CAPTION 1: A view of Old Camden Park after the Camden Bridge was built in 1913. Note the bridge over the little brook is the iron railing type now, and the brook feeds into the lagoon pictured in last month's article. (From an old postcard furnished by Andrea Weber.)
CAPTION 2: The old Lyndale Hotel. It was one of Camden's more unique buildings, and it once stood in the path of the new Camden Bridge. (Photo from the Elmer Tupper collection at the Webber Park Library.)
CAPTION 3: This photo shows the new Camden Bridge being built. The construction has not yet reached the west shore. The original snapshot was dated Sunday, August 31, 1913. (Minneapolis Central Library collection.)
CAPTION 4: A view of the Camden Tourist Campground. This use of the property continued for several years, while the Pumping Station was still in service. The grounds were maintained by the Merchants of Camden Place. (Minnesota Historical Society photo.)
In last month's article we talked about the original Camden Park that was down on the river in the area just south of Shingle Creek. Today the area is partly used by the boat launch down under the Camden Bridge. We discussed how the city water department moved the water intake up the river from St. Anthony Falls and built a pumping station here in 1888. The grounds surrounding this water department facility were groomed into the first Camden Park.
Twenty-five years after this area was first developed as a park, a big change was about to occur. Up until this time, there was no place to cross the river from the Lowry Bridge north, until you reached the Champlin-Anoka Bridge. The Champlin-Anoka Bridge in the early years was a swing-bridge, one section pivoting on its pier to allow river traffic to pass through. The new bridge to be built here in Camden would naturally have to align with one of the major east-west avenues. The ideal location for the new crossing was at 42nd Ave. The choice was not one that was made totally for convenience and desirability. A little politics had to be involved too.
At that time in Camden, 42nd Ave. came down the hill in an easterly direction to meet Lyndale Ave. and Washington Ave. 42nd Ave. came to a dead end at the bottom of the hill, since there was no river crossing. Occupying that location at the foot of 42nd Ave. was one of the best buildings that Camden had at the time, the Lyndale Hotel. That the wheels of progress should require the demolition of one of the more unique buildings around, is not a development limited to recent invention. The Lyndale Hotel, in some years called the Ames Hotel, had seen its heyday come and go already.
There had been a time when the Camden area had been the location of some the biggest sawmills around. There was the C. A. Smith sawmill at 44th and the river, the Bovey-DeLaittre sawmill at 39th and the river, and the Northland Pine mill at Lowry Ave. C. A. Smith for some years in the 1880s was the largest sawmill in the world. And yes, it was right here in Camden. But the days of inexhaustible pine were fast coming to an end. C. A. Smith closed their doors in 1912 and moved to Coos Bay, Oregon. The sawmill to operate nearby was the Northland Pine company, which closed in 1919 and burned down in a spectacular fire in 1920. Rooming houses for the hundreds of men that worked in the mills, and hotels for the business accommodations necessary, were requirements that had run their course. To make matters worse, the Lyndale Hotel had become a habitat for those that some in the community found undesirable, and the hotel bar had become known for card games, cigar smoking, drinking, idleness, and Lord knows what else. The local ministry took up the cause for ridding the neighborhood of such unsavory influences. And so it was that the when the new Camden Bridge was completed in 1913, the Lyndale Hotel was gone from the landscape. The new bridge crossed the river near the north boundary of the old park, where Shingle Creek enters the river. The west end of the bridge went right over part of the park, and the east end terminated just south of Pumping Station #4.
The old park continued to serve the community for some time after the bridge appeared. But by now the city park board, under the management of Theodore Wirth, had begun the development of a new park. The new park was called Camden Park for many of its early years, and the old one became Old Camden Park. A large part of the development of this new park was financed by C. C. Webber, the president of the Deere & Webber Company. Deere & Webber made farm equipment and they were descended from the original John Deere. In fact, the park swimming pool, field house (later used as the library), and the dredging of Shingle Creek to form a lake and waterfalls, were all done as a memorial to C. C. Webber's deceased son, John Deere Webber. For this reason, the new Camden Park was eventually renamed Webber Park, and the street in front of it that was once an old Indian trail became Webber Parkway.
But the old park on the river bank was not dead yet. During the 1920s the idea of people taking a trip in their car became more popular, as the cars became more reliable and capable of traveling greater distances more dependably. It was in the 1920s that the "tourist" first came of age. And the tourists required a place to stay. In response to this, tourist campgrounds were developed. The old Camden Park became a tourist campground, and the river bank along the south side of Shingle Creek was lined with old touring cars with cloth tops, and with tents pitched for people to spend the night. Having tourists come to stay in Camden was good for business. The Camden Tourist Camp was maintained free by the Merchants of Camden Place.
This was all taking place on the pumping station grounds. Similar tourist camps were maintained at other locations in Minneapolis, most notably one in Minnehaha Park. There was even a log building at that location.
The area down by the river continued as a place for the public in other ways. One resident informs me that public meetings and speeches were sometimes held down there. One well known speaker who spoke there was Floyd B. Olson, governor of Minnesota, who was known to hand out beer to induce the people to attend the meetings and listen to a speech. Of course, none of this was thought to influence anyone's voting choices.
The records available to me indicate that the old Pumping Station #3 existed until 1931. After that, I can only assume that it was demolished, because it was long gone at the time I spent my days down there. In the 1950s and ‘60s, the resemblance to a park was obliterated. The place had been abandoned, and the trees and undergrowth reclaimed the area. There were a few dirt roads and trails, but I would have never suspected that it could have been such a well groomed area at one time. A careful, discerning eye today can still make observations that help to convince oneself that the previous story is indeed true. And the present use as a regional park continues a long tradition of recreation for the public.
Ron Manger is a life-long resident of Camden and a charter member of the Camden Community Historical Society. He is interested in what you may have to tell or help to add to the society's archives; contact him at camdenhistorv@hotmail.com. The group meets the second Saturday of each month at 11 a.m. at the North Methodist Church, 44th and Fremont Ave. N. All interested persons are welcome.