CAPTION; Top: The old waterfall on Shingle Creek, as it leaves the lake. Behind the falls is the all surrounding the swimming pool, and to the right is the old library building. Back then the swimming pool was called the John Deere Webber Baths, and what soon became the library was originally the field house [Minnesota Historical Society]. Bottom left: Doug Pearson at breakfast this spring. Bottom right: At the time this picture was taken, Shingle Creek circled around in front of the library and then continued out of the park [Minneapolis Public Library].
Remember when Shingle Creek flowed into Camden Lake, and Camden Lake was a clean lake with fish, other aquatic life, and was environmentally clean? At one time back in the early 1920s, the creek furnished the water for the swimming pool. The lake was larger than it is now. At the south end of the lake by the library, there was a waterfall. It was beautiful, and it emptied into a creek bed that led through the south end of Camden Park, continued its course under Lyndale Avenue, over the old falls in Old Camden Park, and then into the Mississippi.
Remember when in the winter, there was a hockey rink at the north end of the lake? I remember all the skating on the lake, hundreds of young people every winter. On the first floor of the library was the warming house.
Remember when we guys went skating with the girls? Remember when some of the guys would tie the skates for the girls? Those were the days!
Remember when we would go swimming in the Camden pool every summer? Hundreds of young people from all over the Northside, all of us, had good memories of the summer at Camden Park. There were organized games by the Park Board, baseball and all.
Remember when there was a bandstand back in the 1930s and ‘40s, next to the lake? I remember when the Park Board had a band that traveled the Minneapolis parks and performed. It was great - the many memories of swimming and skating. It required no money, the games were all free.
Then in the 1940s the storm sewer came down 44th Avenue, from up near Patrick Henry School. It emptied into Camden Lake, and made Camden Lake a holding pond. In the 1950s Camden Lake was being destroyed, and Shingle Creek in the early 1960s was made to bypass the lake altogether. The creek was moved to flow along the railroad tracks at the back boundary of the park. The present railroad bridge crossing the creek was built in 1962.
Camden Lake was destroyed because the Engineering Dept. and the Park Board did not build a holding pond before allowing runoff into the beautiful lake. This would not happen today, because modem attitudes and regulations would not allow such a disaster. If only we could turn back time to a clean and beautiful lake! Then we could really say "Remember when..."
I also remember the days when Camden had a thriving business area. It was like a little town. Remember Johnson Drug? You could go to the soda fountain and get a cherry coke or malt, and listen to the juke box. Next door was a five-and-dime store, a grocery and meat market. And do you remember the Camden Theater? On Friday and Saturday night when we were teenagers, the show was packed. Those were the days! Across the street from the Camden Theater there was a feed store, Haertel's Feeds, that still served some of the farms operating up the river road from Camden. On the corner, formed where Lyndale and Washington crossed at 42nd, there was a hamburger joint, the Band Box. There were shoe stores, and two shoe repair shops in Camden. Remember Nelson's Shoe Repair on the hill behind Johnson's Drug? He worked evenings too, seven days a week. There was the Camden Bakery, and Dahl and Fredeen's clothing store. These buildings fronted on Washington, but the backs of the buildings were on Lyndale. There was the Camden bowling alley on Washington and Soo Ave., built in the early ‘40s, and owned by Harry Jupas. Across the street was a beer parlor on Washington Ave. The Camden Bank was on the comer at 42nd and there were many more shops, all walking distance from our homes. Yes, I will always remember when I was growing up in the Camden area, and I will remember the many friends I met along the way.
In the early 1970s I was appointed to the Hennepin County Parks (Three Rivers) by the City Council of Minneapolis to represent Minneapolis on the parks of Hennepin County. I had lived all my life in Camden, but in 1975 I moved from Minneapolis to Brooklyn Park. Then I became active in Brooklyn Park and was appointed as a parks advisory member in Brooklyn Park. I know that the Hennepin County Parks, and especially the Minneapolis Park Dept. of today, would never allow Camden Lake to be a holding pond. I consider the Minneapolis Parks of today to be the best.
A little bit about our guest writer: Doug Pearson was born and raised in Camden, before his move to Brooklyn Park in 1975. He and his wife, Anna, raised a family of seven children. He retired from Augsburg Publishing Co. He is presently 82 years old. Barbara Meyer Bistodeau