Historic Contexts Study and Phase II Inventory (Downtown Elk River) 2022

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By 1860, a system of rough township and county roads linked Elk River to Princeton to the north and to Big Lake at the west, and to Anoka and points south 41 By 1890, there were ten daily passenger trains stopping at Elk River, in addition to freight and logging trains. Travelers were greeted by a second hotel, the Sherburne House (later known as the Merchant's and the Blanchett). By 1908, this well advertised hostelry featured thirty rooms, steam heat, and gas lighting, since electrification had not yet reached the town. Both hotels looked like New England boarding houses, with gable roofs, clapboard exteriors, and long porches. Good Roads and Charles M. Babcock Villages, townships and counties labored to improve roads between farms and trade centers. Before a system of state and federally funded roads, much planning for community infrastructure was done by local business leaders. Around the turn of the century, electrification and other municipal utilities and road construction were primary topics. The capital and energy once available for road building had been consumed by the national railroad construction that surged after the Civil War. By the 1890s—on the eve of the introduction of the mass-produced automobile —business leaders and other groups campaigned for better roads under the umbrella of the Minnesota Good Roads Association, founded in 1893. 42 In 1898 the Good Roads Act was created by the state legislature and in 1905, the Minnesota Highway Commission was created to plan local highway improvements and approve the design of state funded projects, including adopting standards for highway and bridge design. The state leader in highway reform was Charles M. Babcock (1871-1936) of Elk River. Trained as a civil engineer, he had a career as a banker and merchant in Elk River, where his family had long operated the Babcock Store. In 1917, Babcock became the first commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Highways. He served in this position until 1933, and authored the "Babcock Plan " for the state trunk highway system. Babcock Memorial Park (1938-1939) commemorates his tenure. It was built by the National Youth Administration (NYA) and the Minnesota Department of Highways. as The Jefferson Highway Elk River's connection to the Jefferson Highway, a federally funded national route completed in the early 1920s, was certainly ensured by Babcock. Among promoters of the road were automobile associations to promote the growing interest in automobile touring.' The concrete paved highway used Depot, Main and Fourth streets. The new road carried much of the county's westbound traffic, and also to the north bound traffic on Highway 169, which branched form the Jefferson Highway at Elk River. The concrete Elk River Bridge over the Elk River was part of this improvement, replacing the 1884 metal -truss bridge. By 1928, a variety of implement dealers, elevators and feed mills, potato and produce warehouses, the Houlton lumberyard, and gasoline filling stations lined the highway. Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002 15