This page was written as an article for the Re-Echo newsletter by Bill Beyer.   CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS   Mary Baker Eddy founded the Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston in 1875. By the turn of the 19th Century, the sect…

Most of the early information for this page came from accounts in the St. Louis Park Dispatch, which began publication in November 1941. The Dispatch was an avid reporter of the Miss St. Louis Park contest, devoting many headlines to…

On November 29, 1941, the St. Louis Park Methodist Meeting House, 2940 Salem, began services in a colonial-style house purchased with a gift from the T.B. Walker Foundation. Rev. John W. Knoble and his wife had an apartment upstairs, and…

These are only highlights in the history of the modes of mass transit that affected residents of St. Louis Park. Please contact us with additions and corrections. Information in this document relies heavily on the books Transit in the Twins,…

Despite the fact that St. Louis Park was founded by straight-laced New Englanders, liquor has played a part in the history of the City.  Also see Steel Toe Brewing, Early Ordinances , Drugs in the Park, and Smokin’ in the Boy’s…

The origins of Lake Street are unclear.  It is not shown on a map from 1888, although Minnetonka Blvd., Excelsior Blvd., and Brookside Ave. are clearly there.  T.B. Walker put his streetcar line down Lake Street in 1891. In May…

The Jackley family was a prominent family in the Brookside neighborhood. Their land – including the land where their house once sat – is now a City park, appropriately named Jackley Park.  This 1957 photo from the City Tax Assessor…

Carroll Hurd served as Mayor of St. Louis Park from 1952 to 1953. He was born on January 9, 1894, on a farm at Boardman, Wisconsin. He attended High School in Menomonee, then River Falls Normal College in 1913.  His…

The Hobart Family lived on Brook Lane in the Brookside neighborhood for decades. They were very involved with civic affairs, and sought (often unsuccessfully) to keep bad influences away from nearby Excelsior Blvd. Walter Page Hobart was born in 1883…

Gravel pits and concrete plants were everywhere in the early days of the Park. At the end of WWII there were eight gravel mines in operation. Some lasted into the 1960’s, before they were depleted and the land surrendered to…