The Swanson Dairy Farm was located at 578 Silver Lake Road. The farm house, built in 1914, still stands. The farm not only produced milk, but sold it directly to the consumer through milk routes in northeast Minneapolis.
Leone Aronson, a resident in the Rice Creek and Long Lake area of New Brighton, collected these Indian arrowheads through her childhood. A large Indian village is believed to have been located at the location prior to the Revolutionary War.
The Peder Foss home, located on Silver Lake Road in New Brighton, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Minnesota Historical Society stated that it recognized the Foss House as "historically and architecturally significant as the largest and most intact Victorian house" located in New Brighton. The home was built in 1896 and still stands today.
The Bulwer Junction depot, located on the south village limits of New Brighton, was a Soo Line depot, which was built in 1887, and was in service for 95 years. It was donated to the New Brighton Area Historical Society in 1982, was moved to Long Lake Park in 1990, and opened as the New Brighton History Center in 1993.
Bison bones were unearthed from a boggy area near a creek at Hansen Park in New Brighton by three boys, Steven Sullivan, Joe McHale, and Joe Evangelist. A neighbor, who was a geologist, identified the bones as from a bison, which lived sometime after the last glacier melted in the area some ten thousand years ago.
The Mounds' picturesque hills gave Mounds View Township and later the school district, high school and village their names. For many years a play area for youth, hikers, picnickers, and skiers, the Mounds were taken out of the public and private domain by the Army for the Twin Cities Arsenal in 1941 and has since been carved by the mining of its extremely high grade of sand and gravel. Pictured here is the excavation of the Arsenal Sand and Gravel Company which had produced 750,000 tons of sand and gravel per year. The buildings in the upper right perimeter of the photo are ammunition sheds from the Arsenal. Many area residents found employment at the Arsenal or gravel company.
A 1949 Packard was the first ambulance for the City of New Brighton. A group of local men organized to provide the vital ambulance service at a time when there were no hospitals in the local community. The vehicle sits in front of the New Brighton Fire Station, built in 1947.
Bell Lumber and Pole Company was formed in 1919 to treat telephone poles and lumber. This machine is called a perforator which perforates the lumber and telephone poles to allow the preserving chemicals to penetrate.
MacGillis & Gibbs Company workers with their horses as they transport telephone poles. The company specialized in the treatment, production and distribution of telephone poles beginning in 1919. The company employed many New Brighton men.
The Belt Line Brick Company operated a plant in New Brighton beginning in 1910. They ran the business on a 24 hours-per-day basis. Its operation slowed up in post-World War II years as the plant became outmoded. It was dismantled in 1961. The brick yard employed many New Brighton men.
Bell Lumber and Pole Yards began business in 1919 treating telephone poles and lumber. The company hired many local men and is still in business today. In mid-1980s, after being declared a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Bell began the process of cleaning up the hazardous chemicals on its property, spending over $10 million to do so and also to rebuild the plant to treat poles and lumber using environmentally clean processes. This panorama view shows the pole treating plant and the large telephone poles treated in the process.
Bell Lumber and Pole Yards began business in 1919, treating telephone poles and lumber. The company hired many local men and is still in business today. In mid-1980s, after being declared a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Bell began the process of cleaning up the hazardous chemicals on its property, spending over $10 million to do so and also to rebuild the plant to treat poles and lumber using environmentally clean processes. This panorama photo shows the pole treating plant and the large telephone poles treated in the process.
Bell Lumber and Pole Yards began business in 1919, treating telephone poles and lumber. The company hired many local men and is still in business today. In mid-1980s, after being declared a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Bell began the process of cleaning up the hazardous chemicals on its property, spending over $10 million to do so and also to rebuild the plant to treat poles and lumber using environmentally clean processes. This panorama photo shows the pole treating plant and the large telephone poles treated in the process.
William Perry and his family ran Lake Johanna beach facilities in present-day Arden Hills, consisting of concessions, boat and swimsuit rental, dance pavilion, and picnic area. Perry was the son of Mounds View Township founder Charles Perry.
William Perry, with his wife, Ida (DeMars), and their children, was the son of early Mounds View Township resident, Charles Perry, who settled the land around Lake Johanna in 1849. Charles, the son of Abraham and Mary Ann Perry, emigrated to America from Switzerland with his parents in 1817 to the Selkirk Colony in Canada and then to Fort Snelling in Saint Paul. Abraham and his family were some of the first settlers in Saint Paul. William operated the Lake Johanna beach in Arden Hills for many years.
William H. and Ottellia (Tillie) Schmalzbauer Devine are shown in this early automobile in New Brighton. Devine was superintendent of the Peoples Coal and Ice Company in New Brighton.
The William Crooks was the first locomotive to operate in Minnesota. Constructed in 1861, it provided service a year later for the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad, a company that eventually became part of the Great Northern Railway. James J. Hill had the locomotive pull his personal train. It now resides in a static display at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth. Minnesota. Engineer Herschell Hudgens, Jr. and three unidentified people shown.
The William Crooks was the first locomotive to operate in Minnesota. Constructed in 1861, it arrived on a river barge in Saint Paul. It provided service in 1862 for the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad, a company that eventually became part of the Great Northern Railway. The engine is pulling a Saint Paul and Pacific baggage car and passenger car. It ran on the eleven miles of track between Saint Paul and Saint Anthony (now Minneapolis). Eventually, James J. Hill used the locomotive to pull his personal train. It now resides in a static display at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, Minnesota.
The William Crooks was the first locomotive to operate in Minnesota. Constructed in 1861, it first provided service a year later for the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad, a company that eventually became part of the Great Northern Railway. James J. Hill had the locomotive pull his personal train. William Crooks was displayed at the 1939 New York World's Fair and in 1948 at the Chicago Railroad Fair. It was displayed for some time at the Saint Paul Union Depot before being put in a static display at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum, in Duluth, Minnesota.
William and Ida (DeMars) Perry operated the beach facilities at Lake Johanna in present-day Arden Hills for many years. William was the son of Charles Perry, who came to the Lake Johanna area in 1849, and the grandson of Abraham Perry, one of the first settlers at Fort Snelling and Saint Paul.
Wesley Nixon was a telegraph operator at the Bulwer Junction depot in New Brighton for over 40 years. His father, Charles Nixon, lived at the depot and was one of its first station agents. The New Brighton Area Historical Society has renovated the depot into the New Brighton History Center.