BY ED FELIEN
Lyndale Avenue used to be called Bloomington Road.
The township of Richfield began at Lake Street, and the geographical, cultural, social and business center for the new township was near the site of the flour mill at 53rd Street. Minnehaha Creek flowed much stronger in the early part of the 19th century—enough so it could be dammed and support six flour mills from Lake Minnetonka to the Mississippi River. The mill at 53rd and Bloomington Road could produce 20 barrels of flour in 10 hours.
There was a post office, and on the east side of the street were several wood frame buildings housing a general store, a meat market, a grocery and a dry goods store. There were two churches and a school on the block by 1858.
The Richfield Township collected $400 a year in property taxes to help improve the roads, and in 1860 they became so civilized they passed an ordinance that made it illegal to allow hogs and bulls to run free. They even appointed a Pound Master to enforce the ordinance.
But in 1867 the Minnesota Legislature transferred the area from Lake Street to 46th Street to the Minneapolis Township, and also at about this time the mill at 53rd Street began to lose business to Cadwallader C. Washburn’s new mill on the Mississippi River. The new mill had improved rollers, the more dependable energy of the River, and it was closer to the new railroad. The old millstream was not what it used to be, and the mill probably stopped production by 1879 when the new Richfield City Hall was built at 62nd Street and Lyndale.
In a final irony, William Washburn bought the mill and property for $5,000 in 1886 and built an orphanage and public park on the rival mill’s property to honor the memory of his brother. And the earlier mill was soon forgotten.
