-THE BLACKSMITH
This is a view taken about 1906 looking northeast from 42nd and West Broadway – then called Crystal Lake Avenue and Shingle Creek Road. The First Robbinsdale State Bank now occupies that site. Picture shows Christensen’s Blacksmith Shop. It is said that the deicison to build the Town Hall was made while the City Fathers were sitti.ng on nail kegs in this shop. This shop was the earliest and perhaps the very first Robbinsdale business. It was opened for business on August 28, 1888 – while Nasettt’s Store building was being completed a short distance away.
Christensen-Sand Blacksmith Shop
Mr. Christensen, born in Oslo, Norway, then living in Minneapolis, came to Robbinsdale to the laying of the corner stone of the Lutheran Seminary in 1887. There he met Mr. Sand, who also was a blacksmith, a specialist in work on plows. He was an old man – wanted to go into business with a younger man – the opening of the Christensen-Sand Blacksmith Shop was the result.
The family moved to Robbinsdale the following year, living in a house at 43rd and West Broadway. In 1903 their house was struck by lightning — they then built a house on College Avenue, now Regent and 42nd Avenue. There were only four other houses on that side of the railroad tracks. They had three children, George and LeRoy and Dagmar, who became a teacher in the Robbinsdale School. Mr. Christensen died at the age of 86 – having worked at his trade for 69 years -59 of them in Robbinsdale.
He was the oldest active blacksmith in the state of Minnesota. For 25 years he was on the village Board of Trustees. He made the first carts used by our original Fire Department. The shop was torn down in 1948 to make room for the bank. Mr. Christensen ts tools were given to the Hennepin County Historical Society where they can be seen today. He shod thousands of horses and repaired lots of farm equipment and tools. In 1881 there were 445 horses in Crystal Township.
-This material was gathered from the North Hennepin Post and the diaries of Ellen M. Bisbee, (sister of J. P. Shumway and Nathan F. Russ). It was compiled and edited by Evelyn and Esther Shumway for a Robbinsdale Historiocal Society slide show in 1980.
