The First Congregational Church was built on land donated by the Shumway family. Meeting first in the Village Hall, the First Congregational was an offshoot of the “Little White Church” on Broadway and Bass Lake Road. Twenty-eight charter members became a driving force that helped establish what was to become Robbinsdale’s first youth center. An addition was added to the building to house the Sunday School. It was open to the entire community . The church then added a gymnasium, an auditorium, a reception hall and became a focal point for social events. Any group had only to stop next door at the parsonage and ask for the key to make use of the facilities and move ahead with their function. The community was saddened when the church was demolished in 1965.
The Robbiinsdale Library opened on January 4, 1926. The cost of construction was funded with donations from local citizens and the library club. The Hennepin County Library system took over the library in 1972, but the library club still owned the building and grounds. After the new Rockford Road Library opened, the old Robbinsdale Library ( pictured above in 1952) was closed in 1975. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. These days library has been put to good use serving as a home for the Robbinsdale Historical Society and the Robbin Gallery.
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 had been moved into temporary quarters in the police and fire building on Hubbard Avenue the previous year. Construction on the new government offices behind Robin Center began in 1969. The Robbinsdale Civic Center was dedicated to Mayor Charles O. Wallace on October 24th, 1970.
This post is the ninth in a series featuring a history paper that Roberta Lee Scoville’s wrote while attending Minneapolis Business College back in 1976. The image at the top of the post shows the corner of 42nd and West Broadway at the turn of the last century and an early map of the area.
