St. Michael Historical Society

Collecting, Preserving, and Sharing

the history of St. Michael, MN.

Our Organization

The St. Michael Historical Society began with a meeting of general interest in April of 2005. By July the fifteen incorporating members approved Articles of Incorporation, created Bylaws and elected officers.

Meetings are generally held quarterly the second Monday of the month at the St. Michael City Hall; however, please check the "Events" for exact times and locations as they do vary occasionally. Anyone with interest is welcome to attend. The St. Michael Historical Society is a 501(c), nonprofit corporation and a member of the Minnesota Historical Society.

Preserve our History!

Ready to take the next step? You can become a contributor to our cause, or participate yourself.

Here is a photo from almost exactly 59 years ago. The Crow River flooded periodically, but flooding in 1965 was the worst for this area. It followed a snowy March which included the St. Patrick’s Day blizzard. The Crow River reached its highwat
This was downtown St. Michael just 20 years ago. The photo was taken in April of 2004 shortly after most of the southwest quadrant was razed for street widening and redevelopment. While nostalgia causes us to lament the changes that have taken place,
This is no April Fools joke. That building behind the trucks is now Home Grown, the restaurant owned by Ellie and Drew Anderson. This photo from 1956 shows the beer distributorship of Howard Sipe who was the original owner of those buildings. Standin
Not long after this photo was taken in 2006, the old bridge crossing the Crow River at Berning’s Mill was dismantled. If you’ve driven Territorial Road between St. Michael and Fletcher recently, you know how hard it is to imagine how all
Here is Don Klaers, Village Clerk, standing in the St. Michael jail. Yep, we had a jail; but it was rarely used which is why Don was posing for this picture as the jail was for sale. The year was 1953 and someone from the Minneapolis Tribune found ou
“Spring training” for the 1938 St. Michael Saints town baseball team. The first question is “Where are they?”. And the answer is the “hole” in Mike Eull’s pasture. This was the town baseball field before ther
Pictured here are members of the Ferdinand and Agatha Haberman Family (and possibly some neighbors) from about 1909. Top row from left: Mrs. Dietrich, Nettie Ullman, Lillian Ullman, Martha Haberman, Matt Ullman, Dave Haberman. Front row from left: Ni
Most people in town just called this the lumberyard, but over the years it had several official names including St. Michael Lumber Company, Independent Lumber Company, and Simonson Lumber. It had its start in 1946 when Bud Klein opened the business w
This is the only known photo of a building that stood on Main Street, in the vicinity of the Main Street Farmer restaurant, from about 1920 until 1946. Originally constructed by H.W. Dick for cars sales and mechanic shop, it was purchased by Emil Web
Louis Welter took this photo from the church steeple in 1973. At the lower left is the office of Dr. Jim Chervenak which he built about three years before. Above that are the rear portions of Welter’s Implement and the Wright County Co-Op, and
Pictured here are Sr. Gertrude Fasnacht and the 1st and 2nd graders of St. Michael’s Parish School in 1938. All of the following surnames of the girls are their original family surnames. Starting on the top row from left: Dolores Kasper, Norita
Here’s a photo from about 1910 taken from a unique vantage point, likely from atop the windmill that once stood behind Brixius’ Store, now Ditto’s Bar. The rear roofline of that building is just visible at the lower left. At upper l