Title

Main Street, Glenwood, Minnesota ca. 1907

Creation Date

1907 – 1908

Description

This view of the Glenwood main street is from a position near the center of Minnesota Avenue directly in front of the county court house (not visible), and looking west toward Lake Minnewaska, which is barely visible in far distance.
The earliest possible date of 1907 is determined by the presence in this photo of the first Glenwood State Bank (further described below), built in that year. Latest possible date of 1908 is determined by the fact that this copy of the photo is printed on a postcard bearing that date as a postmark.
Unpaved Minnesota Avenue roadway fills photo foreground, its gravel well lined with shallow wheel tracks. Automobiles would have been an extreme rarity in this day, and none are visible.
Sidewalks, appearing to be of cement and quite new, neatly line both the north and south sides of Minnesota Avenue.
Two persons are walking on the left (south) side sidewalk. Another pedestrian is crossing the intersection in the distance. The Court House lawn in far left foreground appears to be newly planted with young trees. A single telephone pole shows above the buildings on the left (south) side of photo. Other poles, which may be flagpoles and/or possibly lightning rods, appear atop several buildings on both the north and south sides of street. The sky is bright and cloudless.
The more prominent buildings on the left or south side of street (city plat block 24) are as follows: Selleseth Dry Goods Store, with large painted sign on the side of the building advertising "dry goods, clothing, hats, caps, shoes and groceries." The next two-story building down the same side is the McCauley block (its third story yet to be built in 1919). Further down the same side can be seen a very tall elm tree at the Minton Hotel corner of Minnesota and Franklin Avenues. This tree was long considered a local landmark. A water fountain shows as hardly more than a speck in the center of the same intersection. Major buildings on the right or north side of street (block 20) are as follows: Closest In foreground and only partially visible is the Glenwood or Ward Hotel, built in the late 1860s, making it the oldest structure in this photograph (hotel was razed in 1945). (Note that this copy of the photograph shows slightly less of the hotel's front left side than does the collection's duplicate copy [2012.3720.12]; however the photographic resolution of this copy is significantly superior to that of the other -- so this one should definitely be used for purposes of making a scan of the shot.) Next down the street from the Glenwood Hotel is the large Webster Block built in 1902. Suspended on the small adjoining building next to the Webster Block is the sign for the popular eatery, "The Buffet." Halfway down the same block is the newly built Glenwood State Bank, with two carved stone figures showing prominently against the sky high over its front corners. Further down the same side of the street, discernible at the corner of the next block (block 21), is the First National Bank, no long functioning as a bank at this time. Its single second-story window looks southeast emphasizing the building's beveled corner.
The postcard side of the photo is addressed in fancy black ink lettering to "Miss Clara Lee,/Alexandria/Minn./R.4.Box 4." Its message: "My dear Arith. mate. How are you anyway? I am digging and working problems as usual. We have some fierce ones now. I saw Moan one night. I have something good to tell you when I see you. How's Alex. Good they beat. Helen is awfully sick to-day. We still eat BBB(.) Had a postal fom Roland yesterday. He will be home this week. (Indistinguishable short word) we wlll race cane. Bye Bye from Esther. (Indistinguishable under stamp)d your letter(.) We are going to take Mr. [Funk's?] horse & buggy & go down to the P.O." The postmark reads "GLENWOOD/1906/(month obliterated)/8 PM/MINN". The green one-cent stamp bears the likeness of Benjamin Franklin.

Geographic Notes

Glenwood, Minnesota

Geographic Names

Glenwood, Pope, Minnesota, United States, NA [45.65024,-95.38976] [id:5028087]