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Editor's ViewpointMeditations Of A Minnesota Mossback |
A Trip Down Main Street— And Goodbye To A Landmark
It was the morning of Jan. 3. I was at my computer mulling over the column I was about to write for the January 6, 2010 edition of The Citizen.
My phone rang.
“Carpenter’s is on fire!” my neighbor’s voice said.
Grabbing my coat and camera, I headed out into the bitter cold. Needless to say, the column I’d planned to write didn’t get written.
We went to press the next day with a new front page that featured an unusual photographic perspective on the fire. (Feed Mill manager Steve Marier climbed a ladder up to the top of the grain elevator to snap some photos through the window. For a “framed” view of the fire, see Page 6.)
By the end of the day, the demise of a building that predated the establishment of the Village of Hugo by 15 years had been noted on dozens of news broadcasts and Web sites.
Joseph Carpenter built his grocery and feed store in Oneka Township in 1891, close to the 16-year-old Centerville Station railroad depot, and just north of the Centerville Road on what would later come to be designated as Highway 61. The name “Hugo” wouldn’t be used in the area for another decade.
Carpenter hoped to capture business from the frequent stops made by the trains running between St. Paul to Duluth, and from the 400 or so individuals who lived in the township.
It is difficult to capture what the outside world was like in 1891 when the dusty roads of the community were still traversed by horse, buggy and farm wagon.
In that same year,
• George A. Hormel & Co. introduced Spam
• Carnegie Hall (called “Music Hall” at its dedication) opened in New York City with Tchaikovsky as guest conductor
• Work on the trans-Siberian railway began
• Henrik Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler” premiered in Oslo
• Edison patented the motion picture camera
• A new immigration depot opened on Ellis Island, New York
• The first gasoline-powered car made its debut in Springfield, Mass.
• The first great train robbery by the Dalton Gang took place
• And finally, a Hatfield finally married a McCoy, ending a 20-year feud in West Virginia that started with an accusation of pigstealing. (Whoever said history was boring?)
In 1902, Joseph Carpenter’s son Frank Carpenter added a dance hall to the store. According to Marcel Carpenter, Joseph’s grandson, heavyweight boxer Tommy Gibbons—born in St. Paul the year that Carpenter’s was built—boxed upstairs.
Twenty years later, a restaurant was added.
Hugo Feed Mill owner Joe Marier, 90, recalls the way the establishment looked when he was a boy. “There used to be a porch there with railings, just like in the Old West,” he said. “It was a beautiful porch, with a line of Captain’s chairs against the wall … all the old timers would be sitting there on those chairs. After awhile, the screen door would open, and they’d get up and go inside.
That was a signal that the liquor salesman was in town, and he was buying drinks for everyone. They’d all go traipsing in…”
In the 1940s and 50s, as more families acquired cars, St. Paul and Minneapolis residents were known to take a pleasant weekend drive to the country for a good meal. The restaurant, located along the east side of Highway 61 on the shores of Egg Lake, was one of several popular area destinations.
Working through a series of ownerships and names, the restaurant was purchased by descendants of the Carpenter family in 1957, and renamed Carpenter’s Steakhouse.
Swan Anderson, current owner Cathy Anderson’s late husband, kept the name when he bought the business from Joy Carpenter in 1969.
Cathy Anderson and her son Mike Anderson have had plans in the works for a number of years to build their new restaurant, Carpenter’s On The Lake.
We wish them well in their endeavors to rebuild.