West Broadway

Buses on Broadway

Beginning in 1942 a Twin City Rapid Transit feeder bus met the Penn Avenue streetcar in Minneapolis at a terminal near 42nd and Thomas and went to Robbinsdale along 42nd, Abbott, Noble and Vera Cruz … Read more

No Place to Get Thin!

The Chase family owned the Hamburger Inn in Robbinsdale. The little building, seen on the right hand side of this postcard was torn down in 2013 to make way for the new Travail restaurant. Sam Chase and Ma Chase are pictured behind the counter below. Sam worked at Ewald Dairy. He started deliveries with a horse and buggy and eventually drove a truck. The family operated the restaurant on West Broadway for 35 years.

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The Masonic Hall

Because the wives of the Robbinsdale Masons who belonged to Compass Lodge #265 decided they too, should have an organization, Robbinsdale Chapter #238, Order of the Eastern Star was started in 1921 with 78 charter members. Julia Randall was the first Worthy Matron and Dan Libby, Worthy Patron. The Masonic temple was just a gleam in the eyes of Compass Lodge members. Meetings were held over a garage on West Broadway. They were often interrupted by noisy car engines and deliberations had to be paused until silence prevailed.

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A Business Street

“The American Suburbs Company is using every honorable means of inducing investors and prospective home builders to become new citizens” An Ad in July 8th, 1908 Robbinsdale Tellit (Tell-it!) Newspaper This postcard from 1911 looks  … Read more

Mueller Drug

William Mueller opened his drug store in a new building on the corner of 42nd and West Broadway in 1926. The Village Council approved a sidewalk out front the same year. In 1982, after years of neglect, the building was declared uninhabitable and  torn down by the Robbinsdale Housing Authority. The adjoining store front is still standing on West Broadway.

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A Deer in the Drug Store

On May 23rd, 1945 a 160 pound, four point buck bounded into the open basement door of Morris W. Henney’s Robbinsdale Pharmacy at 4139 West Broadway. Game Warden, Ben Cohen and Robbinsdale Policemen, Matt Spurzem and Adrian Mattson, came to the rescue, but not before the deer had done more than $600 dollars worth of damage by crashing into medical cabinets. After Cohen and Mattson dragged it outside and trussed it up, the deer was taken to Sheriff Earle Brown’s farm for doctoring and then to a game refuge.

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Next to the Largest City in the State

Before Robbinsdale voted for municipal liquor, Menth’s Canteen sold on and off sale in the heart of the business district. The bar used Robbinsdale’s unofficial city slogan ” Next to the Largest City in the … Read more

Elim Lutheran Church

Elim Lutheran Church was founded by 26 charter members in 1922. The first services and Sunday School classes were held in the Robbinsdale Village Hall. In 1924 the congregation broke ground for a church on … Read more

Three for Robbinsdale

Wilson, Zenzen and Matson

What are these guys smiling about? Chas. O. Wallace ( left.) Wallace was Robbinsdale’s first city clerk. He held office from 1938 until 1945. He served as Mayor from 1947 through 1954 and again from 1967 to 1972. The city’s new government offices behind Robin Center were dedicated to Wallace in 1970. John Zenzen (center) probably got to drive the car below . Adrain Mattson(right) served in the Army in World War I.  He always kept his tie straight.

 

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