Pete Richie – Page 14 – Robbinsdale Historical Society

Our Little Library

In November 1917, a small building on West Broadway was purchased and moved to a lot donated by the Parker family on Rockford Road just west of the railroad tracks. The little structure was stuccoed … Read more

Sweatt Manufacturing

Shortly after Andrew B. Robbins moved his family to Robbinsdale, he gathered a group of investors and built the Hubbard Specialty Manufacturing plant. The firm made chairs, wheelbarrows, camp furniture, grocery boxes, and wooden washing … Read more

A New City Hall

After Robbinsdale’s old City Hall on West Broadway was torn down to make room for a Red Owl grocery store parking lot in 1954, Municipal offices were moved to a temporary quarters in the Police … Read more

Crystal Lake

The relationship between Robbinsdale and the sparkling lake in the center of town has never been an easy one. In the 1880s, Crystal Lake Avenue (West Broadway) was used by farmers to bring produce into Minneapolis. The steep hill on the west side of the lake caused teams and carts to line up in caravans twenty deep. In 1893, a couple months after Robbinsdale was incorporated at a village, the council decided to use to use $1,000 from the “Saloon Fund” to cut down the hill. The fill from the project was used to shrink the lake. William Randall and George “Don” Johnson started Robbinsdale Ice and Fuel Co. and began cutting ice on Crystal Lake in the 1890s.

A couple years later the Crystal Ice Company and the Cedar Lake Ice Company began staking out territory on Crystal Lake. In 1903 Thomas Girling’s Picturesque Robbinsdale newspaper reported that the number of parties cutting ice on Crystal Lake was due to the “extreme clearness and purity, this ice is considered the best that can be had around Minneapolis.” Andrew B. Robbins believed Crystal and Twin would one day rival the popular chain of lakes in Minneapolis. Enthusiastic about the possibilities of Robbinsdale’s lakes, He claimed that “Crystal Lake in size would compare with the better known Lake Harriet of Minneapolis, while Twin Lake is twice that size. Its mate, upper Twin Lake connects with a chain of several lakes.” A canal between Crystal and Twin Lakes was proposed on a number of occasions.

The Robbinsdale Airport opened in 1919, but civilian flying was halted during World War II. In 1942 the Robbinsdale Airport’s 23 planes were organized as part of the Civilian Air Patrol. Most of the … Read more

Andrew B. Robbins

Most of the suburbs in the Minneapolis area are named after the landscape. We have a Richfield, a Golden Valley, and an Eden Prairie. Robbinsdale is named for a man. The little village founded on April 19, 1893, was named for Andrew B. Robbins. A civil war veteran, entrepreneur, state senator and former Mayor of Willmar, Minnesota. Robbins purchased 90 acres of beautiful land for development in the late 1880’s. The areas lakes were already popular with duck hunters and the village quickly became the first suburb of Minneapolis.

Here’s an excerpt from “History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest” published in 1923

Andrew Bonney Robbins, becoming chief accountant, ticket agent and telegraph
operator, all in one, at St. Anthony in the days of the pioneer development of
Minneapolis, was thereafter for many years closely associated with the growth
and development of the city, in which ultimately he came to prominence as a
most successful grain merchant. This, however, constituted but one phase of his
activities and his labors were a forceful element in beautifying and improving
the city along civic lines and in upholding the legal and moral status of the
state. There are many who pay tribute to his splendid character and his kindly,
helpful service toward his fellowmen.
His life story is as follows and may well constitute an example for others: He
was born in Phillips, Maine, April 27, 1845, his parents being Daniel and Mary
(Shaw) Robbins, the latter a granddaughter of Captain Abraham Shaw, who was a
soldier of the Revolutionary war and a descendant of John Howland, one of the
Pilgrims who came to the new world on the Mayflower. Mrs. Robbins was a lady of
beautiful character and innate refinement. The father was a representative
business man of Phillips, Maine, possessing a considerable estate and making his
home in New England until 1855, when he brought his family to what was then the
far west, settling at Anoka, in the territory of Minnesota.

A streetcar stopped at the Modern Woodsman of America Park at Johnson Road (36th Avenue) near the southwest tip of Crystal Lake . In the early 1900’s, the lake came up to about where Rainbow … Read more

The Luther Theological Seminary

Robbinsdale was almost a college town. The Luther Theological Seminary of the Norwegian Lutheran Church was built on 10 acres donated by Andrew Robbins, George Brimhall, and Alfred Parker in 1889.The grand opening audience of … Read more

About Robbinsdale

Introduction Robbinsdale was named for entrepreneur, politician, and real estate developer Andrew Bonney Robbins. While serving in the Minnesota State Senate, Robbins often passed through the area just north of Minneapolis by train. He was … Read more