Historic Contexts Study and Phase II Inventory (Downtown Elk River) 2022d
Historic Contexts Study
and
Phase II Inventory (Downtown Elk River)
Elk River, Minnesota
Prepared for the
Elk River Housing and Redevelopment Authority
Elk River Heritage Preservation Commission
By
Carole Zellie
Landscape Research
St. Paul, Minnesota
Draft for Review and Comment
April 2002
as a cartoon figure providing the
information in this section with
Visitor Experience conversation "callouts." (check
Designers should consider using Willie Wirehand copyright issues)
This exhibit section has two major goals: to highlight the story of electricity in Sherburne
County and to highlight the work of rural women. It should be a mix of panel text and photos
that introduce the broad storyline. The Barnier demonstrations will provide hands-on
opportunities to learn more about electricity in a fun way. The compressed kitchen
environment will provide an opportunity to show how rural women's work changed and use
the oral histories as a primary source.
Develop five original art illustrations about how electricity is created using 1.) windmill and
battery; hydroelectric; coal or natural gas plant; nuclear plant, RDF plant. Examples of
colorful illustrations are available in Karen Arms, Environmental Science, Austin: Holt,
Rinehart, and Winston, 281 (fossil fuels); 284, (nuclear); 292 (hydroelectric).
Leon Barnier's hand -crank generator with bulb, visitors crank generator to create electricity
to light bulb; someone has to be doing this or managing a process that does it all the time to
create electricity, and that is what the electrical cooperative does.
Leon Barnier's co-op IQ test. "We used to make the Sherburne County fair and the Anoka
County fair.... I had ten questions on there and, then, I had a selector switch with a pilot
light to indicate which question was up. Then there were two push buttons for each question.
If you had the wrong question, you got the buzzer and if you got the other [right], you got the
bell.... It was one of the best teaching mechanisms I had ever seen.... I had a couple light
bulbs on top with blinkers in them, you know...." (see Rural Electrification Oral History
Project, Leon Barrier, narrator, Marilyn Brinkman, interviewer, 1997, p. 12)"
Leon Barnier's "Wiring Analyzer" "Back in the days when we were checking on size of
service, this thing was set up, on, like a console. I had a whole bunch of switches on there,
each one representing an appliance load of different sizes. I had water heaters, and barn
cleaners, and toasters, and irons, and ranges, the whole bit. The trick to this, of course, was
that I had the whole thing so that we were reading in milliamps, not ampere.... [S]o that the
indication was in milliamps.... Then, on the other dial, the voltage dial, I'd have the
different service sizes, 16-amp service, 100-amp service, 200-amp service. You'd start out,
of course, at full voltage and as they'd put that stuff on, why it would come down because the
resistance was just like it would be in real life, except that it was a thousand times less.... In
addition to that, I had another dial then that would show, and the lines that would show, the
different size wire. You could put your appliances —the ones you thought you'd be using all
the time or at the same time —on there and as your voltage dropped, you could turn this other
dial and see what size service wire you would need to carry that to bring the voltage back
up." (12-13) This demonstration should be adapted to be applicable to contemporary
situations by adding loads to specific circuits. A contest can be developed where people can
load as much onto a circuit as possible. As each item is loaded onto a circuit, a bell sounds.
Once the load is exceeded, a horn will honk.
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 81
Create a compressed "stage set" of a rural kitchen and porch with lighting and key electrical
appliances from the 1940s, including refrigerator, stove, iron, electric frying pan, and
washing machine on porch. Link one- or two -sentence oral history excerpts to particular
items on display in the kitchen on a waist -high panel railing. Provide a push button to
activate a particularly good oral overview of the changes. (maybe Ruth Nelson's oral
history?).
Use selected excerpts from the following oral histories to convey major points about
electricity and to bring the kitchen environment to life:
Angela Goenner, oral interview 1995, Talks about what life was like before electricity —ice
boxes, separating milk, lighting to establish how farmers got by.
Ruth Nelson, oral interview, 1995. Talks about refrigeration, stoves, cooking, canning,
heating, ironing before electricity and how electricity made life easier for women.
Willard Cox oral interview, 1996, different woods for heating, cooking and how different
wood provided different heat; difficulties of wiring brick house for electricity in 1855.
Vern Dahlmeier oral interview, 1995, Sherburne viewed as a poor county when other
counties had electricity, but it did not; NSP only wanted to wire easily accessible locations;
electricity improved quality of life and changed what you could do at night.
Karl and Frona Eiffert, oral interview 1996, NSP wouldn't extend lines to remote areas of
county. Utility companies didn't think farmers would use much; Frona bought an electric fry
pan as soon as they got electicity; role of REA and Anoka Electric Cooperative; problems
with power lines, wiring, poles, rates, electricians.
Allen.Enger, oral interview, 1996, impact of electricity on the resort and camping business in
Big Lake.
Frank Hendrick, oral interview, 1995. Use this interview to introduce wind charger
information.
Doris Leitha, oral interview, 1995. Before electricity, water froze in the pail and food in the
house froze. Dairying without electricity.
Alice Mathison, oral interview, 1995. Negative aspects of electricity. Nostalgia of life before
electricity, when there was more family socializing and neighborliness.
Bert Nelson, oral interview, 1996. Use excerpts form this to tell the story of wind chargers
and glass batteries for lighting before electricity.
Leo Stadden, oral interview, 1995. Talks about the value of electricity for visually impaired.
He uses a "reading machine" that enlarges print so he can read books, papers, magazines,
etc., and listens to books on tape and has a closed circuit TV.
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 82
Charles Swanson, oral interview, 1995. Was an electrical contractor from 1930s-1960s, and
talks about wiring barns and houses when electricity was being introduced to Sherburne
County.
LeRoy Toth, oral interview, 1995. Story of two elderly bachelors in neighborhood who
thought electricity was a waste of money because worked when it was light and went to bed
when it was dark.
Differing Points of View
1. Some people may be very antagonistic toward power companies, private or cooperative,
for philosophical reasons.
2. Audience survey information indicated electricity was not a high interest subject area, so
some audience members may not be interested in the subject matter.
Iconic object/media/activities: Create a cut-out statue of Willie Wirehand (if copyright
allows)
Additional media and activities to tell the story (objects, film, images, sound, etc.)
1. P1990.200.138 Unloading coal at Sherco fall 1975
2. P 1990.201.530-531 Elk River Nuclear Reactor and interior (somewhat out of focus?)
3. P1990.201.533 Elk River Nuclear Plant 1960
4. P1990.201.543 11 x 14 of Becker NSP plant; 2,202 megawatts when unit 3 begins
service late in 1987
5. P 1990.200.077 Electric Light Crew/June 1917
6. Photo from Becker, c. showing first street lights (Bobbie Scott, "Energy" summary p.
13.)
7. Actively try to collect a "reading machine" from Leo Stadden.
8. Actively try to collect Scott McPherson's father's air and water checking equipment for
Elk River nuclear power plant.
9. Actively try to collect Bert and Ellen Howe's first refrigerator when they got electricity in
1949.
10. The Elk River Reactor brochure from RCPA, Elk River, with technical information about
Elk River reactor with diagrams
11. 1958 Pamphlet on Elk River reactor, with simplified explanation of how it worked, good
illustrations for exhibit.
12. UPA archives on nuclear reactor; short film on open house at reactor
13. home energy plant parts??
14. Acquire Anoka Electric Co-op craft party book, see interview with Leon Barnier, p. 6
15. Create some sample electrical Christmas exhibits using craft party book, see interview
with Leon Barnier, p. 6
16. See Leon Barnier's descriptions of exhibits he did for fairs; have him create exhibits like
these for use in exhibit:
17. Acquire 1940s refrigerator, stove, iron, electric frying pan, washing machine; additional
items may be suggested by a close listening to the oral histories.
18. Acquire pro and con statements on UPA's 1970s transmission lines and the 1980s; RDF
plant.
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 83
19. Can you acquire any photo of Elk River's Atomic Cafe restaurant sign?
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 84
Exhibit Station: 12
Topic: Transportation in Sherburne County
Story:
Transportation Stories
Rivers in Sherburne County were major transportation routes before the county was settled.
The Mississippi was the pre-eminent transportation route in the county for the Ojibwe and
Dakota Indians. The Mississippi was also a major trade and exploration route for people like
Zebulon Pike in 1805. Inl853, the Governor Ramsey, a shallow draft steam boat began
plying the Upper Mississippi waters from St. Anthony Falls to Sauk Rapids, stopping
frequently in Sherburne County to take on passengers and freight. (See St. Anthony Express,
April 22, 1853)
In the 1849, a regular stage line ran through Sherburne County, part of its route along present
County Road 8 from St. Paul to Sauk Rapids. (Edward Van Dyke Robinson, 34) The stage
route was soon extended to Alexandria and Breckenridge. Along the route over present
County Road 8, a passenger wrote that along the river the stages,
rattled away through oak groves [and] through a prairie with scarcely a tree to
be seen. Beautiful groves of oak ... nestled here and there like island gems in
a peaceful sea. (As quoted in Gilman, 82; This original source should be
located for additional information on the route.)
The military road connected Point Douglass at the mouth of the St. Croix with Ft.
Gaines/Ft. Ripley near Little Falls. Constructed in 1852, the military road ran crossed the
Mississippi at St. Cloud, then followed the Red River Ox Cart trails through most of
Sherburne County, deviating in only a few places where it was especially sandy. It was
termed "an uncommonly superior road." (as quoted in Gilman, 81) After 1852, the Red River
carts followed the straight military road, rather than meandering over the prairie. The
combined Red River and military road ran southeast of Big Lake toward Elk River over "a
fine country" of rolling prairies diversified with trees." (As quoted in Gilman, 81) From
Itasca (near the Kelley Farm) to the edge of Sherburne County, the road continued through
"as fine a prairie as the sun ever shone upon, extending N. and E. as far as the eye could
reach with a farm just opened here and there." (As quoted in Gilman 83)
The St. Paul and Pacific Railroad reached Itasca in southeastern Sherburne County in 1864.
By 1866, it had stretched across the entire lower portion of the county to St. Cloud, more or
less following the level, sandy shores of the Mississippi River and the route that the Red
River Ox Cart travelers had found so pleasant. It wasn't until 1886 that a northern railroad
branch was completed from Elk River to Milaca. (Check Historically Speaking, Spring 2004
and SCHS files on subject.)
The old ox cart and military road was graveled to improve its usefulness some time in the
latter 191h century. It became a favorite recreational route by the 201h century and designated a
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 85
tourist highway, becoming popular with early bicycle touring clubs and Model T trippers. It
was paved with concrete and called Trunk Highway 3 in 1920. Designated part of the
Jefferson Highway in 1916, the old road became part of an international tourist route
stretching from New Orleans to Winnipeg. By 1922, the Jefferson Highway was paved to
St. Cloud. It was the first paved trunk highway in Minnesota. Renamed "Trunk Highway 10
in 1933, and expanded to a four -lane highway in the 1940s and 1950s, the route continues to
be a major transportation artery in the state. (More on this at the Bailey Station)
Sherburne County Farmers "Working Out„
Many county farmers discovered they had to have jobs off -the -farm in order to make ends
meet. Many began commuting to second jobs as soon as they settled in the county, and it has
been going on ever since. The location of the county on the edge of the pineries to the north,
the Twin Cities to the south and east, and the prairies to the west provided opportunities for
farmers to "work out" and make more money to support their families. These were the first
commuters, a familiar routine for many of today's county residents.
That's What They Said!
"Follow up the Mississippi River till you find St. Pauls—then on to Rum
river —follow that towards its rise, and find Princeton. Our farm lies about 4
miles nearly south of that place, in Sherburne Co." (Maria H. Knapp to
daughter Abba, April 1, 1870, Bradford, Iowa.)
"Frank has been working this winter to earn money to purchase a 40 acre lot
of R.R. land near us.... Men in the neighborhood have all returned form their
work in the woods and they will show their rejoicing this week by having an
oyster supper and some simple amusements afterward." (Maria H. Knapp,
Baldwin, Sherburne County, Minnesota, to her sister-in-law Elisa Knapp in
Dummerston, Vermont, March 31, 1872)
"Frank is now driving a tote team as it is called, hauling provisions to the
timber camps, 40 miles from Princeton —has $30 a month and all found —
likes it very much." (Maria H. Knapp, Lake Fremont, Sherburne County,
Minnesota, to her sister-in-law Elisa Knapp in Dummerston, Vermont,
February 16, 1873)
"50 miles covers the distance from St. Paul to this place —farmers go down
with their teams, do their trading and come back the next day." (Maria H.
Knapp, Lake Fremont, Sherburne County, Minnesota, to her sister-in-law
Elisa Knapp in Dummerston, Vermont, October 15, 1873)
"...Frank left home with George H. K. in his business almost 4 weeks ago.
Had been to Duluth, down the lake 450 miles into Mich., through Central
Wise. and back to St. Paul where he was a few days since. He is doing well.
Money is very scarce here and in that way he can get some for building a barn
in the spring." (Maria H. Knapp, Lake Fremont, Sherburne County,
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 86
Minnesota, to her nephew Georgic --son of George and Elisa Knapp in
Dummerston, Vermont, November 29, 1874)
"Frank has been gone 4 weeks and we last heard from him in Cresco, Iowa....
While Frank is gone we have a good hired man who does all the chores and
we do not have to attend to anything out." (Maria H. Knapp, Lake Fremont,
Sherburne County, Minnesota, to Elisa, Susie, and Georgie Knapp in
Dummerston, Vermont, February 7, 1875)
"Frank is away on business most of the time so I am all alone days and some
nights. He has decided to travel longer so he has sold more than half his cows
and rented his farm for a year...." (Maria H. Knapp, Lake Fremont, Sherburne
County, Minnesota, to her sister-in-law Elisa Knapp in Dummerston,
Vermont, September 26, 1875)
"Frank has been hauling logs in the pinery with his team this winter, 3 horses,
$50 per month with good board for self and team." (Maria H. Knapp, Lake
Fremont, Sherburne County, Minnesota, to her sister-in-law Elisa Knapp in
Dummerston, Vermont, March 19, 1882)
Notices in local newspapers tracked the departure and return of farmers working in the
pineries during the winter.
From Orrock--"Ludwig and Anton Larson and August Anderson have gone
to the pineries for the winter." (Sherburne County Star News January 31,1895)
From Zimmerman —"Win Heath has gone up into the pineries on a visit."
(Sherburne County Star News February 7, 1895)
From Elk River --"Ross Bither was called home from the woods by the
sickness of his wife and mother...." (Sherburne County Star News February 7,
1895)
From Elk River --"Orlando Brown, Frank and Charley Brown shipped for the
woods Friday, taking with them 12 horses. They will haul for the Nickersons."
(Sherburne County Star News February 7, 1895)
By 1910 lumbering was on the decline, as noted by the Sherburne County Star News on April
21, 1910, and Sherburne County men would soon have to find a new source of second
income.
Use information from oral interviews
Arnold Engstrom started an egg route in the Twin Cities in 1944. (Can we get more
information on this?)
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 87
Use Willard Cox oral interview, 1996, include oral material on commuting to the Continental
Grain Company in Minneapolis in 1957 and how he had to stop farming because of demands
of both jobs.
Robert Jochum oral interview, 1995. Use this interview to establish the 1950s car-pooling
commute. Jochum says he and father were among first area car-poolers.
Theme statement
Theme 1: People searching for opportunities have always recognized the unique resources of
Sherburne County.
Subtheme 1.1. People from all over the world chose to make Sherburne County their home;
their values shape our communities today.
Theme 2: Being on the edge where three ecological land types meet enabled easy
transportation and access to natural resources and economic resources.
Subtheme 2.2. Living on the edge of metro area, pineries, and western wheat fields provided
access for Sherburne County people to metro markets and jobs in other areas.
Subtheme 2.3. Trails, roads, and rails developed in the corridor along the edge of the
Mississippi River, prairie, pine forest, and deciduous forest.
Contemporary visitor relevance
1. There was moderate interest in transportation history among the Intercept Survey and
teacher respondents.
2. Members ranked transportation history among the top three subject areas.
3. Transportation is a key element in the county's history, and as new families see the
connections between the past and present, they may become more interested in the
history of transportation.
Desired Learner Outcomes:
1. Some visitors will list a succession of major types of thoroughfares that crossed through
Sherburne County. (cognitive)
2. Some visitors will locate historic transportation arteries in the appropriate areas on a
county map. (cognitive, psychomotor)
3. Some visitors will explain why Sherburne County is a good location for commuters.
(cognitive)
Visitor Experience
Consider marking this section out on the floor like a highway. Entrance to the section will be
marked with the newly acquired "Welcome to Elk River: Where City and Country Flow
Together" road sign. (Perhaps cross out Elk River, and add words Sherburne County under
Elk River without altering artifact?) Visitors will view photos and text on the changes in
transportation routes in Sherburne County on panels that resemble highway signs.
Visitors can page through a reproduction of the Putnam House register for 1857-1860 created
as a flipbook.
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 88
Create a master map of Sherburne County with major routes identified: 1) Mississippi River;
2) Red River Ox Cart Trail; 3) Ft. Snelling to Ft. Gaines/Ft. Ripley Military Road; 4) St. Paul
and Pacific Railroad; 5.) Jefferson Highway; 6.) expansion of Highway 10; 7.) Hwy 169; and
8.) proposed new Northstar commuter rail. Then create an interactive map of Sherburne
County without major routes identified, but with a "ghost" images that visitors can match.
Visitors can overlay labeled routes (Velcro, magnetized, or some other method) on top of
map. Some routes, such as Highway 10, will overlay existing routes, such as the Ox Cart
Trail. In a third layer, using Velcro or similar system, match transportation mode with major
route. For instance, overlay the Mississippi River with a cut-out canoe or steamboat; match
the Red River Trail with an ox cart; match the Jefferson Highway with a Model-T car, and so
on.
Working Out
Based on a map with distances and major routes, create a game that incorporates quotes
about working out. If you decided to work in the pineries this winter, what roads would you
take? How many miles would you have to go with your horses and wagon? If you lived in
Orrock and became a traveling salesman in Iowa and Illinois in 1875, how would you get
there? If you were going to sell eggs in the Twin Cities in 1944, what road would you take,
and how many miles would you have to drive?
Differing Points of View:
1. Some people may believe that Sherburne County is changing too fast, that it has become
too suburban, and that its accessibility to the Twin Cities is a negative for the long-time
residents.
Iconic object/media/activities: "Welcome to Elk River: Where City and Country Flow
Together" road sign
Additional media and activities to tell the story:
1. Early transportation routes/modes through county
a. See SCHS map of Military Road with handwritten notes marking locations of
places on trail, including Boyington's Tavern. —verify all information.
h. Original art to create sequenced transportation route map
c. Photos of different modes of travel.
d. Photo of Steamboat Governor Ramsey after it moved from Mississippi to Lake
Minnetonka, ca. 1870, MHS HE5.11G r28, Neg.. 72606 or Steamer Oriole on
Upper Mississippi River Location HE5.11Q p3; Neg 31681
e. Photo of paddlewheel boat on river near Clear Lake —in SCHS collection
f. Quotes from people using each of the transportation modes. For instance, letter
from Missouri traveler in June 1921 praising Jefferson Highway (in SCHS
collection).
g. Digitize clipping of 1866 railroad schedule to St. Cloud.
h. Brochure cover "International Tourist Guide, From Pine to Palm" see
www.powersmuseum.com/about/jeffhwy2.htmi
i. Route map for The Jefferson Highway from Winnipeg to New Orleans; see
Powers Museum website.
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 89
j. P 1990.200.358 Big Lake 1915 Northern Pacific and Great Northern Depots
2. 01990.066.002 Babcock Plan handbill 9 x 7; vote for Bobcock highway plan, 1920
3. 0 1990.066.001 Babcock Plan —The McGarry Bill Submitting the Babcock Plan to
Amend the Constitution of Minnesota to Establish a State Trunk Highway System, 1920
4. 0 1990.065.001 26 x 25 map showing Babcock Plan for a Trunk Highway System
5. 0 1990.063.001 Freight Book Ledger of St. Paul and Pacific, April 25, 1866 to May 28,
1866
6. 0 1990.057.001 Putnam House of Big Lake guest register, 1857-1860 (reproduce, so
people can page through it)
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 90
Exhibit Station: 13
Topic: Trailhead Orientation and Bill and Margaret Cox
Story:
Panel 1: The Legacy of Bill and Margaret Cox
Bill and Margaret Cox purchased the oak savanna property in 1938. When the Coxes
purchased the property, sheep grazed in the savanna. After they bought it, they pastured their
cattle and horses in it. When Bill retired from farming and sold his cattle in 1957, the
savanna saw light use from occasional horseback riders, 4-wheel riders, and hunters.
Bill and Margaret helped protect the savanna by implementing a conservation plan soon after
they purchased the property. (If the map for the plan is available and useful, provide that here
to help explain how a conservation plan works.)
The Coxes also used the property wisely within its relatively low carrying capacity as a
pasture. Since over time, heavy grazing soon destroys native plants almost as completely as if
they were plowed under, and the absence of fire or grazing allows savannas to fill in with
woody species, the continued survival of numerous native oak savanna plant species is
testimony to the fact that the Coxes grazed, but did not over -graze, the savanna and they
made no attempts to replace native plants with domestic pasture grasses. (confirm this with
Bill)
(Provide the Cox donation information here. I don't currently have the detailed information
to present here.)
Panel 2: Oak Savanna Trail Orientation
This panel should contain a map of the trail with major features identified on it, and a brief
description of an oak savanna and the savanna partnership.
Oak savannas —sometimes called oak openings —are sunny, semi -wooded prairie -type
grasslands. Savannas were transition zones between open prairies and shady forests.
Savannas were the product of occasional natural fires. They burned often enough that they
remained open and allowed only specially adapted trees to survive, but not often enough to
destroy the scattered trees that characterized the savanna. Bur oak, Northern pin oak, and
white oaks were the most common savanna trees. Bur oak, the most common savanna tree,
has thick, tough bar that protected it from the raging prairie fires that killed less fire-resistant
plants.
Surveyors from the federal government's General Land Office surveyed the area that became
Sherburne County in the early 1850s. When the surveyors first walked the land, it was
covered by an oak savanna and oak brushland. The major exception was a frequently burned
broad strip of prairie grassland that stretched between the Mississippi and the Elk River.
Once one of the dominant plant communities in the Midwest, the oak savanna is now one of
the most threatened communities in the world. Today, less than .01 % of the original 5.5
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 91
million acres of oak savanna remain. Oak savannas disappeared for several reasons: they
were cleared and plowed; they were pastured so heavily that the native plant community was
exterminated; fire and grazing were both eliminated form savannas, and they were invaded
by dense shrubs and trees.
Theme statement
Theme 1: People searching for opportunities have always recognized the unique resources of
Sherburne County.
Subtheme 1.1. People from all over the world chose to make Sherburne County their home;
their values shape our communities today.
Theme 2: Being on the edge where three ecological land types meet enabled easy
transportation and access to natural resources and economic resources.
Subtheme 2.3. Trails, roads, and rails developed in the corridor along the edge of the
Mississippi River, prairie, pine forest, and deciduous forest.
Subtheme 2.4. Sherburne County's edge landscape included plentiful lakes, wetlands, and
abundant wildlife that have been key to the areas' history and development.
Subtheme 2.5. Located on the edge of the Anoka Sandplain, the soils of Sherburne County
were generally sandy and drought -prone, with poor fertility and agricultural productivity.
Contemporary visitor relevance
l . There was relatively high interest in oak savanna history among teachers and members,
and natural history scored high among all groups.
2. Members expressed a relatively high interest in unguided trail walks, and hiking and
walking were valued leisure time activities for the Intercept Survey respondents.
3. All audiences were interested in people who have helped build the community, and the
Cox donation will have significant impact on the county, so they should enjoy finding out
more about the Cox family.
4. Conservation was ranked as one of the top county stories by several stakeholder
interviewees and audience representatives.
Desired Learner Outcomes:
1. Some visitors will describe what an oak savanna is. (cognitive)
2. Some visitors will explain how this oak savanna was preserved and what the role the Cox
conservation plan played in its preservation. (cognitive)
3. Some visitors will recall who donated the savanna and who the current cooperators are.
(cognitive)
4. Some visitors will formulate a hiking plan based on the features they most want to see.
(cognitive)
Visitor Experience
Panel 1: The Legacy of Bill and Margaret Cox
Visitors will view a photograph of Bill and Margaret Cox and their farmyard, if available.
They will read text and story about the Cox management and donation of the property. They
will view a conservation plan map and read the strategies put in place to conserve the
property after Bill and Margaret bought it.
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 92
Panel 2: Oak Savanna Trail Orientation
Visitors will view the trail map and read the general introduction to an oak savanna before
striking out for the trail.
Trail Brochure: A weatherproof brochure rack should be present for visitors who need a trail
brochure. The trail brochure should be done in concert with the Oak Savanna group. It should
contain a map of the trail and its major features at a minimum.
Differing Points of View
1. Some people may disagree with the description of the oak savanna.
2. Some people may disagree about the importance of oak savanna preservation.
Iconic object/media/activities:
Panel 1. Conservation plan map
Panel 2. Original graphic art tracing trail and major features
Additional media and activities to tell the story (objects, film, images, sound, etc.)
1. Photo of Bill and Margaret Cox
2. All-weather trail brochure dispenser
3. Trail brochures
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 93
Exhibit Station: 14
Topic: Agricultural Failure: Poor Land and the Agricultural Depression
Story:
If you combine generally infertile, drought -prone sandy soil, with low prices, and bad luck,
farm failure is the likely result. Listen, and you can almost hear the land weep for the farmers
who have tried and failed to wrest a living from its porous soils.
Jacob Clitty and his wife purchased a 160-acre tract including the lake now known as Clitty
Lake in 1883. The Clitty family probably built the farmstead, whose ruins we can see today,
and apparently farmed the land successfully for twenty years. The land was sold to an Iowa
couple named Frank and Mary James, who lived here for about ten years. The James family
may have lost the farm on mortgage foreclosure, because Charles and Anna Wendt purchased
220 acres that included this farmstead from an investment company in 1913. When Charles
and Anna moved here from Iowa, they had two daughters: Anna, 7, and Ruth 6. A son,
Howard, was born a year after they arrived. We can only imagine their struggle to make a
living on the sandy farm, but good agricultural prices during World War I may have
sustained them until tragedy struck in January 1920 when their youngest daughter was killed
in an accident.
We learn that a little girl named Ruth Wendt of Becker, aged about 12 years,
was almost instantly killed while sliding down hill near that village last Friday
evening. The sled she was riding upon collided with another sled just ahead,
the end of the runner penetrated her neck, severing an artery and causing her
death in a few moments —The family came from Iowa recently and the body
was taken there for burial. (Clear Lake Times January 8, 1920)
Perhaps moved to despair by the accident, they quickly sold their land to Louis and Louisa
Stuve of Hubbard County and moved away. (Kurt Kragness, "Uncovering the Past,"
Historically Speaking, SCHS, 6)
The 1920s were a bad time to buy a farm. The World War I years had been a golden age of
American agriculture, so good that the price of farm products in comparison to the price of
manufactured goods in 1914 was used as the government standard for fair farm prices. This
became known as "parity" price. Agricultural products declined from 99 percent of parity in
1920 to 83 in 1930, a drop of 26%. Corn prices, for instance, fell from $1.50 a bushel in 1919
to $.52 a bushel in 1921. (Robert Gough, Farming the Cutover: A Social History of Northern
Wisconsin, 1910-1940 (Lawrence: University of Kansas, 1997) 116-117)
After the flush years of World War I, rural America entered a long-term devastating
agricultural depression. Farmers had become accustomed to producing at maximum capacity
for wartime consumption, but after the war, demand dropped dramatically. Poor crop
rotation, little fertilization, and few attempts to prevent soil erosion were typical approaches
to farming throughout most of America in the 1920s. When the rest of the American
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 94
economy rebounded and flourished in the 1920s, agriculture remained in a deep funk,
suffering from the triple curse of low prices, agricultural surpluses, and declining per -acre
productivity, particularly in marginal farming areas such as Sherburne County.
The Staves were an elderly couple when they purchased this farm. They were retired Iowa
farmers, living with a daughter in the Park Rapids area. They probably assisted their son to
start farming by purchasing the land for their thirty -year -old son, Frederick, who married
Olive Gilbert on February 22, 1921. Frederick and Olive's first child was born in
Minneapolis, but their second child, Frederick Louis, was born in 1925 in Becker.
Tragedy struck this farm again in the late 1920s when the Staves' farmhouse burned down.
The dwelling on the Stave farm north of the village was destroyed by fire last
Wednesday afternoon. The Stave family lost practically all of their household
goods. A sewing bee was held at the Ray and Jay Johnson home Friday
afternoon to sew for the unfortunate family. (Sherburne County Star News,
March 10, 1927)
After seeking temporary refuge with Jake and Jeannie Clitty, a neighboring family, the
Staves moved to the Park Rapids area. Not long after, the Aetna Life Insurance Company
foreclosed on their land. (Kurt Kragness, "Uncovering the Past," Historically Speaking,
SCHS, 6; Bobbie Scott, "Abandoned Farmstead at the Heritage Center," SCHS, typescript)
(I recommend additional research about the Staves' farming operation. If the property tax
records are no longer available, check in the 1920 and 1925 manuscript agricultural census
records to find more information. The Clitty farming operation could also be documented in
the 1900 census and the James operation in the 1910 manuscript agricultural census. Did the
James family lose the land to foreclosure, as is suggested by an investment company's
ownership in 1913?)
Theme statement
Theme 1: People searching for opportunities have always recognized the unique resources of
Sherburne County.
Subtheme 1.1. People from all over the world chose to make Sherburne County their home;
their values shape our communities today.
Theme 2: Being on the edge where three ecological land types meet enabled easy
transportation and access to natural resources and economic resources.
Subtheme 2.3. Trails, roads, and rails developed in the corridor along the edge of the
Mississippi River, prairie, pine forest, and deciduous forest.
Subtheme 2.4. Sherburne County's edge landscape included plentiful lakes, wetlands, and
abundant wildlife that have been key to the areas' history and development.
Subtheme 2.5. Located on the edge of the Anoka Sandplain, the soils of Sherburne County
were generally sandy and drought -prone, with poor fertility and agricultural productivity.
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 95
Contemporary visitor relevance
1. The Audience Intercept Survey identified settlers and agriculture as the top two subject
areas of interest.
2. The subject of how land shaped people and people shaped the land scored third highest in
Member Survey results and in the Teacher Survey, and it was frequently mentioned
during audience conversations and stakeholder interviews.
3. Visitors usually see success stories, but this is an unusually good opportunity to provide a
particular example of the local failure of farming on marginal land, during difficult
national economic circumstances, coupled with family tragedies.
Desired Learner Outcomes:
1. Some visitors will describe the combination of poor local soil productivity, national
agricultural depression, and family misfortune as reasons for a farm failure. (cognitive)
2. Some visitors will describe the two family tragedies that occurred on this land and
empathize with the former owners. (cognitive and affective)
3. Some visitors will infer the difficulty of farming in sandy areas of Sherburne County and
empathize with the history of local farmers. (cognitive and affective)
Visitor Experience
Visitors will view the cleared and stabilized farmstead ruins site. A 24 x 36 inch panel nearby
will provide a summary of the information above (or additions to it with subsequent research)
and feature a site map of the farmstead ruins, with buildings identified. They will also view
an enlarged close-up of an aerial photo of the farmstead and road system as it existed in
1938. (Photos would be extremely helpful here, but SCHS doesn't seem to have any right
now.)
School programs and special historical archaeology workshops should be organized to allow
visitors to participate in supervised archaeological excavation of the grounds.
Differing Points of View
1. Some people may believe that the Staves and other failed farmers were simply bad
farmers, and that is why they failed.
Iconic object/media/activities: The Stave farm rains
Additional media and activities to tell the story (objects, film, images, sound, etc.)
1. close-up of 1938 aerial photo of farm site and road system
2. Copy of platbook depictions of property —Are there any platbooks from 1920s?
3. Seek to acquire some family photos, if at all possible.
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 96
Exhibit Station: 15
Topic: Folk Construction Techniques in Sherburne County
Story:
Plank Construction
Some sort of frame provides structural support for most houses built of wood. The Fox
House is the only known example in Minnesota of a construction technique known as
"plank" construction. In most plank construction, there is no frame, and vertical planks
provide the structural support.
The term "plank" construction may have been used for the first time in 1639 in Salem
Massachusetts. Construction specifications for the Salem church called for it to be "covered
with 1 '/2 plank with board upon that to meet close." (As quoted in John Rempel, Building
with Wood, and Other Aspects of Nineteenth -Century Building in Central Canada, (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, first edition, 1967, revised edition 1980, 174.) Plank
construction became popular in northeastern United States and in Canada, where it was
especially common in Quebec. The style was popularized in architectural pattern books as
late as 1887, when it was recommended for a three-room settler's cottage. The technique was
generally inexpensive and was used for tenant and farm homes in the South and West, and as
late as the 1940s, when it was used for temporary World War II structures. (Stephen B.
Jordan, "Houses Without Frames," Old House Journal, May -June 1993, 38; John Rempel,
Building with Wood, and Other Aspects of Nineteenth -Century Building in Central Canada,
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, first edition, 1967, revised edition 1980, 174)
There were several different approaches to building plank homes. The earliest plank
structures started with a post and beam timber frame to which vertical planks were added to
create the walls. In these structures the large corner posts and beams bore the weight of the
roof. A later version of the plank house, which is now considered the true form of the plank
house, had wider planks and no vertical posts. The post -and -beam framing was eliminated,
and the vertical planks became load bearing, supporting the weight of the roof. (John
Rempel, Building with Wood, and Other Aspects of Nineteenth -Century Building in Central
Canada, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, first edition, 1967, revised edition 1980,
175)
Depending on skill and resources, different builders took different approaches to building
load -bearing plank structures. The most skillful plank homebuilders grooved the sill and
fashioned a tenon on the ends of the vertical planks. The planks were slipped into the groove
and plank was butted against plank for a solid wall. Sometimes wooden pegs driven through
the sill and planks secured the planks in place. A second approach, almost as skilled, was to
cut a rabbet, or an L-shaped cut, on the edge of the sill timber. The end of the plank was slid
onto the ledge created by the rabbet and nailed or pegged in place. In both of these
approaches, the plank was held securely top and bottom, and the entire load of the structure
sat on the sill timber.
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 97
The cheapest and least skillful type of plank construction eliminated the need for fancy
rabbets and grooves. Builders lapped the plank on the outside surface of the sill timber and
the roof plate and nailed it in place. This was easy and quick, but the nails themselves ended
up bearing the weight of the structure, since the planks did not actually sit on top of the sill
timber. (See John Rempel, Building with Wood, and Other Aspects ofNineteenth-Century
Building in Central Canada, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, first edition, 1967,
revised edition 1980), 175-177 and 177 for illustration of a house similar to the Fox House;
Stephen B. Jordan, "Houses Without Frames," Old House Journal, May -June 1993, 36-37.)
The Fox House
The Fox House uses the simplest and least expensive approach to plank house construction.
It is a one and one-half story structure built with two-inch thick vertical oak planks attached
with cut nails to the outside of the sill and roof plate. The planks run from the roofline down
to the stone foundation and cover the sill. There are no rabbets or grooves in the sill or roof
plate, and no shaping was done to the ends of the oak planks. The one and one-half inch thick
oak planks vary in width from as narrow as about eight and one-half inches up to twelve and
one-half inches. (This information is assembled from a variety of Fox House reports and
close analysis of photographs. Plank width and thickness from Bill Morgan and Marilyn
Salzl Brinkman, Light from the Hearth: Central Minnesota Pioneers and Early Architecture
(St. Cloud: North Star Press, 1982), 60. See endnote 41, Dr. Morgan measured planks
himself in April 1981.)
(Note that quite a bit of the existing written materials on the Fox House is conflicting and
incorrect. The text for the outdoor panel, which states "the 2-inch thick and 14-inch wide
planks fit into an indentation in the sill..." is incorrect. Also note that the "Fox House
Interpretive Manual" by Lois Gaetz, is confusing on this detail: The manual states, "These
planks formed the support, there are no corner posts, the boards are butted with the ends
reduced to tenons to fit into slots cut in the sills. Originally the boards were joined with
wooden pegs called treenails (trunnels). Planks in the Fox house are joined with cut nails.
The second floor planks are attached to another horizontal board, called a plate, in the same
way as the first floor planks. The attic plate, requiring less load bearing strength was pegged
to second floor planks."p. 3—There is no attic above the second floor. The National Register
Nomination also misstates the width of the planks.)
Plaster
Vernon Bailey said that when his family came to Bailey Station between Elk River and Big
Lake in 1870, "Father and Charles found plenty of work at plastering and brick and stone
laying at what seemed enormous wages, three dollars a day, when ordinary labor brought
about one dollar a day." (Vernon Bailey, "The Hiram Bailey Family, Pioneers of America
and Early Settlers of the Middle West," typescript, SCHS, 16)
When the builders completed installing the walls and roofing the Fox House, they were ready
to start finishing the interior. They nailed one -inch furring strips to the vertical planks, then
nailed lath to the furring strips. Now they were ready to plaster the walls. The Fox House
interior was finished with historic three -coat wet plaster.
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 98
With the relative ease of working with dry wall today, the process of applying three -coat wet
plaster is almost a lost art. While it takes some expertise to apply properly, three -coat plaster
is an excellent interior finish. It is strong and durable, but can be repaired with relative ease
when needed. It can be left natural, or painted, whitewashed, or wallpapered over. It retards
fire and reduces noise. Wet plaster was an indispensable product for early construction.
Historically, plasterers used lime plaster made from lime, aggregate, fiber, and water. Lime
could be purchased or made by grinding and heating limestone or seashells. The aggregate
used was sand, and the fiber was generally horse or cattle hair or hog bristle.
(Mary Lee MacDonald, "Repairing Historic Flat Plaster: Walls and Ceilings," Preservation
Briefs 21, Technical Preservation Services, National Park Service,
http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/tps/briefs/brief2l.htm, accessed April 20, 2005, 1-3.)
Illustrations of the process wlih captions, something like this.
1. In applying plaster, the first step is to combine the lime and water. This is called
"slaking" or "hydrating" the lime. The process of hydrating creates heat, and the mixture
should set until it has cooled down. Next, the lime is combined with sand and animal
hair.
2. The first two coats are rough coats. The first coat is often referred to as the "scratch
coat." It is laid down in a 3/8-inch thick layer, then scratched with a special steel comb to
give it a rough surface, which will improve adhesion. The next coat is called the brown
coat. It is also laid down in a 3/8-inch thick layer, but the surface of this coat is not
scratched.
A different mixture is used for the final coat, with little aggregate and no fiber. It is
mixed into a paste before being applied as a smooth 1/8-inch layer.
Log Structures
"Mr. Sturgis house is constructed of tamarack logs. It resembled, when seen from a distance
on the prairie, a two-story framed house an optical illusion common to the prairies of the
West. The buildings and fences of this section of the country are composed principally of
tamarack poles." The Sturgis farm was on the bank of the Elk River, three and a half miles
west of Briggs Lake. (E. Seymoure, Sketches of Minnesota, 1849, quoted in Anderson, 28)
Log houses were probably the most common structures built by settlers in Sherburne County
between 1850 and 1900. Swedes and Finns introduced log structures into America in 1638.
Other ethnic groups spread log construction techniques throughout the frontier as they moved
westward. Yankees adopted log construction and modified it for their own purposes. As a
result, many New Englanders built log structures as "temporary" structures that they intended
to replace once they became established. Many European immigrants, on the other hand,
looked at log structures as more permanent structures. When central Minnesota was settled
between the 1850s and 1880s, many European immigrants transplanted their ethnic building
traditions directly to Sherburne County. As a result, these structures and the techniques the
builders used are rare evidence of ancient European traditions. Log construction was
particularly popular among Northern Europeans, and the Scandinavian immigrants who came
to Sherburne County, for instance, filled the county with log homes. (Bill Morgan and
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 99
Marilyn Salzl Brinkman, Light from the Hearth: Central Minnesota Pioneers and Early
Architecture (St. Cloud: North Star Press, 1982, 43-46.)
One of the keys to the stability of log structures and an important diagnostic tool for
identifying the builder's ethnic background is how logs were notched on the corners to bind
the walls together as a framework. There were four notching techniques used in central
Minnesota. The most common notch in central Minnesota was the half -dovetail. The half -
dovetail originated in Czechoslovakia and used throughout North America. It was an
extremely stable, effective, and attractive method for joining logs. It was used to join large
logs that were hewn square, often oak cut from the oak savannas in the county. The saddle
notch was one of the most ancient forms of notching, introduced by German and Swedes. It
was used to join round logs that had not been squared. This is the most common notch style
for structures made from the tamarack logs cut in the swamps of Sherburne County. The
square notch was a Bohemian tradition that was a variant of the half -dovetail. The square
notch was not as effective in holding logs together, so it was often combined with a nailing
system, partly defeating the purpose of log construction. The double -notch is a variant of the
saddle that uses a saddle -notch with a square -notch. The double -notch probably came with
the Finnish settlers. (For the notching history in central Minnesota and the primary
documentation for this section, see Bill Morgan and Marilyn Salzl Brinkman, Light from the
Hearth: Central Minnesota Pioneers and Early Architecture (St. Cloud: North Star Press,
1982), 47-48; John Rempel, Building with Wood, and Other Aspects of Nineteenth -Century
Building in Central Canada, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, first edition, 1967,
revised edition 1980), 25-57)
Chinking and daubing were important keys to making log structures durable.and
weatherproof. Since wood expands and contracts with changing temperatures, all log homes
were prone to draftiness and sometimes leaked. Good chinking and daubing was essential to
eliminate drafts and leaks. Builders "chinked," or filled, the spaces between logs with small
pieces of wood, mud, clay, moss, oakum, saplings, stones, or anything else that came to
hand. Then to seal and finish the spaces, they "daubed" over the chinking with a wet lime
plaster or mud mix. Daubing could consist of several different materials and proportions. A
common mixture was 6 parts sand and 4 parts lime, mixed in water to create a mortar paste.
Many builders added hair or straw to bind the mortar together and prevent cracking. By the
late 19tb century, builders were mixing in Portland Cement to make a hard, fast -drying
surface. But since Portland Cement shrinks as it dries and is rigid, not moving with the
shrinking and swelling of the logs like lime mortar does, it is not a good daubing material,
unless used at a ratio of about one part Portland Cement to four parts lime. (Bruce B.
Bomberger, The Preservation and Repair of Historic Log Buildings," Preservation Briefs 26,
http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/tps/briefs/brief26.htm, accessed April 20, 2005; plus years of
personal experience as director of Old World Wisconsin by the author.)
(For documentation of tools, see Bill Morgan and Marilyn Salz1 Brinkman, Light from the
Hearth: Central Minnesota Pioneers and Early Architecture (St. Cloud: North Star Press,
1982), 40; Chapter 10 "Woodworking Tools," in John Rempel, Building with Wood, and
Other Aspects of Nineteenth -Century Building in Central Canada, (Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, first edition, 1967, revised edition 1980, 359-388; Charles McRaven, "Tools
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 100
of the Trade," Muir's Original Log Structures Restoration Guide for Builders and Buyers,
#1," ed. Alan Pape, no date, 104-5.)
Theme statement
Theme 1: People searching for opportunities have always recognized the unique resources of
Sherburne County.
Subtheme 1.1. People from all over the world chose to make Sherburne County their
home; their values shape our communities today.
Theme 2: Being on the edge where three ecological land types meet enabled easy
transportation and access to natural resources and economic resources.
Subtheme 2.3. Trails, roads, and rails developed in the corridor along the edge of the
Mississippi River, prairie, pine forest, and deciduous forest.
Subtheme 2.5. Located on the edge of the Anoka Sandplain, the soils of Sherburne
County were generally sandy and drought -prone, with poor fertility and agricultural
productivity.
Contemporary visitor relevance
1. Teachers ranked how historic buildings were constructed among the lower half of
subjects that would help meet their curriculum needs.
2. Members indicated mild interest in how historic buildings were constructed.
3. A couple respondents to the Intercept Survey did mention historic architecture, but
historic construction techniques were not "top of the mind" subject areas for most
respondents.
4. In spite of this audience response, the major significance of the Fox House is its vertical
plank construction. In addition, the remote location of the Fox House makes it difficult to
provide security for valuable collections. The lack of operating resources makes it
impossible to provide regular living history interpretation for the house. As a result, it is
recommended that SCHS use historic construction techniques in a "passive" exhibit
format as the primary interpretive technique for the Fox House.
5. The existing outdoor panels address other topics our surveys have indicated people have
more interest in: pioneer life, early agriculture, and families.
Desired Learner Outcomes:
l . Some visitors will describe why the Fox House is an important structure in Minnesota.
(cognitive)
2. Some visitors will recall at least two different notching systems that helped hold log
buildings together. (cognitive)
3. Some visitors will explain the steps involved in historic plastering. (cognitive)
4. Some visitors will construct a model of a historic log building and fit notches together.
(psychomotor)
Visitor Experience
General Recommendations
The small pantry room is too small for practical use and should be used for storage purposes.
The basement and upstairs cannot be made accessible, so these areas should also be used for
storage purposes. To provide a more convincing historic environment for these exhibits, I
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 101
recommend putting a smooth skim coat on the existing surface, which resembles "sand paint"
on modern drywall. Due to the isolation and unlikely staffing of this area, the exhibit should
utilize secure formal exhibit methods only. No artifacts, other than the building itself, should
be used in the exhibit, but instead photos, text, and reproductions should be used. Some
portions of the exhibit may need to be enclosed in Plexiglas for protection.
Existing Outdoor Panels
Four existing outdoor interpretive panels at the present location of the Fox House will be
moved to its new location. The topics of these four panels are 1.) The Fox Family; 2.)
Settling in Sherburne County; and 3.) A New Home for an Old House; and 4.) A Unique
House. It makes sense not to repeat this information inside the house. The information should
be reviewed to verify its accuracy. The "Unique House" panel does contain some factual
errors.
General Purpose Room
Plank Construction (short exterior wall of large room)
Expose a section of about three planks from floor to ceiling to allow visitors to see how the
house was constructed. As they look at the interior planks, nearby panels will provide visitors
with information, original graphic art, and photographs of the Fox House, and other
comparable vertical plank houses. (See Stephen B. Jordan, Old House Journal, May -June
1993, 38, for example of graphic art.) The intent of the art should be to highlight the different
types of plank house construction, particularly in how the planks attach to the sill and roof
plate. It should also be apparent from the art how the second floor joists are supported
Plaster (long exterior wall of large room)
Remove the existing dry wall and expose the lath on a section of wall about three feet by ten
feet, beginning at about three feet high. Divide up this area into two -foot sections. On one
two -foot section, leave the lath visible, ready to receive the plaster. On the second, third, and
fourth sections, apply a scratch coat. On the third and fourth sections, apply a brown coat. On
the fourth section apply a finish coat. Leave the lath open again on the fifth section. You may
need to protect the plaster with Plexiglas to avoid having it picked apart.
Visitors will view this progressive illustration of historic three -layer plaster, along with
photographs of the tools used in each stage and text and captions beneath each phase of
plastering.
Log Construction (short exterior wall of large room and bedroom)
Part 1
This exhibit section will consist of two parts. One part will be five or six hewn logs laid one
upon another as they would be in a log home and supported and enclosed by a frame. The
logs should be chinked with wood, small stones, or other appropriate material. Square nails
should be nailed on the inside edges of the logs in the gap between logs to serve as additional
binding keys for the mortar mix. On one-half of this log frame, daubing should be added.
Visitors will see the exhibit, and view photos of historic daubing, and read text composed of
materials indicated in the story section. Visitors will also view photographs of the historic
tools used in log construction, along with captions identifying their use.
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 102
Part 2--Bedroom
This portion of the log construction exhibit will be in the nearby bedroom. The bedroom
component will contain actual examples of the four major log -notching systems used in
central Minnesota. These examples may be salvaged historical examples, or they may be
recreated for educational purposes. Salvaged historical examples are preferred. Photographs
of each historic notching style will accompany the notching.
(Lighting issues will need special consideration in the Fox House, and tract lighting on the
ceiling may be necessary to make the exhibits readable.)
Nearby Fox House
Create a gravel pad for an activity with a "pre -fabricated" log home that families or groups
can assemble on their own without supervision. This would be a larger version of the famous
"Lincoln Logs," but one that is still only room size —say 8 x 8 or 10 x 10 feet. Made of
tamarack round logs the log ends should be saddle -notched for easy assembly. If desired, you
could also have a small model of squared hewn oak logs with half -dovetail notches to
provide a comparison of the two types of log homes. The logs should cut to a dimension that
is reasonable for two sixth grade children to handle. Either model should be designed with a
window and door opening. The sidewalls should be sufficient. It is not necessary to create a
roof framing system and the more difficult gable ends to help people understand the process
of joining a log home. A small outdoor panel should provide instructions for parents or group
leaders about what to do and to disassemble and stack the walls after they are done.
This gravel pad would be a good location for special events or workshops on historic log
construction, notching, plastering, or other events.
Differing Points of View
1. Some people may want to see a fully furnished "pioneer" home.
Iconic object/media/activities: The Fox House itself is the iconic object here.
Additional media and activities to tell the story (objects, film, images, sound, etc.)
1. MHS photo of Robert Orrock log home, 1857, Location E200 p 37, Negative no. 910
2. 1990.200.389 photo of John Black's log house, 1890, Black's swamp west of Lake
Mitchell
3. Review Fox House photos and select best ones for inclusion in exhibit section.
4. Photos of tools for plastering: see Mary Lee MacDonald, "Repairing Historic Flat Plaster:
Walls and Ceilings," Preservation Briefs 21, Technical Preservation Services, National
Park Service, http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/tps/briefs/brief2l.htm, accessed April 20, 2005.
5. Active collecting: 4 or 5 foot sections of 4 or 5 logs from tamarack log building in
Sherburne County. (If not available, make reproduction.)
6. Photos of tools used for log working, especially felling axe, adze, broadax, drawshave,
augur, chisels, mortising chisel, mallet, froe, prybar.
7. Collect historic examples of the. four major log -notching systems in central Minnesota:
square -notch; saddle -notch (single and double); double -notch; half dovetail.
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 103
Photos of area log homes exhibiting historic construction methods. ( I suggest seeking
permission to reprint several photos from the Morgan, Brinkman book Light from the
Hearth.)
Appendix 1: Community Planning Team Themes and
Stories
Interpretive Themes for SCHS Heritage Center
Main Idea: Sherburne County's distinctive location on the edge of three major ecosystems
continues to shape the lives of its people, just as its people continue to shape the land.
Major themes and subthemes emerge from the main idea. Together with the main idea, these
theme statements will help guide interpretation at the Heritage Center.
Topics and Themes
Topic 1: People
Theme 1: People searching for opportunities have always recognized the unique resources of
Sherburne County.
• Subtheme 1.1. People from allover the world chose to make Sherburne County their home; their
values shape our communities today.
1. Ancient ancestors/Indian tribes
2. Famous tourists
3. First families
4. Connections past to present
5. Diversity of immigration (past and present)
6. Values (education, religion, conservation)
7. Traditions (diversity)
Potential Stories
1. Shoot for in-depth and representative stories, rather than lots of small stories
2. Maine -staters started mills—Ard Godfrey
3. Yankee townsite developers —Wheeler, Kelley and Itasca
4. 1772 and 1773 Ojibwey-Dakota skirmishes at Mississippi and Elk (see William Warren)
5. Ox cart, Selkirkers
6. Father Hennepin
7. Vernon Bailey, a naturalist from Sherburne County who became a national leader in conservation
8. Indian burning
9. Zebulon Pike, 1805, journal entries on area from Crow River to Becker
10. Hungarian settlement, ca. 1900, settled poor, cheap land, north of Elk River to Zimmerman, Betty
Bowdner Belanger, local historian has done much research
11. Knapp letters, 1870s, private collection in Big lake, but available, extremely detailed
12. Will Holt Diary, 1870-1880, SCHS has copies
13. Swedes, Samuel Alden Johnson has eggs, milk, butter
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 104
14. Cox family stories
15. Stueve family-1920s—owned former farmstead now ruins on property
16. Jacob Clitty Family later owned former farmstead now ruins on property; family history available
17. Galbraith probate of late 19th century excellent source, very detailed
18. Carol Bloomdahl's grandfather's story. He was an immigrant who migrated to Nebraska to farm
in the summer.
19.. Babcock stories
20. Perry Jones, a mulatto barber who worked in Elk River from 1886-1945; have photos and family
oral histories available
21. The Gruepner shoe store in Elk River made specialty shoes for log rollers who worked the log
jams in the Mississippi near Elk River
22. Wagner Family, the Methodist Church has the Wagner Family name on stained glass windows
Topic 2: Place
Theme 2: Being on the edge where three ecological land types meet enabled easy transportation and
access to natural resources and economic resources.
Subtheme 2.1. Indian tribes recognized that the area that later became Sherburne County was
strategically located on the edge of woodlands, prairie, and the Mississippi River, and the area
became a contested borderland between the Ojibwe and Dakota people.
Subtheme 2.2. Living on the edge of metro area, pineries, and western wheat fields provided access
for Sherburne County people to metro markets and jobs in other areas.
Subtheme 2.3. Trails, roads, and rails developed in the corridor along the edge of the Mississippi
River, prairie, pine forest, and deciduous forest.
Subtheme 2.4. Sherburne County's edge landscape included plentiful lakes, wetlands, and abundant
wildlife that have been key to the areas' history and development.
Topic 2: Place/Edge Subtopics
1. Rivers
2. Agriculture (truck crops on marginal land)
3. Transportation
4. Glacial (gravel, sand)
5. Natural history
6. Edge zones of climate
7. Oak savanna
8. Unusual amount of remnant prairie due to marginal farmland
9. Rural/urban edge
10. Waterways
11. Resort
12. Edges within edge (market areas on edges split county)
13. Trash
14. Recycling (RDF, fly ash, concrete)
15. Ice industry
16. Farmers rented horses to logging camps
17. Wild hay sold in Twin Cities
18. Farmers worked in pineries and threshed in the western prairies
19. Seed corn MN 13 and Whitecap Yellow Dent developed here due to early planting in sand
20. Ojibwe/Dakota no-man's land between their tribal claims to territory
Topic 2: Place/Edge Stories
1. Resort community
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 105
a. Camp Cozy had a dance hall and began developing a Dells -type resort with water flumes,
etc. Created on oxbows of the Elk River in 1920s. Project never fully realized. photos
available
2. Dance halls
a. Big Lake Pavilion
i. Penny arcade
ii. Different kinds of music on different days
iii. Engstrom first date photo, July 4, 1928
3. Products in, tourists out
4. Transportation
a. Kids carpooled to go to high school in early years, because no bus picked them up
b. Many other kids boarded in town during the school term
5. Agriculture
a. truck crops: the Engstrom potato cellar
b. Christmas trees
c. Engstrom potato saxophone —saxophone bought with money saved from potatoes; one of
first saxes in area and many used it
d. Strawberries
e. Indian Springs Medical Water Co. was a natural resource harvested and sold
6. Agriculture (supplemental incomes common due to marginal farmland)
a. Farmers sought winter work in pineries and harvest season threshing in Red River Valley
b. Engstrom 1944 egg route in Twin Cities
i. Carcasses of muskrats were hung in coop, so chickens could eat protein and
provide fresh eggs in winter when many chickens quit laying eggs
(resourcefulness)
c. Farmers carpooled into Twin Cities in early years to supplement their incomes, ca. WW
lI
7. Conservation
a. 4-H director Ella Kringlund, Enoch Bjuge, County Agent
b. Sand Dunes State Park (Ella Kringlund very involved in its development)
c. Sherburne County Wildlife Refuge very controversial when created
d. Cox story and Conservation Plan
e. Gardner Graham started Bill Cox with trees
f. Most trees planted in rows
g. Bill Cox first planting in oak savanna area was with mixed species: caragana shrub, plum,
elm, cottonwood, jack pine, white pine, and red pine
i. Cambridge soil conservation office has tree planter used in Sand Dunes Forest
h. Sherburne County Conservation Club
i. Oral history of blowing sand
j. Bank sponsored tree planting
k. Hunting —group rabbit hunts in county, other hunting stories
1. Trapping stories in area; trapping provided important supplemental income. Archie
Larson was a fur buyer; Arnie Engstrom used money derived from trapping gophers to
buy his first roller skates (self-reliance and resourcefulness in area with poor farmland)
in. Don't forget birds as important area of focus for many people
8. Early history of communities
a. Big Lake was Humboldt
b. Becker was Pleasant Valley
c. Elk River's current motto is "Where City and Country Flow Together" —edge motto
d. Other early communities that evolved
9. Local sports/entertainment
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 106
a. Baseball was the focus of local sports; Orrock, Big Lake, Elk River, Becker all had teams
b. Community band was important; always played to send local soldiers off to war.
10. Ojibwe/Dakota no-man's land
a. Sherburne County was included in first land in Minnesota available for settlement that
was ceded by Indian Treaty (1837). Prior to that only the Ft. Snelling Reservation
military purchase by Pike (1805).
b. It was the edge between both tribes, often the site of skirmishes, was within area or
nearby where government located Winnebago and Menominee to buffer two larger tribes
and reduce tension
Topic 3: Power
Theme 3: Sherburne County has been and continues to be a pioneering place in the development and
generation of electrical energy.
Subtheme 3.1. Sherburne County provides energy for a vast region using multiple fuels.
Subtheme 3.2. Energy generating facilities create local employment and tax revenue, but also cause
social and environmental problems.
Topic 3: Power Subtopics
2. Energy (REA, wind, nuclear, water, coal)
3. Logging
4. Mill
5. Transportation (Ox cart trail, military road, North Star Corridor)
6. Government
7. Conservation/preservation movement
8. River is a corridor for power plants
Topic 3: Power Stories
1. Ard Godfrey built dam and sawmill in Elk River 1851 (Orono)
2. REA oral histories, impact of electrification
3. RDF process —an edge activity that processes urban garbage
4.. Power plants and controversies; jobs and development vs. social and environmental concerns
5. Nuclear plant —no controversy-2nd in US; 15t in US rural area; Atom Cafe in Elk River; role of
community boosterism
6. Marketing slogans and mascots of power plants; use radio and TV ads Redy Kilowat, Willy
Wired Hand
7. Engstrom's first TV in SCH collection
8. Elk River designated Energy City by Minnesota Energy Iniative
9. 0 1990.056.001 Meadowvale Rural Telephone Company Secretary's Journal, minutes of
Meadowvale Rural Telephone Company, 1905-1962
10. 0 1990.058.001 Haven Rural Telephone Co. Account Book, 19244955, credits and debits
11. 0 1990.058.002-011 Haven Rural Telephone Co. documents 1919+, by-laws; memorandum of
agreement with NSP and Haven Rural Telephone Co.
12. 0 1990.038.007 Dietz Little Wizard Kerosene Lantern, "barn lantern"
13. 0 1990.000.347 Plat of the Village of Elk River Minn., Feb-1922 Legend has vigal statistics and
dates of first electricity, telephones, and city water.
Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 107
:L
FLK RAIyrR
ELK RIVER TWP.
.Seale• 400 reel -l i,,d,
Atlas of Sherburne County, 1903. (Sherburne County Historical Society)
Table of Contents
Chapter I
Historic Contexts
Introduction 1
1. Landscape Setting, ca.1848-1950 3
2. Agriculture,1850-1950 7
3. Transportation,1848-1950 13
4. Industry and Commerce,1851-1950 19
5. Residential Architecture,1851-1920 29
6. Schools, Churches, and Local Institutions,1857-1920 32
Endnotes
Bibliography
(in final draft)
Chapter II
Phase H Inventory
Findings
Inventory Forms
Chapter I
Elk River Historic Contexts and Phase II Inventory
Introduction
This two-part study was commissioned by the Elk River Heritage Preservation
Commission and the Elk River Housing and Redevelopment Authority in 2002. It was
conducted by Carole Zellie of Landscape Research. The results of the contexts study will
provide a framework for long-range heritage preservation planning in the community.
The Phase II inventory will assist in current planning for downtown development.
Report Organization
Chapter I of the draft Historic Resources Study includes six Elk River historic contexts
that analyze the historical and architectural development of the community. The
contexts begin with permanent Euro-American settlement in the 1850s and extend to
about 1950. Chapter II contains the results of the intensive survey of the downtown
commercial area and an inventory map.
Methods
The research was based on a variety of materials including published histories such as
N.H. Winchell's History of the Upper Mississippi Valley (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.
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 information including base maps.
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 Ard
Godfrey, John Q. A. Nickerson, W.H. Houlton, and Charles Babcock.
A general windshield survey of the City of Elk River accompanied the development of
the historic contexts. Fieldwork in the 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
Lumbering, Agriculture, and Transportation developed by the Minnesota State Historic
Preservation Office (SHPO).
When combined with a comprehensive 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, ca. 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 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 H. Kelley Farm is the only Elk River property
currently listed on the National Register.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002
2
Elk River Historic Context:
Landscape Setting,
1851-1950
This historic context extends from the construction of the first dam on the Elk River to
the approximate completion of Highway 10.
The Elk River and its confluence with the Mississippi were a well known locale to
Indians, fur traders and explorers for centuries before permanent Euro-American
settlement.
Elk River is located in east central Minnesota in Sherburne County, about 125 miles
south of Duluth and 30 miles north of Minneapolis. Sherburne County was set off from
Benton County in 1856, two years before Minnesota statehood. Highways 10 and 169
intersect south of the downtown, and the Highway 101 bridge crosses the Mississippi
River to Wright County. The Highway 10 bridge crosses the Elk River across a narrows
in Lake Orono. The present incorporated limits of Elk River encompass 44 square miles
including the former townsites of Orono and Elk River, as well as what was Elk River
Township until its incorporation in 1978.
The early townsites were platted on the north bank of the Elk River, which flows
through Lake Orono northwest of the present city center. The Elk originates in northern
Benton County and has a discharge of about 250 cubic feet per second at Orono Lake,
comparable to that of the Sauk River where it enters the Mississippi. 2 Near its
confluence with the Elk, the Mississippi River makes a sharp bend and is flanked by
steep bluffs and marshes. The river divides Sherburne and Wright counties at this point.
Construction of the Highway 10 bridge over the Elk River, 1940. Photo: MHS.
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,
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002
translated as Double river, or b Allen as Parallel river, alluding to its course nearly
parallel with the Mississippi. " 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
prairies. 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' 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, shallow lakes, such as Twin Lakes in Section 24 and Eagle Lake in Section
13. Small ponds persisted within the Elk River townsit after settlement. One was located
at Princeton and Main streets and another at Minnesota and Main.
The steep bluffs, 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 Godrey 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 sawmilling 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 generators 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.'
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.'
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002
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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 other
locales of note. Houlton Siding is discussed below. Meadow Vale 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 771h and
Ridgewood Drive was built by W.H. Houlton to provide a view of the landscape and
eight counties. s (Also: Hastings and others.)
Preservation Planning Summary:
Landscape Setting
Inventoried Resources
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 4/2002 5
No specific landscape features were inventoried.
Recommendation(s)
1. Continue to research and interpret the relationship between the natural landscape,
early settlement, agriculture, and residential development of Elk River.
-AIL-
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Elk River, 1971. Photo: MHS.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002 6
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'
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 millsites and townsites. Within fifteen years
after the first farmers settled in Elk River, the railroad provided a wide market for
agricultural products. This context encompasses the creation of the first Elk River farm
in 1850 through the post -World War 11 period when the rural population continued an
exodus to urban centers.
Pioneer Settlement
- - • ry ..tip
Farm near Elk River in 1919. Photo: MHS.
An estimated twenty farms were established in Benton County in 1850, which then
included present day Sherburne County.10 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 Cannon 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. Agricultural journals
and societies assisted farmers in finding the best crops suited to their land. The Benton
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002
7
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
claimed acreage in Section 33 that included frontage on the Elk River and a promising
mill site immediately noticed by Ard Godfrey and John G. Jameson, and purchased by
them in 1851. In 1855, the townsite of Orono was platted 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). By1900, more
Germans and farmers from Norway and Sweden were represented, but the community's
roots were still predominantly in New England. 12 Some farmers found winter work in
the lumber camps of Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. Elk River's Hungarian colony
was founded by he 1890s by John, Martin and Andrew Fazekas. Arriving in the United
States in 1881, they arrived in Elk River in the late 1880s and John purchased a farm in
Section 10 in the hilly northern part 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."
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Northeastern Elk River Township in 1903 shows Hungarian family farms.
Atlas of Sherburne County.
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 -
nineteenth century. It was a response to farmer's struggles with new technology and
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002
0
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).15 The Kelley family owned the farm until 1901, although Oliver left
Minnesota in the late1860s to pursue Grange activities. The Grange purchased the farm
in 1935 and donated it to the Minnesota Historical Society in 1961.
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
counties to the west." A total of eighty-two percent were operated by owners.18
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 farmers appear to have followed the general pattern of an initial
reliance on 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 farmers. By 1880, the leading grain
crop was wheat, followed by oats, corn, rye, and buckwheat. Potatoes were the leading
produce crop, with over 4,000 bushels produced. "
The sandy soils of Elk River Township have long favored potato and rye cultivation. In
the mid-1880s, a specialized potato district developed north of the Twin Cities, with
markets as far as New England and the South. Starch factories were also a by-product of
the potato industry. 20
Elk River potato warehouse, ca. 1900. Photo: MHS.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 4/2002
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
since 1920 has also supported produce distribution by truck.
This structure on Highway 10 is among possible survivors of
potato and produce warehousing. Photo 2002.
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 by across the
township. By 1900, there were 5,908 dairy cattle in Sherburne County, a number that
increased to 7,258 in 1910.22 (By comparison, Stearnes County boasted 36,272) dairy
cattle.)'
The Houlton and Nickerson families led the local dairy business. Henry Nickerson built
a farm in 1878 at 436 3`d 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. Houltori s 3,000-acre farm at Houlton
Siding included "400 head shorthorn of registered stock and sixty angora goats for
clearing brush".24 Henry C. Hastings, who was also County Treasurer, owned a cattle
business. He operated the Elk River Cattle Company, which had 600 head of cattle, on
his 600-acre farm.'
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 4/2002
.,
10
tp
Threshing on the Specht family farm, 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 cooperative was incorporated in 1889. In 1918, the creamery was leased to
the Twin Cities 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 Highway and Main Street. 27 The association felt that it was an ideal spot for a
The Twin City Milk Producer's Association Creamery in ca. 1925. Photo: MHS.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002
11
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." 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, as well as a tavern and 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 an important new addition to agricultural
production.
Preservation'Planning Summary:
Agriculture
Inventoried Resources
Several farmsteads were inventoried in Elk River Township in previous windshield
surveys. Within the Elk River, the few 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 is 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 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 not known.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002
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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 Orion 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 themid-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). ai
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 Auditors 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. 3'3 .
Following the routes of explorers and traders, those seeking good waterpower sites were
attracted to the Falls of St. Anthony as well as other sites 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 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.
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Ferry at Elk River in about 1900. Photo: MHS.
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.' 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 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 service. The railroad company was formed in 1862 and first built a line from
St. Paul to St. Anthony. ' The line to Elk River was completed in 1864, and reached Sauk
Rapids in 1867. 37 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. ss
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 to St. Paul in
1869 were "cattle, hay, feed, deer, hides, eggs and cranberries.i39
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 company was purchased by the Great Northern Railway Company. 40 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.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 4/2002
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By 1860, a system of rough township and county roads linked Elk River to Princeton to
the north and to Big Lake at the west, and to Anoka and points south 41 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
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, electrification and other municipal utilities and road construction were primary
topics. 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 and in 1905, the
Minnesota Highway Commission was created to plan local highway improvements and
approve the design of state funded projects, including adopting 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. as
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 to promote the growing interest in automobile
touring.' The concrete paved highway used Depot, Main and Fourth streets. The new
road carried much of the county's westbound traffic, and also to the north bound traffic
on Highway 169, which branched form the Jefferson Highway at Elk River. The
concrete Elk River Bridge over the Elk River was part of this improvement, replacing the
1884 metal -truss bridge. By 1928, a variety of implement dealers, elevators and feed
mills, potato and produce warehouses, the Houlton lumberyard, and gasoline filling
stations lined the highway.
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The Jefferson Highway on the eve of construction of Highway 10, 1941. Photo: MHS.
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,
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 .. 4s
The author was speculating on the potential of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to
widen and deepen the Upper Mississippi, seeing 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.
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 19xx.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002
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Elk River roadside development on an unidentified section of Highway 10 in 1950. Photo: MHS.
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 probably over Godfrey's dam, which was of simple
crib and boulder construction.46 A bridge over the Elk River was built in Orono in 1860.
47In 1886 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 and 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. '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 first completed in the late
1940s. 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.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002
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ep
The steel bridge and the Elk River, ca. 1925. Photo: MHS.
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. 50 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 4/2002
1.
18
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.
S�)
7f
}- yr- -•. -
A r.
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 Townsites 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 "
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), Liberty (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 were named
for Godfrey's wife and daughter, as well as Elk, Merchants, Minnehaha and Hiawatha.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002
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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. ' 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. ss 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 1869.57
. By1899, there were two general stores anda 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 Company's sawmill. While Godfrey provided the dam and early mills, it was
W.H. Houlton's flour and lumber businesses that would persist at this location for
several generations. 58
Elk River
Riverside Hotel, Main Street about 1900. Photo: MHS.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002
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Orono was a successful if small mill center, but the arrival of the railroad encouraged
growth to the south in what was known as Lowertown. Elk River was not platted until
1865, then replatted in 1868, and incorporated in 1880-81.59 The original plat was made
by O.E. Garrison for J.Q. A Nickerson. The incorporation included the townsite of
Orono. Interest in the Elk River as a location for commerce began in the 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, dwelling and a barn and stables. The building burned in 1907. (This is now the
First National Bank of Elk River site.) Photographs of ca. 1900 show it as a simple two-
story, gable -roofed structure with a one- story wing.
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.
Many Main Streets have suffered fires, but Elk River has had at least four major
conflagrations. In 1887 a fire destroyed Uppertown mills and businesses. In 1898
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002
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thirteen buildings were destroyed on State Street. 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. 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.
-�r•tl�ti �=�•t;� .�- .: :.�:;��'''�•_y Wit:,=� _ ;� �; _ ,� � .. � .,_ � .
a .s,a=.a+'fi�rC,:e���-.. :��-";r3.an� �e+^z�.."-��-�.��.�-'t-r..^:Y`^:►s�:G�-cs+�s�w-�.�..._
The Houlton Block and Jackson Street, ca. 1910. Photo: MHS.
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
telephone exchange, which was installed in 1902, was 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 demolished a portion of Jackson Street, including the handsome Babcock Store.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002
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Jackson Street, 2002. The Houlton Block is at left.
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 generally persistent group,
with several 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 was 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 4/2002 23
The 1884 steel bridge and the EIk 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. Sawmilling 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.
llie 16YU rederal Lensus retorted six industrial concerns in talk liver:
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
By 1880, the early mills had been enlarged or replaced. The census reported the
following:
H. Houlton
Mills and Houlton
Mills and Houlton
George Crocker
Eddy Dickey
Henry Galley
John G. Jameson
Featherston and Co.
Heebner and Co.
Saw Mill
$25,000
Saw Mill
7,000
Flour Mill
$50,000
Blacksmith
100
Carriages
600
Chairs
1,000
Blacksmith
300
Cooper shop
3,000
Tin and Ironware
1,000
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002 24
Baltzell and Son
John M. Crockett
John G. Jameson
Thomas and Squires
Sawmills
Mills and Houlton Lumber Mill
furniture Maker
Tin and Ironware
Blacksmith and Carriages
Blacksmith Shop
600
500
3,000
100
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. 60 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 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 (Timeline book says another fire in 1893?)
The Houlton Sawmill on the Mississippi. Photo: MHS
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002
25
t�
e%
Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
El
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
641-47 Main Street is typical of Elk River's smaller commercial buildings.
Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
Address: 641 Main Street
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory #: pending
Historic Name:
Current Name: Nextel Cell Phone
Builder / Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant: Sherburne County Farm Bureau
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: ca.1920?
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 Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
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 fagade is
completely covered by a new brick and wood fagade, capped by a wood shingled
mansard roof. It is not known how much of the original fagade 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 fagade 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 Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
Address: 705 Main Street
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory t 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: March 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie / Landscape Research
Photo: 15
Property Number: 15
Description
This one-story brick building has a fagade completely clad in wood with no openings.
Significance
This property has no apparent historic significance and no integrity.
Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
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 fagade survives behind the modernizations. The historic building under the
fagade alterations was built in 1911, after a fire that destroyed this section of the
block: The Elk River Post Office was among the tenants. (??) 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.
I
Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
Address: 709-711 Main Street
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory #:
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 reclad 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 fagade survives behind the modernizations. The historic building under the
fagade alterations was built in 1911, after a fire that destroyed this section of the
block. The Elk River Post Office was among the tenants. 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 Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
HUULC,b: /1J 1V1sLL11 O11CCL
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 fagade survives behind the modernizations. The historic building under
the fagade alterations was built in 1911, after a fire that destroyed this section of the
block. The Elk River Post Office was among the tenants. 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 Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
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 fagade survives behind the modernizations. The historic building under the
facade alterations was built in 1911, after a fire that destroyed this section of the block.
The Elk River Post Office was among the tenants. 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 Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
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 fagade survives behind the modernizations. The historic building under the
fagade alterations was built in 1911, after a fire that destroyed this section of the block.
The Elk River Post Office was among the tenants. 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 Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
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, tan brick, flat roofed building has a central entry and modernized
facade.
Significance
This building has lost much historic integrity through modernization. It is typical of the
one-story buildings built along Main Street in the early twentieth century.
1\
Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
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
Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
Address: 322 Quincy Street
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory #: pending
Historic Name:
Current Name:
Builder / Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant: unknown
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: unknown
Date of Survey: March 2002
Photo: 23
Property Number: 23
Description
This one story building has a brown brick fagade 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
This building appears to have originally been used as an automotive facility. Despite
alterations the fagade retains good historic integrity.
Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
Address: 313 Jackson Street
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 a three -bay fagade 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.
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. During the May 1912
flood, the new flour mill was undermined, along with the dam and bridge. 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 (Timeline book:
1919 new flour mill?). A cooper shop manufactured barrels for the flour mill.
Starch Factories
Starch factories manufactured potato starch and provided Elk River area farmers with
another market for their produce. A factory was opened in 1890 by T.S. Nickerson, and
another in 1910 by C.H. Caley. About 1914 a factory was founded to manufacture boxes
for market crops.
Graves and Bailey Grain Elevator, Highway 10. Photo 2002.
Grain Elevators
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 Historic Contexts Study Draft 4/2002
26
1i
Elk River's flour milling on the Elk River ended with the devastating flood of 1912, and
sawmilling 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 Northfield and Hastings can 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
general decline of lumber and flour milling at the turn of the century.
William H. Houlton (1840-?) was native of Houlton Maine. ' 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.' 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, and was in the lumber business until the 1870s.
Electrification 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. "
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 412002
27
.r
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
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 4/2002
28
li
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.
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." 6' 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.
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.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002 29
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?)
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.
Frank T. White House in 1981. Photo: MHS.
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
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.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 4/2002 30
The development of Manor Place on the Mississippi riverbank in the 1920s included
several stylish Period Revival houses, including one for banker Charles Bade.
Preservation Planning Summary:
Residential Architecture
Inventoried Resources
Previous inventories include about thirty examples of residential architecture.
Recommendation(s)
1. Conduct a complete inventory of residential properties throughout the city.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 4/2002 31
Elk River Historic Context,
Schools, Churches and Local Institutions,1854-1920
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 a five -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 1933-34. It is now an
elementary school.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002 32
I�
Churches
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 River. The memorial
windows were dedicated in 1923. " The Meadowvale Church in Elk River township was
a branch of 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 erected in 1916 along the Jefferson Highway near Minnesota Street. 72
The Emmanuel German Lutheran Church was organized in 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 in 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 412002 33
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 until 19xx?
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 in 1995. Fraternal organizations and societies met.in 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.
The Sherburne County Courthouse in 1981. Photo: A4HS. Razed.
Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002 34
,N
Downtown Elk River, Minnesota
Phase II Historic Resources Inventory
April 2002
Draft
-_t
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. 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.
Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
nM15F:1+C.ar�
yanCnui
ermnc
_ _ .� �... ,......... Poi
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 on the east and south elevations. The corner bay appears to have been a later
addition, and all the bays were removed by 1955.
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.
Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
i
Address: 309 Jackson Street
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory #: pending
Historic Name: Johnson Clothing Store
Current Name: Antiques Downtown
Builder / Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant:
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: 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 in 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.
Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
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. Paule
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:
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 fagade. 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 fagade 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
r�
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.
401
• � � - �- -_may
Bank of Elk River (ca.1915). MHS photo negative #53717,1953.
Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
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:
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 Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
Address: Southeast corner, Jackson and Main Streets
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory #:
Historic Name: Jackson Square
Current Name: Parking Lot
Builder / Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant: City of Elk River
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: ca.1900
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie / Landscape Research
Photo:
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 Blanchett Hotel was at the southern edge. The
space was not improved until 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.
Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
Address: 657 Main Street
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory #: pending
Historic Name: Elk River Theater Q)
Current Name: Cinema Professional Bulding
Builder / Contractor:
Original Owner/Tenant:
Architect/Source:
Date of Original Construction: 1947 (or 1942)
Date of Survey: March 2002
Prepared by: Carole Zellie / Landscape Research
Photo: 7
Description:
This two-story building has a flat roof and is constructed of concrete block. The fagade is
covered in brick, wood paneling, and wood shingles. The appearance of the original
fagade 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.
.f 1
Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
6S3 ?
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:
Property Number: 8
Description
This one-story brick building has a modern stone fagade. 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
This building appears to have been constructed at about the same time as other one-
story commercial development on the block.
!t
Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
Address: 651 Main Street
PIN: Legal:
SHPO Inventory #:
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
Description
The former Royal Theatre is a two-story, brick -faced structure with a flat roof. The
building fagade 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.
Elk River Commercial District
Property Description and Significance
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.