A little wooden building erected in August of 1889, opened for business the last of November. It was owned and operated by George Swift, who was our postmaster off and on. Our post office was here when he held the job. The Swift girls would deliver your order. He had the first telephone in his store in March of 1893. In reporting the event, the local paper said, “This is something the village has long needed and will be useful in case of fire or sickness.
It will save a good many trips to Minneapolis. By 1938 there were estimated 5,833 phones in Robbinsdale. On April 25, 1896 Swift moved his drug store to North Minneapolis on the corner of 20th Avenue North and Bryant Avenue. An ad in Robbinsdale Park Progress reads, “Geo. Swift Drugstore – Try my White Pine Cough Syrup. The Golden Age Design at 4157 West Broadway is where the store used to be and maybe some of the old drugstore is still there.
-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. A few things have been updated along the way.
