Robbinsdale Historical Society

Souvenir Robbinsdale

It can be conservatively predicted that within a few years the village of Robbinsdale, located just north of the city limits of Minneapolis will be noted as the choicest of its suburban beauty spots, remarkable for splendid residences, situated amid picturesque surroundings of woodland and lake.

Already the certainty that Minneapolis is destined to become a great metropolis has enhanced the values of land adjacent to the chain of lakes within its limits. Calhoun, Harriet, Lake of the Isles and Cedar to the extent that only people of considerable means feel they can afford home in their vicinity. Soon it will be only the rich whose mansions will mark the sites of the present pretty bungalows and the modest dwellings.
Today the conviction is being forced upon those who desire to enjoy the delightful combination of city and rual life, made possible by electric roads and the automobile, that location of their homes to insure permanency, must be in a new direction and where too, there will be more exclusiveness than along the boulevards and driveways which constitute the playground of the city.
The village of Robbinsdale, which nestles between two gem-like lakes, with dells and groves just off its main street, possesses just this ideal location, coupled with the same charm of natural scenery which is now beguiling to the Calhoun and Harriet district. In time Robbinsdale too will become the home of millionaires, but this period is farther remote. This is certainly foreordained as it is that the business district of Minneapolis is to be doubled, tripled and quadrupled in area.
It requires no stretch of imagination to prophesy this. The present rate of growth of Minneapolis and the natural distribution of its population will bring these changes about. The man is not infrequently met who can tell when he could have bought business sites now worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for a few hundreds; who recollects when there were frame dwelling houses where now are sky scrapers, mammoth department stores and splendid office buildings. Most of these changes have come within ten years, with in which time too, whole districts of suburban property have been built up from farms and pasture lands…what then of the future…the next ten years or even five?

-Robbinsdale Souvenir, Suburban Minneapolis
1911

Dr. Colp Brought a Little Royalty to Robbinsdale.

Donald G. Colp was born in Nova Scotia . He graduated from Yale’s Divinity School in 1897 and went on to study at Carleton College in Northfield before he became pastor of the First … Read more

The Honor Roll

During World War II, a billboard was erected on West Broadway to honor American Armed Forces overseas. The names of Robbinsdale’s own were place under blue and gold stars. A gold star indicated the soldier … Read more

The Armistice Day Blizzard

The morning of November 11th, 1940 brought with it unseasonably high temperatures. By early afternoon temperatures soared into the 60s. Less than 24 hours later, an intense low pressure system had tracked from the southern … Read more

The Robbinsdale Library

The Robbinsdale 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 … 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.