St. Croix Collection

This intriguing photo from the library's John Runk photo collection, initially dated August 27, 1917, and believed to be taken on North Third Street, offers a glimpse into a significant moment in local history.​ Research on the back of the picture provides a closer...

Stillwater’s hospital owes its existence to the efforts of a group of benevolent-minded women who sought to provide care to the city’s “sick and destitute.” Before 1880, the city had no hospital, so in February of that year, a group of the city’s leading women met to...

We’re celebrating with this stunning photograph of Stillwater and the St. Croix Valley that features two of Stillwater’s schools from the early 1900s, Central School and Stillwater High School. Central School housed children in primary grades from 1869 to 1937. It had...

We love the Olympic Games! The stories, the nail-biting competition, the colorful commentary – all of it! Local connections engage us even more so we’re delighted that Stillwater has had some of its own Summer Olympic hopefuls. We didn't have to go very far back into...

The beauty of the St. Croix River has always been best enjoyed from the water! Back in the early 1900s, the grand steamer Sidney graced Stillwater's levee. It was the era of moonlit excursions where gentlemen paid 50 cents and ladies 25 cents for a magical journey...

130 years ago on May 9, 1894 at 5:15 PM, a spring storm arrived in Stillwater bringing hail and heavy rain. It soon flooded the town. That first storm caused significant street and building damage, and even resulted in a death, but was only the first of four storms...

Logjams were a near yearly event in late spring and early summer as the loggers upriver dumped the season’s logs into the swollen St. Croix River to be carried downstream to the lumber mills in Stillwater. Significant logjams occurred in Taylor’s Falls in 1865, 1877,...

In our post featuring the Majestic Theatre (located at 229 Main Street South, the current home of Smith + Trade Mercantile), we listed the other businesses visible in the photo including the building that then housed the clothing store I.G. Ziegler at 233 Main Street...

Pictured is one of two prisoner dining halls at the old Minnesota State Prison at Stillwater. The photo dates to around 1900. There were two dining halls for prisoners, one reserved for the “first-grade” prisoners and one for the “second-grade” prisoners (the...

The Majestic Theatre stood at 229 South Main Street, in the building Smith + Trade Mercantile now calls home. The distinctive rooflines of both the theatre and the Waffle Parlor next door remain unchanged today. The Waffle Parlor building is the current location of...