This building stood a little north of the Little White Church, on the other side of the street. In March of 1860, a group of 55 pioneers met to organize Crystal Lake Township. The area was north and west of Minneapolis, bounded on the west by the town of Plymouth, on the north by the town of Brooklyn. The Mississippi River on the east. A Caucus for the nomination of officers for the new town was held March 24, 1860 at the J. D. Malbon home. The first election was held April 3, 1860 at the Malbon home. Elected town supervisors were Henry S. Plummer, J. B. Johnson and Larenzo P. Warren. Crystal, as a village with a population of 587, was incorporated in 1887. The first election was held March 6, 1887. Arthur Sanborn was named President and Thomas Gearty, J . H. White and Philip Kuch, Trustees. Other town officers chosen were Thomas Kirkwood, Assessor, N. R. Russ, Recorder, J. B. Johnson, Treasurer, D. C. Crandall and H. R. Stillnan, Justices of Peace and Charles Hommes, Constable. The Crystal town hall was built in 1891 on the site near 54th Avenue North and West Broadway. It was used as City Hall until 1951- was used for other purposes until 1958- it was torn down in 1962. The population of Crystal in 1881 was 1023 – on 14,550 acres of land. The farmers produced 14,416 bushels of wheat in 1869 and 15,731 bushels in 1875.
-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 J. P. Shumway). It was compiled and edited by Evelyn and Esther Shumway for a Robbinsdale Historiocal Society slide show in 1980.