divides Sherburne and Wright
counties at this point. The townsite of Elk River was platted on
the north bank of the Mississippi,downriver from Orono.
Historian Warren Upham wrote that Elk River was called the
St.Francis River by eighteenth-and nineteenth-century
explorers including Carver,Pike,Long and Schoolcraft.
Beltrami and Nicollet,he notes,"used a Ojibway name for Elk
River,translated as Double river,or by Allen as Parallel river,
alluding to its course nearly parallel with the Mississippi.i3
Upham suggests that the herds of elk found in the vicinity by
Pike and later explorers and fur traders account for the present
name,and both Elk River and Elk Lake appear on the first map
of Minnesota Territory published in 1850.
This glacial landscape occupies an area of marginal terrain,
where woodlands edge prairie. Gravel deposits are common,
and the soils are not rich and do not retain moisture well.In
general,Sherburne County's soils rank 73`d out of 87 counties
in soil productivity.4 Like much of surrounding Sherburne
County,the relatively flat,sandy soils of Elk River Township
provided good acreage for grazing and crop raising,and
particularly potatoes.Early permanent white settlers seeking
farmland found a hilly,forested belt in the northern part of the
township,while there was level prairie in much of the
southeastern corner.Trott and Tibbett's brooks drain the
township from east to west;early historians noted that hay
meadows gathered along their edges.' There are several small,
III
shallow lakes,such as Twin Lakes in Section 24 and Eagle
Lake in Section 13. Small ponds persisted within the Elk River
townsite after settlement.One was located at Jackson and Main
streets and another at Minnesota and Main.
The steep bluffs,and island and marsh landscape found by
early settlers has undergone great transformation. The natural
action of erosion and flooding has been greatly accelerated by
mill,dam,and road construction as well as agricultural land
use. The dam built by Ard Godfrey and John Jameson in 1851
immediately flooded a large portion of Section 32 above the
river,a feature now known as Lake Orono.Sedimentation and
debris from log booms and saw milling infilled the channels of
the Elk and Mississippi over the first decades of settlement.
There are several islands in the main channel of the Mississippi
at Elk River.The largest,opposite downtown,encompassed
about sixty acres in 1900.W.H.Houlton,J.B.Rogers,and
Chase and Frye owned three other islands to the west. In
1902,the Davis Island Boom Company diverted the Mississippi
River channel around the Chase and Frye Island,but erosion
threatened the riverbank.The channel was subsequently
restored.
Between 1916 and 1978,Lake Orono served as the generator of
electricity for the Elk River Power and Light Company.The
lake level was lowered in 1978 to preserve the deteriorating
• dam. In 1980 the dam was rebuilt. Ice businesses,swimming
and boating have also been also enjoyed here.6
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
5
• As noted in the Transportation context,A.W.Jesperson of Elk
River had another vision for the Elk River that involved
elaborate re-engineering at his Camp Cozy resort to
accommodate a golf course and recreational canal.Camp Cozy
was west of Lake Orono near a former mineral spring that once
supplied bottled water.7
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Elk River and a portion of Elk River Township,Minnesota, 1903.
Atlas of Sherburne County.
III
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
6
• l,lk River,1971.Photo:MRS.
11, Nti4
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• Place Names
In addition to Uppertown and Lowertown,which seem to still
be recognized by some residents as early names for Orono and
Elk River,respectively,there are several place names of note.
Houlton Siding is discussed below. For examples,
Meadowvale was a small settlement of Hill,Bailey,and other
families in the northwestern corner of the township.Houlton's
Observatory,a wooden tower on the bluffs north of Elk River
near Highway 77 and Ridgewood Drive was built by W.H.
Houlton to provide a view of the landscape and eight
counties.'
Preservation Planning Summary:
Landscape Setting
Inventoried Resources
No specific landscape features have been inventoried.
Recommendation(s)
1.Continue to research and interpret the relationship between
the natural landscape,early settlement,agriculture,and
residential development of Elk River.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
7
Elk River Historic Context
Agriculture,1850-1950
While the development of this county has been retarded,by
reason of a large amount of land held by speculators,yet,the
fertility of the soil has attracted an honest and industrious
class of farmers . . .
Sherburne County,in History of the Upper
Mississippi Valley(1880)9
Development of the waterpower on the Elk River was a notable
early accomplishment,but flour and sawmill construction took
place against the backdrop of agricultural settlement.Early
farmers,like millers,were part of an economy that also
included fur traders and those prospecting for suitable mill
sites and to sites. Within fifteen years after the first farmers
settled in Elk River,the railroad provided a wide market for
agricultural products.This historic context encompasses the
creation of the first Elk River farm in 1850 through the post-
World War II period when the rural population continued an
exodus to urban centers.
y
r
Farm near Elk River in 1919.
u Photo:MHS.
Pioneer Settlement
An estimated twenty farms were established in Benton Country
in 1850,which then included present day Sherburne County.'
The first migration of Euro-American settlers,many of them
potential farmers,was encouraged by treaties that opened
lands west of the Mississippi. Many early farmers in the
Minnesota Territory sought lands along the Root,Zumbro and
•
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
8
IIICannon rivers,and along the tributaries of the Upper
Mississippi.Early farms were subsistence operations,with
farmers supporting their own families with little to trade at
markets. Improved transportation and new agricultural
machinery and techniques expanded the market for farm
products,and agricultural journals and societies assisted
farmers in finding the best crops suited to their land. The
Benton County Agricultural society was organized in 1852,the
first such county organization in Minnesota. Elk River's Oliver
Kelley was among the founders.
Elk River's first farm was reportedly that established by Silas
Lane in 1850.11 Lane daimed acreage in Section 33 that
included frontage on the Elk River and a promising mill site.
This mill site was immediately noticed by Ard Godfrey and
John G.Jameson,and was purchased by them in 1851. In 1855,
Godfrey platted the townsite of Orono on a portion of Lane's
farm. Lane's claim was followed by Charles M.Donnelly's in
Section 32,and those of L.B. Culver and Richard Davis in
Section 31.
The 1860 census shows that many early Elk River township
farmers were natives of Maine,with others from
Massachusetts,New Hampshire,and Illinois and a few from
New Brunswick,Canada,Ireland,Hamburg and Prussia
(Germany). By 1900,more Germans and farmers from
Norway and Sweden were represented,but the community's
III roots were still predominantly in New England.12 Some early
farmers found winter work in the lumber camps of Northern
Minnesota and Wisconsin.
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Elk River's Hungarian colony was founded by he 1890s by
John,Martin and Andrew Fazekas.Arriving in the United
III States in 1881,they came to Elk River in the late 1880s where
John purchased a farm in Section 10 in the hilly northern part
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
9
• of the township. The Farzekas were the first of a substantial
group of relatives and friends who settled here,many of whom
became dairy farmers.13
Oliver H.Kelley
Elk River's best-known farmer was Oliver H.Kelley(1826-
1913).A native of Boston,in 1850,Kelley made a claim at the
southeastern edge of the township in Section 14.14 A leader in
founding local agricultural societies,he turned to journals to
learn new farming methods. In 1867,he founded the National
Grange of the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry,an
organization that would have one million members by 1875.
The Grange was among a number of farmers'protest
organizations and movements in the mid-neteenth century.It
was a response to farmer's struggles with in
new technology and
falling market prices for crops and livestock.In addition to its
political and fraternal work,the Grange promoted
experimental farming and other progressive agricultural
practices. Kelley was the author of Origin and Progress of the
Order of the Patrons of Husbandry(1875).'The Kelley family
owned the farm until 1901,although Oliver left Minnesota in
the late 1860s to pursue Grange activities.The
Grange purchased the farm in 1935 and donated it to the
Minnesota Historical Society in 1961.
" , Kelley H
" '' .* looked inv 1930Kell. This was ouse the
farmuse on the site.as it
0 ,
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Sherburne County recorded 110 farms in 1860;by 1880 the
number rose to 599;to 775 in 1890;1,054 in 1900;and 1,190 in
1910.16 (In 1992,the number of farms was 530.)By 1910,the
average Sherburne County farm was 172 acres,considerably
larger than Isanti and Anoka and Wright and Hennepin
counties,but comparable to Stearnes and other counti es to the
west.17 A total of eighty-two percent were operated by
owners.18
•
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
10
• In the early twentieth century,however,there was a general
downsizing of farms.The total amount of acreage devoted to
farms in Sherburne County,which was at 34 percent in 1860,
peaked at 55 percent in 1900.During this period,the county's
population rose from 490 to 7,281.
Elk River and the Potato
Sherburne County
pattern of an initial reliance on l
whea wheat cultivation followed by
more diversification after the collapse of the wheat market and
soil depletion.With improvements in agricultural machinery
and the railroad,more markets opened for Sherburne County By 1880,the leading grain crop was wheat,followed h„�
by oats,corn,rye,and buckwheat. Potatoes were the leading
produce crop,with over 4,000 bushels produced.19 ,
The sandy soils of Elk River Township have long favored This wayc10 is among of
y p g Highway 10 is among possible
potato and rye cultivation. In the mid-1880s,a specialized survivors of potato and
potato district developed north of the Twin Cities,with producwarehousing.Photo
markets as far as New England and the South. Starch factories 2002.
were also a by-product of the potato industry.20
• j3f
® 1
tte'
r�
t w.R (f ° l a Al � ;� .$T'Y l s ;` r •
era 4°4ia
iq° s h ,fir t•f • v 6 �� �'•afl
+ , F 3 y 'River potato warehouse,ca.
,1h4{ w„ :'i'�+ � s { ''•` i i .rK.y . �'?Er it' ,4 4'"% z asp.:5 k q 1• 1.3,
°�0.Photo:MHS.
Elk River's production likely followed the trend of the county,
where the yield of potatoes rose from 14,290 bushels in 1860 to
963,073 in 1910.In 1910,Sherburne County was a part of the
potato belt,but was surpassed by counties such as Anoka
(1,255,880 bushels),Chisago(1,874,597)as well as Hennepin
(2,438,132),and Isanti(2,150,573)21 The period between about
1906 and 1910 was a boom period for potatoes,with three new
warehouses erected in Elk River in 1908,and a second starch
factory built in 1910.Photographs from this period show the
• Elk River depot area packed with farmers atop potato-laden
wagons,ready to load on railcars.The highway system serving
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
11
IIIElk River since 1920 has also supported produce distribution
by truck.
Dairying
By 1900,many Elk River farmers were operating dairy
businesses.The gambrel-roofed barn and complex of silos
synonymous with such operations were erected across the
township in the early twentieth century.
By 1900,there were 5,908 dairy cattle in Sherburne County,a
number that increased to 7,258 in 1910. (By comparison,
Stearnes County boasted 36,272)dairy cattle.)23
The Houlton and Nickerson families led the local dairy
business.In 1878,Henry Nickerson built a farm at 436 3rd Street
N.W. Henry was a brother of J.Q.A.Nickerson,who owned
much of what was platted as the village of Elk River in 1862.
(The Crystal Springs Stock Farm in Section 36?)By 1908,W.H.
Houlton's 3,000-acre farm at Houlton Siding included"400
head shorthorn of registered stock and sixty angora goats for
clearing brush".24 A cattle business was owned by Henry C.
Hastings,who was also County Treasurer.He operated the Elk
River Cattle Company,which had 600 head of cattle,on his
600-acre farm.'
II
, ,.
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4j
eti:A 4� 4 ' oi Threshing on the Specht family
�' R \ - farm,' ,� " ,._:,.... e '4 .: `.��. �` � � � 1924.Photo MHS.
Creameries
Two creameries served Elk River's dairy farmers.The first was
the Farmer's Coop Creamery of Elk River,a two-story frame
building located on Jackson Street north of the railroad.The
411 cooperative was incorporated in 1889. In 1918,the creamery
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
12
was leased to the Twin City Milk Producers Association,
another farmer's cooperative.26 In 1910 the Crescent Creamery
of St.Paul also occupied a Main Street location.
In 1921,the Twin City Milk Producer's Association built an Elk
River facility.Designed by Clarence Wigington of St.Paul,it
was located at the entrance to the city on the Jefferson
'''''''', '. ,,,,, , ,:;-..... - r..., rr- ',.... ,,3!,,,,,.. .
It
a Fri II: . L "' .
\ ate
The Twin City Milk Producer's
Association Creamery in ca.
. ,o. ,.... 1925.Photo:MHS.
III Highway and Main Street.27 The association felt that it was an
ideal spot for a creamery,with about 350 members in the
vicinity. The split-level,brick and tile building was innovative,
with gravity systems rather than pumps to move milk and
cream.The plant also processed cheese and powdered milk 2S
The creamery closed about 1957,when milk was hauled
directly to the Twin Cities for processing.The building was
used for city hall and police offices and also housed a tavern.It
was torn down in 1991.
(Cargill Farm: 1958?2..5 miles s.e.in Section 13 )
Through the twentieth century,Elk River's agricultural land
has gradually been transformed into residential and
commercial use. Its proximity to the metropolitan highway
system,particularly Interstate 94 and upgraded highways 10
and 101 have put it on the outer reaches of the twin cities
bedroom communities. Cropland acreage—which fell from
116,259 in 1967 to 85,600 in 1982—continues to shrink,and the
number of historic farmsteads and other agricultural properties
has also been greatly reduced.29 Christmas trees and nursery
plants have been important new additions to agricultural
production.
Preservation Planning Summary:
Agriculture
Inventoried Resources
410 Several farmsteads were inventoried in Elk River Township in
previous windshield surveys. Within the Elk River,the few
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
13
II/ properties associated with agriculture have been lost to fire or
demolition,including the T.C.M.P.creamery(1921),potato
warehouses,and related structures.
The Oliver H.Kelley Farm was listed on the National Register
of Historic Places in 1966. It was named a National Historic
Landmark in 1964.
Recommendation(s)
1.Inventory of remaining farmsteads is warranted.It is not
known if any early farmhouses(ca. 1850-1880)remain.Of
particular interest are properties related to potato cultivation,
particularly sheds and sorting facilities.The number of
remaining dairy-related properties with good integrity is also
not known.
•
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
14
• Elk River Historic Context:
Transportation,1848-1950
From the time of its earliest permanent Euro-American
settlement,Elk River has enjoyed a good location along well-
traveled river and land routes.This historic context extends
from Pierre Bottineau's trading post on the river to the
construction of Highway 10.
The townsites of Orono and Elk River were adjacent to an
oxcart trail used by fur traders that followed the east bank of
the Mississippi River between St.Paul and Sauk Rapids and
then west along the Sauk River to the Canadian farming region
at Pembina.It was in steady use by the time that the Minnesota
Territory was organized in 1849.30 Travelers forded the Elk
River near its mouth and followed the Mississippi to Sauk
Rapids and north. By the mid-1850s,a 150-mile military road
was constructed from Point Douglas near Hastings to Fort
Ripley,on approximately the same route.Elk River and its
early millsite appear on the Map of General Government Roads in
the Territory of Minnesota,(1854).
Pierre Bottineau is credited with establishing a trading post at
the mouth of the Elk River,in what became Orono,or
Uppertown. There is no evidence today of the log building
erected on Block 2,lots 5 and 6 of the Auditor's Addition to Elk
• River. (Some accounts credit David Faribault with establishing
the post here in 1846,which he reportedly sold to Bottineau.)32
The presence of a trading post and the military road was
attractive to those who made the first farm and mill claims in
the area.Bottineau,ever on the move,remained long enough
to build a hotel south of his trading post in Lowertown,or Elk
River.
Pierre Bottineau,like pioneer Joseph R.Brown,appears in
many developing locales in the Minnesota Territory as a trader
and speculator. Born in what is now Grand Forks,North
Dakota in 1817,he was of French and Ojibwe ancestry.He
worked as a guide for Henry Hastings Sibley and the American
Fur Company,for army and geological expeditions throughout
his career,and as a hunter,trapper,and land speculator and
promoter of settlement.About the time he set up the trading
post at Elk River he was an investor in the original plat of St.
Anthony,and was working as a guide on explorations and
hunts.3'
Following the routes of explorers and traders,those seeking
good waterpower sites were attracted to the Falls of St.
Anthony as well as other places where tributary rivers met the
Mississippi,Steamboat and then rail transportation was
essential to the distribution of their products.Steamboat traffic
above the Falls of St.Anthony was initiated in 1850-51 with the
Governor Ramsey,which made the hundred-mile trip
between St.Anthony and Sauk Rapids in six hours.34
Navigable water extended only to Sauk Rapids,except in times
of high water.Passengers and freight were carried on the
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
15
•
Governor Ramsey,as well as the North Star and H.M.Rice,
new boats that began service in 1855.The service was prone to
low seasonal water levels and did not compete with rail service
and was generally discontinued by 1874. However,the Davis
Island Boom Company and other lumber interests operated
steamboats and a variety of craft for logging operations;the
1900 census for Elk River notes that two young natives of
Quebec,John Ward and Humphrey Guane(?),were among
those employed as river drivers.
Conflicting with steamboat traffic,the dramatic log drives of
timber from the northern pineries were a seasonal event along
the river,with the traffic handled by boom companies.
Ferry at Elk River in about
1900.Photo:MHS.
tstiew
a
-v
Peti
,. ,�-�. - mss.
Several early ferries shuttling passengers and goods across the
Mississippi were attempted in the mid 1850s,but the one
established in 1867 by Horatio Houlton appears to have
succeeded.35 The 1879 View of Elk River,Sherburne County
locates it just behind Horatio Houlton's Sawmill. Another
ferry route at the foot of Jackson Street is shown on the 1903
Map of Elk River.
The St. Paul and Pacific Railroad
The arrival of the St.Paul and Pacific Railroad was an essential
connection for Elk River,ensuring some level of continuing
success for its mills and early town center,as well as passenger
and freight service.The railroad company was formed in 1862
and first built a line from St.Paul to St.Anthony.36 The line to
Elk River was completed in 1864,and reached Sauk Rapids in
1867.3' The line bypassed the dam and mills at Orono,on a
route that allowed a crossing of the Elk River in Big Lake
Township.The depot and sidings became the focus of the
Lowertown settlement,and when the Elk River townsite was
• formally platted in 1865 it was oriented toward the railroad
and the depot.38
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
16
• The railroad transformed the Minnesota and the Elk River
economy. In the 1860s,outgoing freight included lumber and
lumber products such as shingles,chairs,and wooden shoes,
and flour exported as far as Boston. Among products sent toa,
St.Paul in 1869 were"cattle,hay,feed,deer,hides,cranberries."' eggs and
The St.Paul and Pacific was sold to the St.Paul,Minneapolis
and Manitoba line in 1879.In 1884 this company built its own
line parallel to the St.Paul and Pacific.Subsequently,the The Elk River Depot in 1911
company was purchased by the Great Northern Railway (razed).Photo:MHS.
Company.4°A spur served the starch factory on Main Street.
The Great Northern operated the parallel tracks as a single
railroad.These lines merged into the Burlington Northern in
1970,now the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.
In 1886 the St.Paul,Minneapolis and Manitoba(Great
Northern)built a line to Princeton connecting to the
Minneapolis and St.Cloud Railway to Duluth and Superior.
This line included in Houlton Siding,a small station three
miles north of Elk River and on the 3000-acre property of
William H.Houlton(1840-1915),one of the area's leading
businessmen and political leaders.
By 1890,there were ten daily passenger trains stopping at Elk
River,in addition to freight and logging trains.Travelers were
•
greeted by a second hotel,the Sherburne House(later known
as the Merchant's and the Blanchett).By 1908,this well
advertised hostelry featured thirty rooms,steam heat,and gas
lighting,since electrification had not yet reached the town.
Both hotels looked like New England boarding houses,with
gable roofs,clapboard exteriors,and long porches.
Good Roads and Charles M.Babcock
By 1860,a system of rough township and county roads linked
Elk River to Princeton to the north,to Big Lake at the west,and
to Anoka and points south 41
Over the next decades,villages,townships and counties
labored to improve roads between farms and trade centers.
Before a system of state and federally funded roads,much
planning for community infrastructure was done by local
business leaders. Around the turn of the century,however,
electrification and other municipal utilities and road
construction were primary topics and the capital and energy
once available for road building had been consumed by the
national railroad construction that surged after the Civil War.
By the 1890s—on the eve of the introduction of the mass-
produced automobile—business leaders and other groups
campaigned for better roads under the umbrella of the
Minnesota Good Roads Association,founded in 1893.42
• In 1898 the Good Roads Act was created by the state
legislature.In 1905,the Minnesota Highway Commission was
created to plan local highway improvements and approve the
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
17
IIIdesign of state funded projects,including adoption of
standards for highway and bridge design.
The state leader in highway reform was Charles M.Babcock
(1871-1936)of Elk River.Trained as a civil engineer,he had a
career as a banker and merchant in Elk River,where his family
had long operated the Babcock Store.In 1917,Babcock became
the first commissioner of the Minnesota Department of
Highways. He served in this position until 1933,and authored
the"Babcock Plan"for the state trunk highway system.
Babcock Memorial Park(1938-1939)commemorates his tenure.
It was built by the National Youth Administration(NYA)and
the Minnesota Department of Highways 43
The Jefferson Highway
Elk River's connection to the Jefferson Highway,a federally-
funded national route completed in the early 1920s,was
certainly ensured by Babcock. Among promoters of the road
were automobile associations,who had a growing interest in
automobile touring.44 The portion of the concrete paved
highway in Elk River used Depot,Main and Fourth streets.
The new road carried much of the county's west-bound traffic,
and also the north-bound traffic on Highway 169,which
branched to form the Jefferson Highway at Elk River.The
concrete Elk River Bridge over the Elk River was part of this Below:The Jefferson Highway
improvement,replacing the 1884 metal truss bridge. By 1928,a on the eve of construction of
variety of implement dealers,elevators and feed mills,potato Highway 10,1941.Photo:
III and produce warehouses,the Houlton lumberyard,and MHS.
gasoline filling stations lined the highway.
a
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While Sherburne County's road planners were organizing for
better roads,some promoters seemed to be waiting for a
different transportation shoe to drop.In an article promoting
• the county's agricultural opportunities,J.A.Monger
complained that the county's potential was untapped,noting
that this section was overlooked,
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
18
• owing to the grasping greed of the railroads to get the long
haul and settle up their railroad lands in remote regions of
the far Northwest with subsidized land men,who could turn
a larger commission for exploiting them,than the fertile
acres nearer home.As a result the fertile lands lying between
the Twin Cities and the head of the lake have been left to
shift for themselves. . .45
The author was speculating on the potential o the U.S.Army
Corps of Engineers to widen and deepen the Upper
Mississippi.Monger and others saw a shipping link to the Gulf
of Mexico and the Panama Canal as greatly benefiting Elk
River.However,these improvements were not made,and river
transportation was not revived in the twentieth century.
III 4Ti�...iiYFY0.' e Aa ,. � n3
t
4 Y 8 4.1
Elk River roadside development on Highway •10 in 1950.Photo:MHS.
In 1941,construction began on a two-lane highway to St.
Cloud,re-routing Highway 10 to bypass the center of town.
The project was completed in 1948. Somewhat ironically,
highway construction took the Charles Babcock house,as well
as the Sherburne County Courthouse lawn,a potato
warehouse,and other buildings. In 1969,construction began
on a new route for Highway 169 north of Elk River. A new
Highway 101 bridge across the Mississippi was completed in
1970. (verify)
Elk River and its Bridges
At least four bridges have connected the north and south banks
of the Elk River.The first crossing of the Elk River was
ill probably over Godfrey's dam,which was of simple crib and
boulder construction. 6 A bridge over the Elk River was built in
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
19
• Orono in 1860.47 In1886 a steel bridge was erected in the same
location as the present bridge.It was erected by the Wrought
and Iron Bridge Co.of Canton,Ohio and had two 128-foot
spans.
Other lightweight bridges were attempted,apparently by mill
owners,including the Hastings Bridge below the sawmill,
which collapsed in 1898 shortly after its construction. -
In 1912,a spring flood washed out much of the dam at Orono
and also undermined the flourmill.The mill machinery was
sold in 1913 and by 1914 a plan to build a new hydroelectric
dam was in place. In 1915 Waterman formed the Elk River
Power and Light Company.On January 20,1916 the first
electricity was produced by two hydro generators.A new
bridge was discussed as part of the dam improvements,but
was not constructed.
The new concrete bridge was finally completed in 1919 as part
of the Jefferson Highway improvement through Elk River.48
It was designed by William A.Hewett of Minneapolis,a local
innovator in reinforced concrete construction 49 The Highway
10 crossing over the Lake Orono portion of the Elk River was
completed in 1946.The present bridge dates from 19xx?
Elk River interests lobbied for a bridge over the Mississippi,
which was opened in 1906.Its replacement was completed in
• 1985.
,4.4 -
•
• 4
The steel bridge and the Elk River,ca. 1925. Photo:MHS.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
20
• Transportation and Tourism
Like many communities in the 1920s,Elk River attempted to
attract new automobile tourists traveling along the Jefferson
Highway. An ambitious project to bring visitors to the Camp
Cozy resort west of Lake Orono was planned by J.B.Jesperson.
The resort owner proposed a winding canal,locks,and bridges
as well as gardens and a golf course on a 500-acre parcel.
Cottages as well as permanent residences were also planned 5°
At least a portion of the original design was completed.
Preservation Planning Summary:
Transportation
Inventoried Resources
Transportation has played a critical role in the development of
Elk River,but few historic properties remain. Several
transportation-related structures such as the Elk River Depot
were included in previous inventories,but appear to have been
subsequently razed.All of the historic bridges have been
removed,with the Elk River Bridge of 1919 replaced with a
new structure in 1993-4. The Babcock Memorial was
inventoried as part of the Minnesota Roadside Structures
Inventory conducted in 1996.
Recommendation(s)
• 1.Interpretation of the role of early routes and roads through
Elk River should be considered as part of new downtown
development.
•
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
21
0 Elk River Historic Context:
Industry and Commerce,1851-1950
Elk River's industrial development began with the dam
constructed by Ard Godfrey in 1851,and its first stores
followed soon thereafter.This historic context extends from
1851 to the construction of Highway 10 after World War II.
��,ms� do�
4 t;%.;,41 6 C/ , J!` -,"d .\:'A . ,>.` ,,...„. in
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• >.../ r,...,, ro`Mr9F" .�Q +P, a.,
Babcock Store(ca.1900).This store stood at the north end of Jackson Street,
where Highway 10 is today.Such business blocks often had office and halls
on the second floor,such as the I.O.O.F.shown here.Photo:SCHS.
Pioneer Town
sites and Industry
With the construction of a dam and two mills by Ard Godfrey
and John Jameson in 1851-2,Elk River became the site of the
first mills built outside of the St.Anthony Falls and St.Croix.
waterpower area si
Hundreds of townsites were platted in Minnesota in the 1850s,
laid out and recorded by land speculators and others who
hoped to quickly and profitably sell lots.In Sherburne County
at least five townsites were recorded between 1855 and 1857,
including Orono.(1855),Wheeler,(1856),Clear Lake(1856),
Groton(1857),Lberty(1857),and Marseilles(1857).52
Orono
The impetus for Orono was its fine mill site on the Elk River,
the proximity of the Red River Trail,and a potentially
productive timber and agricultural region beyond.Orono was
laid out by surveyor John O.Haven for its owner,Ard
• Godfrey.The plat of Orono was a simple grid of about 14
square blocks arranged along the Elk River around Godfrey's
dam.Configured much like a New England mill village,streets
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
22
were named for Godfrey's wife and daughter,as well as Elk,
Merchants,Minnehaha and Hiawatha.53
The nucleus of Orono was its six-foot crib and boulder dam.
Drawing power from the Elk River, the lumber mill used
timber floated down the Mississippi in seasonal log drives. The
sawmill was fitted with one sash saw,capable of sawing about
three thousand feet of lumber per day. Godfrey also opened a
general store,as did P.C.Hawes.
In addition to the mills and dam,Orono had a scattering of
houses,a cemetery,a schoolhouse built in 1857 that also served
as the Sherburne County Courthouse,and the Trinity
Episcopal Church.By 1857,population of the settlement
reached about 134.
Godfrey appears to have been in partnership in the lumber mill
with Charles Mansur, an Orono resident who left Minnesota
about 1862. 54 Godfrey also sold an interest to Ed Dickey in
1857. By 1880, the property was sold to E.P. Mills and W. H.
Houlton, whose lumber business would produce 1,200,000
board feet of lumber by1880.
Ard Godfrey (1813-?) was born at Orono, Maine and grew up
in a family of millwrights. In 1847 he arrived in St. Anthony to
work as a millwright for Franklin Steele who was planning the
• first dam at the falls. (The house he built in St. Anthony in
1849 still stands.) Throughout his career, Godfrey sought
opportunities to develop millsites. He left St. Anthony to
briefly return to Maine, and upon his return he purchased the
Orono millsite, made a townsite plan in 1855, and an addition
in 1857. However, he does not appear to have permanently
resided in Orono,and well before he sold his last mill property
there about 1863 he devoted himself to his interests in
Minneapolis, including his saw mill and grist mill on
Minnehaha Creek. 55 Pushing westward, he later built the first
sawmill in Montana. 56 Godfrey's partner, John G. Jameson,
was also a native of Maine. He arrived in Minnesota in 1851.
Unlike Godfrey, after the sale of the mill property he entered
farming,which he pursued until his death in 18695
By1899, there were two general stores and a wagon shop still in
operation near the dam, in addition to the Elk River Milling •
Company's flour mill and the W. H. Houlton Lumber s ���
Company's sawmill. While Godfrey provided the dam and
sap �d r
early mills,it was W.H. Houlton's flour and lumber businesses ,
that would persist at this location for several generations.Ss
Elk River
Orono was a successful if small mill center,but the arrival of Pierre Bottineau's Riverside
the railroad encouraged growth to the south in what was Hotel,begun in the 1850s,in
known as Lowertown.Elk River was not platted until 1865, 1900. Photo:MHS.
replatted in 1868,and incorporated in 1880-8159 The original
• plat was made by O.E.Garrison for J.Q.A Nickerson.The
incorporation included the townsite of Orono.Interest in the
banks of the Elk River as a location for commerce began in the
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
23
•
1850s,with Pierre Bottineau's Riverside Hotel. An earlier log
cabin on the site remained adjacent to the frame hotel.
Bottineau sold the hotel to J.Q.A.Nickerson and it was
subsequently owned by Nickerson's brother Henry.An
advertisement of March 25,1853 in the St.Anthony Express may
have referred to this property.It described a large tavern,store
building,a dwelling and a barn and stables.The building
burned in 1907. (This is now the First National Bank of Elk
River site.)
•
View of Elk River,Sherburne County(1879).
The original townsite plat of Elk River was like those of many
railroad towns,where the streets straddled the trackage and
provided depot,warehouse,store,and hotel sites. The two-
block commercial district was centered on State Street facing
the tracks.The bird's eye view of Elk River shows the
collection of frame buildings,most with boom-town facades.
By the 1890s,there were about twenty businesses in the area,
including the Norval and Wheaton general store,Baltzell
Furniture,A.N.Dare's newspaper office,Peter Moeger's
tailor shop,the Heebner and Babcock general store,J.M
Crockett's tin and hardware store,and the Lewis and
Crawford drug stores. The Bank of Elk River,a GAR Hall,a
Music Hall and a roller rink completed the area.A railroad
hotel,the Sherburne House,was built in 1867 on the south
side of the railroad tracks.It was subsequently enlarged and
renamed the Merchant's and later the Blanchett Hotel.
•
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
24
• Many Main Streets in Minnesota have suffered fires,but Elk
River has had at least four major conflagrations.In 1887 a fire
destroyed Uppertown mills and businesses. In 1898 thirteen
buildings were destroyed on State Street north of the railroad.
A shift of the business district was made closer to the river at
Main and Princeton(now Jackson)streets.Here,an open
market square on a wedge-shaped block was eventually
improved into a public park with a few trees and a wooden
pavilion dating from 1917. (This space is now called Jackson
Square.)
The park was framed by a block of masonry buildings on
Jackson Street,most erected around 1898 and then rebuilt
after another fire in 1903. Yet another fire in 1914 destroyed
four stores on Main Street including the building housing the
post office. The earliest remaining downtown building
appears to be the J.H.Romdenne Drugstore at the corner of
Jackson and Main.However,the exterior of the two-story
brick structure has been completely modernized.
The Houlton Block and Jackson
Strom,ca.1910.Photo:MI-IS.
II t
f=-
3 9 /
_
\
Between ca.1898 and 1920,two blocks of Main Street parallel
to the river developed with a cautious mix of one and two-
story brick buildings.After about 1914,Main Street also
attracted a new generation of automotive dealers and service
garages,gradually replacing liveries and blacksmiths.The
Elk Theatre,Sherburne County Farm Bureau,and furniture
and general stores were among early tenants on Main Street.
The Elk River telephone exchange installed in 1902 was first
housed in the Babcock Store on Jackson Street.A variety of
automotive buildings and a new theater(1947)were among
additions between the 1920s and 1950.
Like periodic fires,highway construction remade downtown
Elk River. The construction of the Jefferson Highway in the
late teens,and the Highway 10 bypass in the 1940s
• demolished many downtown landmarks.The present
alignment of Highway 10 also encroached on the eastern end
of Jackson Street.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
25
•
'4` ° Jackson Street,2002. The
Houlton Block is at left.
u
t
e
ad 1 a _
Two other significant downtown changes have been the
creation of a surface parking lot on the park square at Main
and Jackson Streets,and exterior modernizations to the
exterior of historic commercial buildings.The modernizations
are most evident on Main Street between Jackson and Quincy
streets.It is not known how much original historic fabric
remains behind the wood facades applied over the original
brick.
Early Trade
Orono and Elk River's early merchants were a small and
families families such as
Houlton,Wheaton,Babcock,Dare and Nickerson providing
dry goods and services over several decades. The Bank of
Elk River established in 1885 was the first bank in Sherburne
County.The incorporators were W.H.Houlton,W.L.
Babcock,and Henry Castle.Some families,such as the
Houltons,combined mercantile interests with lumber,
banking,farming and politics. This business core served as
promoters of the town,creating business associations and
campaigning for improvements such as telephone service,
electric power,and roads that sustained the community. This
was especially important in the early twentieth century,as
the decline of industries such as milling demanded that the
town develop as a healthy trade center for the surrounding
agricultural hinterland.The publication of the Elk River
Souvenir(1901)and special booster features in local and
regional newspapers were part of business leaders'efforts to
enlarge the market.
Local newspapers were critical to the community's success.
The Sherburne County Weekly was published ca. 1869-70.The
Sherburne County Star and the Elk River Weekly were
inaugurated in 1875.In 1882,Arthur N.Dare purchased both
papers as the Sherburne County Star News
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
26
• '
r
4.,'K't , 3 . ''' , I 7-4'i/ ' :A',::' " '-'1 -1 1
7
„ , .. , ,. . , ,, ,, „.....,„ . „„, , , .
,, . g 1 „„ ''''' ,,,,,,,, .. .,'„ '''/,' - .;" .1 I ' - '
✓
,f, /
c c,e f b* '" ram
• , - .: , '',, 44'44
The 1884 steel bridge and the Elk River Milling Company flour mill,ca.
1910.Photo:SCHS.
Industrial Development after Ard Godfrey
Spurred by the agricultural economy,the northern Minnesota
lumber boom, and an expanding population, Elk River's
small flour and lumber milling industry prospered
for many decades. Saw milling was the greatest
manufacturing activity, sustaining local companies and
employees from 1851 into the early twentieth century. Flour
and starch production also contributed to early industrial
activity,with both active into the early twentieth century.
•
The 1870 Federal Census reported the following industrial
concerns in Elk River:
Firm Name Business Capital Invested
Houlton and Nickerson Saw Mill $30,000
George Crocker Blacksmith 1,000
Eddy Dickey Carriages 600
Galley and Baltzell Furniture 1,000
John G.Jameson Blacksmith 300
Mills and Gardner(?) Flour Mill 20.000
H.Houlton Saw Mill 25,000
Mills and Houlton Saw Mill 7,000
Mills and Houlton Flour Mill 50,000
George Crocker Blacksmith 100
Eddy Dickey Carriages 600
Henry Galley Chairs 1,000
John G.Jameson Blacksmith 300
By 1880,the early mills had been enlarged or replaced.
The census reported the following firms:
Featherston and Co. Cooper shop $3,000
Heebner and Co. Tin and Ironware 1,000
Baltzell and Son Furniture 600
• John M.Crockett Tin and Ironware 500
John G.Jameson Blacksmith
and Carriages 3,000
Thomas and Squires Blacksmith Shop 100
Sawmills
Mills and Houlton Lumber Mill
In Uppertown,Mills and Houlton's Lumber Mill on the site of
the Godfrey Mill produced a variety of lath,single,or sawn
lumber. The saw and planning mill was later W.H.Houlton
and Company and with 60 workers by 1900 was Elk River's
largest employer.fi0 While the steam or water-powered
planning mill remained on the Elk River,in 1868 Houlton built
a steam-powered sawmill on the Mississippi. Its log elevator,
which conveyed the logs from the river into the mill,was a
distinctive feature of the structure.Another Lowertown
planning mill was built in 1873 by Thomas S.and W.C.
Nickerson.
One early resident remembered of the Uppertown mill that
"north of this mill was a"city of lumberpiles"with long
narrow streets and what seemed to us in those days to be
regular skyscrapers of lumber on each side.At the northwest
side of the yard were the piles of slab wood ready for delivery
to people in town.When the mill closed and the lumber yard
•
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
28
• was finally abandoned there was still a large pile of kindling
wood there and for many years local people could go there and
dig up slabs."61 This mill burned in 1887,part of the fire that
spread to the chair factory and various sheds and elevators
• The Houlton Sawmill on the Mississippi.Photo: MHS
Flour Mill
The flour mill is one of the institutions Elk River is proud of and it is
gratifying to know that it is doing a profitable business.
Sherburne County Star,December 16,1897.
Godfrey's flour mill in Uppertown burned in 1868,and Mills
and Houlton rebuilt it as a three-story frame flour mill with a
two hundred barrel per-day capacity.The Elk River Milling
Company,with W.H.Houlton,Henry Castle,and W.G.
Babcock as officers,produced a high grade of flour sold to
Eastern and European markets.62 The mill burned in 1902.The
property was sold,and in 1907,a new four story,300-barrell
per day mill was erected by John Hill and Charles Hartwell of
Massachusetts.A cooper shop manufactured barrels for the
flour mill.
During the May 1912 flood,the new flour mill was
undermined,along with the dam and bridge. Concurrently,
the Massachusetts buyers had failed to pay the mortgage and
were foreclosed in the same month that the dam broke,
returning ownership to Elk River interests.63
•
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
29
• Starch Factories
Starch factories manufactured potato starch and provided Elk
River area farmers with another market for their produce.One
factory was opened in 1890 by T.S.Nickerson,and another in
1910 by C.H.Caley. About 1914, another factory was
founded to manufacture boxes for market crops.
Grain Elevators
r
;
III
Graves and Bailey Grain Elevator,Highway 10.Photo 2002.
The Graves and Bailey Grain Elevator was constructed in 1922
on the Jefferson Highway opposite Oak Street. It replaced O.J.
Whitman's feed mill on the same site. Adjacent to potato and
coal warehouses and the Northern Pacific Freight House, it
appears to be the structure at this location today. Another
elevator owned by the Elk River Milling Company was located
across the tracks to the north.
Elk River's flour milling on the Elk River ended with the
devastating flood of 1912, and saw
devastating closed with the
Houlton planning mill fire in 1923. (Check these dates.: what
about flour elevator?) This reflected the general demise of
flour and lumber industries in centers such as Minneapolis and
Stillwater,but some early flour mills have persisted and grown
to the present time, as operating mills in Northfield and
Hastings attest.
In Elk River as in other river towns, the mill owners acquired
considerable wealth and were influential citizens.While Ard
Godfrey had only a speculative interest in Elk River, the
Houlton and Nickerson families were engaged in milling and
banking for several generations, despite a series of devastating
mill and downtown fires and the statewide general decline in
IIIlumber and flour milling at the turn of the century.
Draft 5/2002
Elk River Historic Contexts Study
30
0 William H.Houlton(1840-?)was a native of Houlton Maine.64
His family settled in Monticello,Wright County in 1856.After
the Civil War William and his older brother Horatio operated a
general store in Elk River.In 1873 he purchased a share of the
flour and saw mills originally built by Ard Godfrey.As noted,
his business evolved into Elk River Milling Company and his
lumber interest as W.H. Houlton Co.Houlton also owned
over 3,000 acres of farmland wand was active in Minnesota
politics. He sold his interest in the Bank of Elk River,founded
in 1885,to W.L.Babcock and Henry Castle in 1899.In 1896
Houlton and Babcock opened a real estate agency.65 Houlton
also established the First National Bank of Elk River in 1907.
William's brother Horatio Houlton(1834-? )farmed in
Monticello before operating a train to bring Hudson Bay goods
from St.Cloud to the Red River.In addition to operating a
general store with his brother William,Horatio opened an Elk
River sawmill and expanded his lumber interests in St.Paul
and West St.Paul.
Tohn Quincy A.Nickerson(1825- )was the first of his family to
play a leading role in the development of local industry.
Nickerson was a native of Maine and arrived in Elk River in
1853. He was in the lumber business until the 1870s,and also
operated a hotel and a general store.
IIIElectrification and Water Supply
In these days of advancement and progress,electricity is the
key to success and is constantly coming into more general
use,not only in the larger cities and towns,but in nearly all
the smaller communities as well. Without electricity a city
or town cannot expect to keep up with its rivals,but is sure
to remain stagnant,while its more enterprising neighbors
continue to grow.
Sherburne County Star,July 2,1914,p. 1.
Electrification was well underway in small Minnesota towns
by 1912,and with its waterpower resource,city leaders were
frustrated that the city had no generating plant.In 1914,F.D.
Waterman founded the Elk River Power and Light Company.
A new 250-foot reinforced concrete dam powered by a 40-inch
waterwheel and a 150-kilwatt generator was built.A concrete
and brick powerhouse measuring 30 x 30 was located on the
east end of the dam.In 1915,a contract for an electrical
distribution and street lighting system for was awarded to
Sterling Electric.66
Private wells served Elk River before a municipal water system
was installed in 1920(?).The present downtown water tower
dates from 1920.It was manufactured by the Minneapolis Steel
and Machinery Company.
•
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
31
•
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Rural Co-operative Power Association at Elk River in 1960.Photo:
MHS.
In 1951 a coal and oil burning plant was built by the Rural Co-
operative Power Association to generate energy for northern
. and central Minnesota. Construction of a nuclear reactor
began in 1958 and the first electricity was generated in 1963.
The plant was decommissioned in 1968. Today the Great River
Energy Corporation operates a refuse burning power plant at
the site.
(Other Industries:gravel,mineral water,concrete plant)
Preservation Planning Summary:
Commerce and Industry
Inventoried Resources
Previous inventories have not documented much of the
industrial and commercial history of Elk River.The current
Phase II study of the commercial district inventoried 23
commercial properties.
There appear to be no standing structures associated with
mills,but remnants of dams,foundations,and other structures
remain.The extant grain elevator on Highway 10 is a
significant feature of the early twentieth century transportation
and agricultural history of the city.
Recommendation(s)
1.Conduct an inventory of commercial properties north of
Highway 10.Early millsites should also be documented.
•
2. Wherever possible,retain and rehabilitate Elk River's
remaining historic commercial and industrial buildings.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
32
• Elk River Historic Context:
Residential Architecture,1851-1930
This historic context encompasses the first log buildings of the
pioneer settlement and extends to the creation of housing in
Elk River before the Depression.
The small building that served as Pierre Bottineau's trading
post and residence was built of log,as were a number of the
first temporary .shelters built by farmers. A hand drawn map
of Meadowvale at the Sherburne County Historical Society
records at least six in that vicinity. The St.Anthony Express of
March 3,1852 recorded a trip in the Elk River vicinity,and
noted the existence of a number of log houses including those
owned by Ard Godfrey.
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1414 Main Street.This small frame house is typical of those of early Orono.
Although a modern entrance and picture window have been added,the
building retains much of its original character.Photo 2002.
A limited amount of lumber was locally available to settlers in
the early 1850s and was used for dwellings,farm buildings,
and stores. The first generation of houses in the mill and
railroad villages of Orono and Elk River reflect the New
England origins of the community,with a preference for frame
construction. B.F.Snow,an early resident,wrote that his
house"was 16'x 24'in size.. .nearly all the houses in this
county at that time were built the same size,for the reason that
the lumber which we bought at the mill was 16 feet in length .
so there was no waste in lumber and saved considerable
time in sawing." 67 The gable-roofed,Greek Revival style
houses were one or two stories,with a porch carried by square
posts. The 1860 census noted two carpenters,36-year old
George Davis,a native of New York,and William Adams,a 25
• year old Canadian.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
33
• The Charles Mansur House at 1808 Main Street,built in ca.
1856-1860,is thought to be the oldest extant dwelling in Elk
River.Mansur was a native of Ohio and worked as a sawyer in
the Godfrey sawmill.The streets of Uppertown were built with
a scattering of such buildings.Although many of the exteriors
have been modernized,their small proportions,low-pitched
gable roofs,and regularly spaced windows are keys to their
likely date of construction.
Early Elk River farmhouses were likely much the same,
although there are none known to be extant.An early view of
the first house built by Oliver Kelley shows the Greek Revival
style and clapboard exterior typical of pre-Civil War
farmhouses.
W.H.Houlton,despite his wealth and standing in the
community,did not build a pretentious house.As illustrated in
the Elk River Souvenir in 1901,the large,two story Italianate
house had a simple roofline and a one-story wing.After the
Civil War,and with the growth of a small class of prosperous
merchants and millers,a few houses of more architectural
pretension were erected. Italianate and Gothic Revival style
houses were popularized by a variety of publications that
could be copied by local carpenters. Frame rather than brick
was chosen for construction.(Prevalence of brick in Elk River
Township?)
III In the 1880s,a Queen Anne Style house was erected by Henry
Castle at a cost of 3,000.`This clapboard and shingle-clad
house with much turned work boasted"devil points"in the
cresting at the roofline and the owners pumped interior water
from a private tower shared with three neighbors.
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aid' ''a'..
HS.
Frank T. White House in 1981.Photo:M
Frank T.White(1866 1947)built one Elk River's most
impressive houses at 1135 Main Street.An attorney,politician,
and real estate developer,White chose a design from the
II)
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
34
• Radford Plan Company of Chicago.The Colonial Revival
design was built on a large lot overlooking the Elk River.It is
one of several notable houses in the Houlton Addition to Elk
River
In the early twentieth century there were many unbuilt lots
remaining from the original townsite plans of Orono and Elk
River and the general population of Elk River erected a variety
of simple houses near the town center.A simple foursquare
cube was popular,as was the Arts and Crafts bungalow.Its on-
e and one-half story exterior and well-finished interior was
adapted from a great variety of plans advertised at
lumberyards and other publications.Sporadic new
construction occurred until the onset of the Depression in 1930,
and housing construction did not resume until after World
War II.
The development of Manor Place on the Mississippi riverbank
in the 1920s and 1930s included several stylish Period Revival
houses,including one for banker Charles Bade.
After World War II, a variety of one-story ramblers were
constructed on empty lots in central Elk River.The rambler
was often the house type chosen as replacement for older
farmhouses in the township.With the beginnings of non-farm
construction along newly laid out cul-de-sacs off Highway 77
and 13,the rambler and its variations were built in greater
number. At the same time,many older houses were
• remodeled with aluminum and vinyl siding and stucco and in
some cases lost historic character. In recent years,some
property owners have restored nineteenth and early twentieth
century houses to their historic appearance with good results.
Preservation Planning Summary:
Residential Architecture
Inventoried Resources
Previous inventories include about thirty examples of
nineteenth and early twentieth century residential architecture.
Recommendation(s)
1.Conduct a complete inventory of residential properties
throughout the city. The survival of early Orono and Elk River
townsite houses should be carefully documented.
•
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
35
IPElk River Historic Context,
Schools,Churches and Local Institutions,1854-1920
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fir- '67,"1: 4 , .
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Elk River School,ca. 1900.Photo:MHS.
In Elk River,local and county government created a collection
of buildings typical of nearly all settlements of its size.In
addition to schools and the county courthouse,private
Masonic organizations also occupied space in business blocks.
• This context extends from 1851 to 1950.
Schools
Elk River's first school was organized in 1854. Classes were
held in the Orono home of Mrs.Bean,a local resident. A
schoolhouse was built in 1857. With the shift of population to
the new village of Elk River,a one-room frame schoolhouse
was erected there in 1868. A new four-room school was built
in xx on Thomas Street between Main and Depot streets.It
burned in 1882.it was replaced with alive-room school on the
same site. The Italianate style building had two hipped-roofed
wings and paired segmental-arched windows.A later addition
was made to the rear.A tall bell tower rested atop the central
bay.69
The school block included a small pond set in a deep bowl.The
pond was filled for an athletic field in 1921-22.By 1926 a
regulation football field and running track were installed.In
1939 and 1940 the National Youth Administration hired local
workers to construct stone retaining walls,a warming house,
and tarred path to the floor of the stadium.The Elkhi Stadium
was dedicated in 1940.It has continued to serve as a spot for
sliding and skating.'
A two-story brick high school was completed on this block in
1929-30. It is now an elementary school.
•
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
36
• Churches
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Union Church, 1118 Fourth Street N.W. (1881).Photo 2002.
The Yankee settlement of the 1850s and 1860s was reflected in
the organization of the first churches as well as early fraternal
organizations and societies.The first organized congregation in
•
Sherburne County was the Trinity Episcopal Church. A first
building was erected was erected in the late 1850s at 1915
Second Street. 70 It was moved to Elk River in 1877.The
present building at 1326 Fourth Street N.W.dates from 1890-1.
The United Christian Society of Elk River was organized in
about 1866,and the Union Church about 1875.The present
church at 1118 Fourth Street N.W.was erected•in 1881.The
building was designed and built by W.F.Chadbourne of Elk v
River.The memorial windows were dedicated in 1923. The
Meadowvale Church in Elk River township was a branch of rr M
this congregation;it was created in ca. 1920.
-, -
.
The Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1875.The
congregation met in the Orono schoolhouse until a church was
built north of the railroad tracks in 1889.A new church was ' �� l
erected in 1916 along the Jefferson Highway near Minnesota
Street.72 Trinity Episcopal Church,
1326 Fourth Street N.W.,
The Emmanuel German Lutheran Church was organized in (1890 91).
1918. The congregation purchased the former Methodist
Church.Services were initially held in German and English;
one German service per month was still held in the late 1930s.
The Norwegian Lutheran Church was organized• 1933 with
about nineteen charter members.The congregation originally
rented the Episcopal Church for services,with each
congregation meeting several times per month.Services were
• initially offered in both Norwegian and English.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
37
• St.Andrew's Roman Catholic Church was organized about
1890.The first church building was a simple frame structure.A
new building was begun in 1921 and the congregation used the
basement unti119xx?
Sherburne County Courthouse
When Sherburne County was created from Benton County in
1856,the first seat was at Humboldt,later known as Big Lake.
There was no permanent courthouse,with business transacted
in private homes and schoolhouses.In 1867,Orono became the
county seat,where a schoolhouse was used for county
purposes.In 1877 a new courthouse was completed on Oak
Street between Main and Depot streets. The two-story hipped-
roof frame building was designed by W.C.Warner and built by
Horatio Houlton,an Elk River contractor. The design included
a bracketed square tower with a pyramidal roof rising over the
entry.A new courthouse was erected in 1970.The historic
building was razed• 1995.Fratemal organizations and
societies met• a variety of buildings.
Masonic,Fraternal,and other organizations(in progress)
The temperance conviction of early settlers was reflected in the
organization of the Temperance Murphy Club,organized in
1877.The group campaigned against saloons and liquor
consumption.The Grand Lodge was organized in 1872.
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The Sherburne County Courthouse in 1981.Photo:MHS.Razed.
•
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 5/2002
38
•
Downtown Elk River, Minnesota
Phase II Historic Resources Inventory
April 2002
Draft
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middle left is no longer standing,but many of the other buildings in this photo remain. SCHS photo.
Summary of Findings
Elk River seems to be peculiarly unfortunate in the matter of fires for a town of its size,
for besides three disastrous conflagrations in recent years it has in the course of its
history lost by fire two flouring mills, two or three saw mills,planing factory and
adjacent machine shop, two large stores and several smaller ones at upper town,a brick
school house and numerous residences.
Sherburne County Star News clipping,ca. 1902.
Elk River's commercial architecture over the past 150 years has been of generally simple
and utilitarian character.The first small stores built by Ard Godfrey and others in the
1850s were of frame construction,with gable roofs and flat trim. By 1900,several two-
story brick blocks housed banks,stores,and offices.
Several fires between 1887 and 1914 destroyed the record of much of Elk •River's
nineteenth century commercial architecture. The Romdenne Block(now Sunshine
Depot) appears to the earliest survivor of •Main Street,but its later neighbors such as the
W.H. Houlton Block(1906)and the Bank of Elk River(1915) are also local landmarks.
All have had exterior modernizations,but a fair amount of historic fabric probably
survives behind the changes.
•
• The Phase II historic resources inventory conducted between January and April 2002
focused on 23 downtown properties located within a four-block area(see attached map).
The study found that although a good number of properties remain from the period
1898 to 1920,only two have survived without fairly significant exterior alterations.
None appear to be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
However,although individual buildings have been altered, much of the general historic
character of turn-of-the-century downtown Elk River has nevertheless survived.
Character-defining features of downtown include the pedestrian-oriented size and scale
of Main and Jackson street buildings, the integrity of the original street grid and its
relationship to the Mississippi River, and the arrangement of buildings around Jackson
Square,once Elk River's downtown park.
The remaining buildings should not be written off. Each possesses a rich record of
connection with a century of Elk River history. Most have the potential for restoration
and adaptive reuse and can anchor well-planned new downtown development.
•
•
■
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Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
•
Downtown Elk River, Minnesota
phase II Resour
II HResources Inventory
May 2002
Draft for Review and Comment
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Main Street from Quincy Street,looking southeast to Jackson Street,ca. 1910. The Oddfellows Block at
middle left is no longer standing,but many of the other buildings in this photo remain. SC
photo.
Summary of Findings
Elk River seems to be peculiarly unfortunate in the matter of fires for a town of its size,
for besides three disastrous confl agrations in recent years it has in the course of its
history lost by fire two flouring mills, two or three saw mills,planing factory and
adjacent machine shop, two large stores and several smaller ones at upper town,a brick
school house and numerous residences.
Sherburne County Star News clipping,ca. 1902.
Elk River's commercial architecture over the past 150 years has been of generally simple
and utilitarian character. The first small stores built by Ard Godfrey and others in the
1850s were of frame construction,with gable roofs and flat trim. By 1900,several two-
school
blocks housed banks,stores,and offices.
Several fires between 1887 and 1914 destroyed the record of much of Elk River's
nineteenth-century commercial architecture. The Romdenne Block(now Sunshine
Depot) appears to the earliest survivor of Main Street,but its later neighbors such as the
W.H. Houlton Block(1906) and the Bank of Elk River(1915) are also local landmarks.
• All have had exterior modernizations,but a fair amount of historic fabric probably
survives behind the changes.
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
• The Phase II historic resources inventory conducted between January and April 2002
focused on 23 downtown properties located within a four-block area(see attached map).
The study found that although a good number of properties remain from the period
1898 to 1920,only two have survived without fairly significant exterior alterations.
None appear to be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
However,although individual buildings have been altered, much of the general historic
character of turn-of-the-century downtown Elk River has nevertheless survived.
Character-defining features of downtown include the pedestrian-oriented size and scale
of Main and Jackson street buildings, the integrity of the original street grid and its
relationship to the Mississippi River, and the arrangement of buildings around Jackson
Square,once Elk River's downtown park.
The remaining buildings should not be written off. Each possesses a rich record of
connection with a century of Elk River history. Most have the potential for restoration
and adaptive reuse and can anchor well-planned new downtown development.
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Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
III Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
tr,,'\..;,A:',:,t ‘y\'t./7 '.' AlfN.,N'.--' — . ..‘kk,\"-w'itt,r
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A BANK' \�`� `
s
Address: 304 Jackson Street
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory#: pending
• Historic Name: Houlton Building
Current Name: Credit America
Builder/Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant:
Architect/Source: Thomas Tudor,Minneapolis,architect for remodeling
Date of Original Construction: 1906;1955 remodeling
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo:
Property Number: 1
Description
This two-story cream brick building occupies a prominent corner lot at the northeast
corner of Jackson and Main streets.The flat-roofed building has a canted corner still
crowned by a parapet inscribed with Houlton,for W.H.Houlton,the original owner.
The rectangular windows have prominent brick voussoirs and there are four courses of
brick banding under the deep wood cornice.Each window has a rusticated stone sill.
The 1955 remodeling included the installation of a reddish brown polished granite
facing on the entire first floor,with large display windows replacing the originals.The
upper story windows were not altered,but the tripartite corner window was removed.
Extensive remodeling was also completed on the interior.
• The original roofline of the building had stepped and gabled parapets,and tripartite
bays ations.The corner bay appears to have been a later
addition,and all the bays were on the east and south elev removed by 1955.
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
Significance
This building is is significant for its association with the Houlton family and Elk River's
early mercantile and financial institutions. It was completed in 1906,after a previous
one built by W.H. Houlton(ca. 1903)burned. The building was extensively remodeled in
1955 and the First National moved to its present location on Main Street in 1972. The
relocation of the bank at this key intersection was important event after a series of
devastating downtown fires.
The building has housed many firms,including the Heebner Mercantile Company and
the Davis Bros. Store at the ground level,and Masonic organizations on the second floor,
including the G.A.R..Doctor's and other offices were also housed upstairs.
S
S Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
II ,, ,, ,;t ,'„r„..,:...,::: i,:i i ',!,1‘‘'I''•'%4.,' , •*.*i'iAtit',“ ••■'' .41S.'''''5::::-1'''."‘Pi!,t,':4
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Address: 309 Jackson Street
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory#: pending
Historic Name: Johnson Clothing Store
Current Name: Antiques Downtown
Builder/Contractor:
l Origi nal Owner/Tenant:
Architect/Source:
Date of Ori final Cons r i
g t uct on: ca. 1911
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo:
Property Number: 2
Description
The two-story brick building on this parcel is clad • metal,with no upper. story
windows. The first level has modern display windows.The historic building behind the
screen may have been damaged in a fire in 1914.Historic photos show an earlier
building with arched upper-story windows,and another view (ca. 1917)with large
rectangular upper-story display windows.
Significance
This building is locally significant as an important survivor of an early twentieth century
commercial block. However,it is not known how much historic fabric survives behind
the metal screen.
A building shown on this site on the 1899 Sanborn Map is labeled the Opera House.
This building was apparently destroyed in a fire and rebuilt by 1911.
0
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
• Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
3
ter: °'^ n^,:.^°-°°^ter,r,o*>11
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9
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w,r ,,,,,.z..\1.:;.,4: ,\ 73'.3-, h ,i' � �'
Address: 313 Jackson Street
0 PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory#: pending
Historic Name:
Current Name: Olde Main Eatery and Sweet Shop
Builder/Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant:
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction:
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo: 3
Property Number:3
Description
This two-story brown brick building has athree-bay facade with brick pilasters and a
deep corbel course at the parapet. The first story has modern display windows and has
been painted white,but the upper story is well conserved. Long rectangular windows
have stone sills. Umbrella-style awnings cover some architectural detail.
Significance
This building is locally significant an important survivor of the early twentieth century
commercial block opposite the former Jackson Square. Despite the alterations noted
above it retains a good level of historic integrity.
•
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
• Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
a1/4 j
SS
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Address: 315 Jackson Street
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory#: pending
• Historic Name: Bank of Elk River
Current Name: Carlson Wagonlit Travel
Builder/Contractor: A.Moorman Company, St. Paul
Original Owner/Tenant: Bank of Elk River
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: ca.1915
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo: 4
Property Number:4
Description
The Bank of Elk River is a two-story cream brick building with a flat roof. The first story
shows the original two bay division of the façade. The square pilasters with simple
capitals flank bays filled with modern display windows. Above a deep cornice trimmed
with a rusticated brownstone band,the upper story has six arched windows surrounded
by a featureless cream brick façade of relatively recent date.
Several historic photos show the building before its upper story modernization and
could be of great use in restoration.
Significance
This building is locally significant as the second location of the Bank of Elk River,the
• first bank in Sherburne County. Established in 1885 with W.L. Babcock,W. H. Houlton
and Henry Castle as officers,the first bank was located on the north side of the railroad
Elk River Commercial District
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
• Property Description and Significance (con't)
tracks.After the 1898 fire,it was rebuilt at this address but burned again in 1915. The
building was immediately rebuilt.
The present building was designed and built by the A. Moorman Company of St. Paul.
The building was completely wired in anticipation of the electrical service that arrived in
1916. The interior was furnished with oak trim Italian marble counters and wainscoting,
and tile floors.The Northwestern Telephone Exchange occupied the second floor,along
with physicians' and attorneys'offices.
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Bank of Elk River(ca.1915).MHS photo negative#53717,1953.
•
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
• Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
a\\ 0.0190 .
KEMPER DRUG �.,2�3 . s
4.
Address: 323 Jackson Street
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory#: pending
Historic Name: Kemper Drug
• Current Name: Kemper Drug
Builder/Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant:
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: 1961
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo: 5
Property Number: 5
Description
Kemper drug is a one-story limestone clad building with a flat roof and metal coping at
the parapet. The first story is filled with modern display windows sheltered by a
brushed aluminum marquee. The corner neon sign appears to date from the original
construction.
Significance
Kemper Drug is locally significant as a mid-twentieth century addition to the downtown
commercial district.The building has a good deal of original integrity.This building
replaced a two-story brick structure destroyed in a fire.
•
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
IIIElk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
. '
1, f a. "-4 /i7
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Address: Southeast corner,Jackson and Main Streets
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory#:pending
Historic Name: Jackson Square
Current Name: Parking Lot
•
Builder I Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant: of Elk River
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: ca.1900
Date of Survey: March 2002
City
Prepared by: Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo: 6
Property Number: 6
Description
Jackson Square was created when the townsite of Elk River was platted in 1865,but most
the area around it was not built up until after 1900. The square occupied the northern
edgeof the wedge-shaped block;the Blanc
Hotel was at the southern edge. The
space was not improved unti l the early twentieth century;photographs of 1917 show
that the square had a few large mature trees but it does not appear to have been formally
landscaped. A small wooden pavilion fronted on Main Street.The square is now a
surface parking lot.
Significance
Jackson Square was locally significant as the central public space in Elk River and the
focus of many community celebrations and events. If parking was moved from this site,
the space could be restored to its original community function.
III
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
• Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
rte_
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Iht.
•
Address: 657 Main Street
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory#: pending
Historic Name: Elk River Theater(?)
Current Name: Cinema Professional Bulding
Builder/Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant:
Architect/Source:
Date Origina Construction:
Date of of Survey:l March 2002 1947(or 1942)
Prepared by: Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo: 7
Property Number: 7
Description:
This two-story building has a flat roof and is constructed of concrete block.The façade is
covered in brick,wood paneling,and wood shingles.The appearance of the original
facade is unknown,but it appears to have had a central marquee that is boxed in by the
modernizations. A painted mural covers the north side of the building.
Significance
• One of two theatres that stood on this block,this building was one of the last historic
additions to Main Street.
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
IIIElk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
I
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Address: 655 (?) Main Street
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory#: pending
Historic Name:
Current Name: Elk River Chiropractic
Builder/Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant:
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: 1915-1928
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo: 8
Property Number: 8
Description
This one-story brick building has a modern stone façade.The central entry is flanked by
two display windows that are partially filled with glass block and there is a glass block
transom over the door.
Significance
IIIThis building appears to have been constructed at about the same time as other one-
story commercial development on the block.
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
IIIElk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
4, i
Lick Pi '
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Address: 651 Main Street
PIN: Legal:
S SHPO Inventory#:pending
Historic Name: Royal Theatre
Current Name: Dick's Main Tap
Builder/Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant:
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: ca.1915
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by:Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo: 9
Property Number:9
Description
The former Royal Theatre is a two-story,brick-faced structure with a flat roof.The
building façade has been reclad in brick,wood,and wood shingles and no original
features are visible.The curved parapet of the original roofline remains intact.
Significance
This building appears on the 1915 Sanborn Map as a "picture theatre. " Also known as
the Elk Theatre,the community's first"all talking picture"was shown here. (Sherburne
County Star News,27 Feb. 1930, 1.)The building was electrified in 1916.
III
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
• Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
•
a•
Address: 647-649 Main Street(west unit)
PIN: Legal:
• SHPO Inventory#: pending
Historic Name: Elk River Star News (?)
Current Name: Haberdashery
Builder/Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant: Charles Babcock
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: 1904
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo: 10
Property Number: 10
This one-story,two-unit store building has a flat roof.The red brick building has two
store units divided by a brick pier.The.storefronts have been modernized and clad in
permastone,and the transom filled with glass block. The simple parapet with a corbel
course is intact.
Significance
641-47 Main Street is typical of Elk River's smaller commercial buildings. One or both of
the units housed the Sherburne County Star News offices.
•
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
• Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
l E
.. ` , 414% .�...aw:.. +•:* .,,. ,. ,z- ,zs' •:.ahu:+
Address: 647-649 Main Street (east unit)
PIN: Legal:
• SHPO Inventory#: pending
Historic Name:
Current Name: Jenson and Associates Law Office
Builder/Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant:
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: ca. 1904
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by:Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo: 11
Property Number:11
Description
This one-story,two-unit store building has a flat roof. The red brick building has two
divided by a brick pier.The storefronts have been modernized and clad in permastone,
and the transom filled with glass block. The simple parapet with a corbel course is
intact.
Significance
647-49 Main Street is typical of Elk River's smaller commercial buildings.
•
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
IIElk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
� � a /',' a ';t,
fTi ' . 4t,'I
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•
Address: 641 Main Street
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory#: pending
Historic Name:
Current Name: tel Cell Phone
Builder/Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant: Sherburne County Farm Bureau
Architect/Source:
ction: ca.1920?
Date of Original Constru
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo: 12
Property Number: 12
Description
This one-story,gable roofed frame building is clad in stucco. It has a boomtown facade
with a small pediment atop the parapet.The storefront has been modernized but the
building retains much of its historic integrity. There is a one story modern building at
the rear.
Significance
This building is locally significant as a relatively early survivor of Main Street. The
Sherburne County Farm Bureau was housed here for a number of years.
•
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
410 Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
# I
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1 " d +if
Address: 701 Main Street
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory#:pending
• Historic Name: Romdenne and Co.
Current Name: Sunshine Depot
Builder/Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant: Joseph Romdenne
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: 1898
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo: 13
Property Number: 13
Description
This two-story flat roofed store building is clad in cream brick. The original facade is
completely covered by anew brick and wood façade,capped by a wood shingled
mansard roof.It is not known how much of the original facade might survive behind the
modernization.The original three-bay design had a central entry flanked by large
display windows and an upper story with three windows.The side chimney evident
today is seen on early photographs.
Significance
This building has lost historic integrity,although it is possible that a good amount of the
original facade survives behind the modernizations. One of the earliest commercial
buildings in the town center that developed at Main and Jackson streets and the first
built after the fire of 1898, it was owned by Joseph Romdenne. His was one of several
•
general stores in Elk River at the turn of the century.A livery stable is shown on this site
on the 1894 Sanborn Map.
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
IIIElk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
4 rk <
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Address: 705 Main Street
O
PIN: Legal:
SHP Inventory#: pending
• Historic Name:
Current Name: Waterfall Salon and Day Spa
Builder/Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant:
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: 1946
Date of Survey'. 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo: 15
Property Number:15
Description
This one-story brick building has a facade completely clad in wood with no openings.
Significance
This property has no apparent historic significance and no historic integrity.
4110
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
III
Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
air
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5
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Address: 707 Main Street
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory#: pending
• Historic Name:
Current Name: Cut Hut
Builder/Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant:
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: ca.1904; rebuilt ca. 1911.
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo: 16
Property Number: 16
Description
The Cut Hut is one of four stores in a one-story brick block that occupy Lots 3 and 4 of
Block 5.All have been extensively remodeled with false fronts of various types.The Cut
Hut has been reclad with a steeply pitched roof and central dormer above modern
display windows.
Significance
This building has no historic integrity,although it is possible that a good amount of the
original façade survives behind the modernizations. The historic building under the
façade alterations was built in 1911,after an earlier fire that destroyed this section of the
block. The brick storefronts each had a single entry with a display window surmounted
by a glazed transom.The flat roof of the block had a simple parapet with a corbelled
III cornice.
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
• Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
,
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Address: 709-711 Main Street
PIN: Legal:
S Inventory#:
III Historic Name:
Current Name: Daddy O's
Builder/Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant:
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: 1904
Status:
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo: 17
Property Number:17
Description
This is one of four stores in a one-story brick block that occupy Lots 3 and 4 of Block 5.
All have been extensively remodeled with false fronts of various types. This property
has been re with wood siding and a modern display window.
Significance
This building has no historic integrity,although it is possible that a good amount of the
original façade survives behind the modernizations.The historic building under the
façade alterations was built in 1911,after an earlier fire that destroyed this section of the
block.The brick storefronts each had a single entry with a display window surmounted
by a glazed transom. The flat roof of the block had a simple parapet with a corbelled
• c or n ic e.
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
•
Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
Ir
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a& tE �c/ „FSfii
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mss.:
/)S1
I
Address: 713 Main Street
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory#: pending
• Historic Name: Don's Bakery
Current Name:
Builder/Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant:
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: 1904
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo: 18
Property Number: 18
Description
The building is one of four stores in a one-story brick block that occupy Lots 3 and 4 of
Block 5. All have been extensively remodeled with false fronts of various types.This
property has been reclad with a shingled mansard and modern display window.
Significance
This building has no historic integrity,although it is possible that a good amount of the
original façade survives behind the modernizations.The historic building under the
façade alterations was built in 1911,after an earlier fire that destroyed this section of the
block. The brick storefronts each had a single entry with a display window surmounted
by a glazed transom.The flat roof of the block had a simple parapet with a corbelled
cornice.
s
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
•
Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
a\`\�\` '?
,;;ft-;?:; 'F�c+ \‘,O tZ\\
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Address: 715 Main Street
PIN: Legal:
• SHPO Inventory#: pending
Historic Name: Ardy's on Main
Current Name:
Builder/Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant:
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: 1911
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo: 19
Property Number: 19
Description
This building is one of four stores in a one-story brick block that occupy Lots 3 and 4 of
Block 5. All have been extensively remodeled with false fronts of various types.This
property has been reclad with a shingled roof above a remodeled storefront.Unlike the
others,the red brick parapet of the original building is exposed.
Significance
This building has no historic integrity,although it is possible that a good amount of the
original façade survives behind the modernizations.The historic building under the
façade alterations was built in 1911,after an earlier fire that destroyed this section of the
block.. The brick storefronts each had a single entry with a display window surmounted
• by a glazed transom. The flat roof of the block had a simple parapet with a corbelled
cornice.
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
• Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
g
s i is
g � r �' .tea\ \. i �'�,(
Address: 717 Main Street
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory#:pending
Historic Name: Mikol's
Current Name:
• Builder/Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant:
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: 1911
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo: 20
Property Number: 20
Description
This building is one of four stores in a one-story brick block that occupies Lots 3 and 4 of
Block 5. All have been extensively remodeled with false fronts of various types.This
property has been reclad with a wooden screen above a remodeled storefront.
Significance
This building has no historic integrity,although it is possible that a good amount of the
original façade survives behind the modernizations. The historic building under the
facade alterations was built in 1911,after an earlier fire that destroyed this section of the
block.The brick storefronts each had a single entry with a display window surmounted
by a glazed transom.The flat roof of the block had a simple parapet with a corbelled
cornice.
•
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
• Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
i%,r 1
', '''".4•„f': , lix\,., '';*,,41,1"4..tZ,' \\ sttV.\, J.::,%;°,4
h
A 5
y , )XNXIIVAll'ht.S.‘" Lir'"
�� RI/ER #'r�t�d�T'a�
1
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Address: 724 Main Street
PIN: Legal:
• SHPO Inventory#: pending
Historic Name:
Current Name: Elk River Meats
Builder/Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant:
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: ca.1914
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo: 21
Property Number:21
Description
This one-story, flat roofed building is clad ina tan brick.The parapet of the original
design is evident above the modernized facade.
Significance
Although this building has lost historic integrity through storefront modernization,the
original roofline is intact. It is typical of the o ne-story buildings built along Main Street
in the early twentieth century.
•
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
• Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
.4V\ \;.
•
"
ra�C ive c.
;may.� .,..:": ...v
Address:
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory#:pending
Historic Name:
• Current Name: Bumper to Bumper
Builder/Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant:
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction:
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie/Landscape Research
Photo: 22
Property Number: 22
Description
This one story,brick-clad building has an extensively modernized façade.
Significance
The exterior of this building has no remaining historic integrity due to modernization.
•
Elk River Phase II Inventory Form May 2002 Draft
• Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
33 %',/��i4Ej, - 6
•� i'- ; xopkj/y/ jai
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• ,
6
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f _ f g t ,� _ -
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Address: 322 Quincy Street
•
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory#: pending
Historic Name:
Current Name:
Builder/Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant: City of Elk River
Architect/Source:
Date of r igin al Construction: unknown
Date of Survey: March 2002
Photo: 23
Property Number:23
Description
This one story building has a brown brick facade with concrete window sill and lintels.
There is a metal capped,stepped brick parapet filled with tapestry panels trimmed with
tan stone insets.The windows and entry are modern metal units. The side and rear
elevations have been re clad with modern paneling.
Significance
Despite alterations, the building facade retains good historic integrity.
•