The Story of the Princeton Depot
Background:
The Elk River-Milaca Line
At the end of 1885, the Princeton & Elk River Stage Company was the only way to get from Princeton, Minnesota to Elk River where the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba and the Great Northern railways could take them to the Twin Cities and beyond. The Great Northern originally ran from Twin Cities through Elk River and then to St. Cloud. Another line ran from St. Cloud through Milaca to Hinckley and Duluth. The St. Paul & Pacific R.R. and the Great Northern had introduced passenger service twice daily between St. Paul and Elk River in 1864 during the Civil War. There were plans to expand further at that time, but the aftermath of the Civil War greatly impacted those plans.
Although pioneer residents of Princeton and Zimmerman frequently approached the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba’s management to request railway service, they were repeatedly rebuffed. In January 1886 at the urging of their friend Major A.M. Fridley of Anoka, a group of men from Princeton and Elk River decided to call on James J. Hill personally to discuss getting the trains to run through Mille Lacs County. An audience with Hill was granted, and the committee told him what they thought Mille Lacs County residents would do to get a rail line constructed through their communities. Hill took advantage of the impetuosity of the Princetonians and their neighbors and suggested jointly financing the cost of construction. In early March of 1886, he proposed that Mille Lacs County would be obligated to raise about $50,000 by selling twenty-year, five percent bonds. On March 25th the Princeton Union announced that the railroad bond proposition was overwhelmingly approved, 430 to 66. Voters in the village of Princeton cast 241 votes supporting the bond issue and not a single ballot in opposition. Hill's proposal worked to everyone’s advantage – he got a long sought after shortcut to Duluth and the locals got rail service.
The Elk River-Milaca Line
At the end of 1885, the Princeton & Elk River Stage Company was the only way to get from Princeton, Minnesota to Elk River where the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba and the Great Northern railways could take them to the Twin Cities and beyond. The Great Northern originally ran from Twin Cities through Elk River and then to St. Cloud. Another line ran from St. Cloud through Milaca to Hinckley and Duluth. The St. Paul & Pacific R.R. and the Great Northern had introduced passenger service twice daily between St. Paul and Elk River in 1864 during the Civil War. There were plans to expand further at that time, but the aftermath of the Civil War greatly impacted those plans.
Although pioneer residents of Princeton and Zimmerman frequently approached the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba’s management to request railway service, they were repeatedly rebuffed. In January 1886 at the urging of their friend Major A.M. Fridley of Anoka, a group of men from Princeton and Elk River decided to call on James J. Hill personally to discuss getting the trains to run through Mille Lacs County. An audience with Hill was granted, and the committee told him what they thought Mille Lacs County residents would do to get a rail line constructed through their communities. Hill took advantage of the impetuosity of the Princetonians and their neighbors and suggested jointly financing the cost of construction. In early March of 1886, he proposed that Mille Lacs County would be obligated to raise about $50,000 by selling twenty-year, five percent bonds. On March 25th the Princeton Union announced that the railroad bond proposition was overwhelmingly approved, 430 to 66. Voters in the village of Princeton cast 241 votes supporting the bond issue and not a single ballot in opposition. Hill's proposal worked to everyone’s advantage – he got a long sought after shortcut to Duluth and the locals got rail service.
As March 1886 ended, surveying and locating had progressed sufficiently to open up the job for bids. Shepard & Co., one of Hill’s favorite contractors, was awarded the contract for building the road, but Shepard opted to sublet the project. Consequently, large numbers of sub-contractors began inspecting the proposed route in early April prior to submitting firm bids. Engineers and surveyors had encountered considerable difficulty locating a route across Tibbets Brook in the town of Livonia. Several routes were surveyed, but engineers observed that the ground in the vicinity was unstable due to marshy conditions. Ultimately the problem was solved by going around the east side of Lake Fremont. Soon thereafter contracts were let for clearing the route north of Princeton.
On Sunday, 24 October 1886, a track-laying crew of about 100 men arrived in Elk River and laid the first rail at 4:37 PM the next day. A spokesman for the crew said they were capable of laying two miles of track daily. The gentle gradients and curves, shallow fills, and low bridges over slow-running creeks on the line did not present much of an engineering challenge, so the work was done quickly and on November 29, 1886 the Elk River-Milaca Line was born. The stations on the branch were Elk River, Zimmerman, Princeton, Brickton, Long's Siding (now known as just Long Siding), Pease and Milaca where the line connected to the St. Cloud and Hinckley branch, resulting in Hill's shortcut to Duluth. According to a commenter on the Abandoned Rails.com site, a local joke was that the reason the train took so long to get from Princeton to Milaca is because it always stops in Long Siding and Pease. ;-)
Initially, service was frequent, but in November 1899, the route to Duluth was relocated to a line passing further east, connecting through Coon Rapids, Cambridge and Brook Park. The new line between Duluth and the Twin Cities was named “The Bee Line.” As a result, over a period of years, service on the Elk River-Milaca Line declined. Within two weeks after the Bee Line commenced, the Minneapolis Evening Journal reported, “Princeton is kicking vigorously over the lack of train facilities since the day train on the Eastern Minnesota was transferred to the Coon Creek cut-off. Now the Princeton people have only one train each way a day, and these trains pass through the village in the dead hours of the night. The town is only a short distance from Minneapolis, but it gets no mail until it is a day old.” The slow decline lasted for years, with luxury passenger cars being replaced with ordinary coaches in 1908, the U.S. Mail route being lost in 1930, and passenger service terminated altogether in 1952. Freight service was discontinued between Princeton and Milaca between 1972 and 1973 and between Elk River and Princeton in 1976, at which time the Elk River-Milaca Line, James J. Hill's one-time prized shortcut to Duluth, was abandoned.
The Princeton Great Northern Depot Arrives
In spite of the decline that had started in 1899, in 1902 Great Northern invested about $15,594 (the local press inflated the cost to $20,000) in a brand new brick structure to replace the red, wooden station that had been there since the Elk River-Milaca Line opened. The new depot was dedicated Friday January 30, 1903 with approximately 500 people attending the ceremony. Festivities included, of course, speeches by political luminaries and other local dignitaries, a dance at Jesmer’s opera house, and a very lavish supper at the Commercial Hotel. A special train carrying two coaches of revelers from Milaca arrived at 8:15 PM. The merrymaking reportedly continued until almost 4:00 AM when the special train for the Milaca people departed.
In spite of the decline that had started in 1899, in 1902 Great Northern invested about $15,594 (the local press inflated the cost to $20,000) in a brand new brick structure to replace the red, wooden station that had been there since the Elk River-Milaca Line opened. The new depot was dedicated Friday January 30, 1903 with approximately 500 people attending the ceremony. Festivities included, of course, speeches by political luminaries and other local dignitaries, a dance at Jesmer’s opera house, and a very lavish supper at the Commercial Hotel. A special train carrying two coaches of revelers from Milaca arrived at 8:15 PM. The merrymaking reportedly continued until almost 4:00 AM when the special train for the Milaca people departed.
The depot, designed by J. C. Patterson and constructed by Libby & Nelson of Minneapolis, was a marvel of its day and was considered by some to be the finest depot within 200 miles of the Twin Cities. Its 215 foot length, 35 foot height and 37+ foot width dwarfed other structures in Princeton. The building, a combination of Queen Anne and Jacobean architectural styles, was built of Princeton cream colored brick produced in nearby Brickton, sandstone trim and a red cedar shingled roof. Passengers boarded trains from a stone platform.
The building is now the home of the Mille Lacs County Historical Society and contains all of the county’s historical archives of photos, newspapers, microfilm, artifacts and documents. The depot, listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 23, 1977 (NRHP Reference # 77000757), made the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota 10 Most Endangered Historic Places list in 2010, and was nominated for inclusion again in 2011. Several grants for funds to replace the roof of the depot were applied for and rejected. An application for a Minnesota Historical and Cultural grant from the Minnesota Historical Society was submitted in May 2013, and a $245,685 grant was finally awarded to the Mille Lacs County Historical Society in December 2013 for a new roof.
Sources:
Abandoned Rails: Elk River to Milaca. (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.abandonedrails.com/Elk_River_to_Milaca.
Great Northern Railway - Baldwin Township. (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.baldwintownship.govoffice.com/index.asp?SEC=0C14BA52-C9DA-417A-98C4-7D880E025A21&Type=B_BASIC.
Great Northern Depot (Princeton, Minnesota). (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Northern_Depot_(Princeton,_Minnesota).
About Us (Mille Lacs County Historical Society) (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mnmlchs/page2.htm.
Princeton Union-Eagle December 19, 2013 Jeff Hage Depot receives $245,685 grant. (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://unioneagle.com/2013/12/depot-receives-245685-grant/
Great Northern Depot (Princeton) (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.mnpreservation.org/2011/05/02/great-northern-depot-princeton/
Princeton Depot Grand Opening (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.mnbricks.com/princeton-depot-grand-opening
Minnesota Depots-A list of known surviving Great Northern depots in Minnesota (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.greatnorthernempire.net/GNEDepotsMinnesota4.htm
COMING SOON - Short Histories of the other two sisters
Abandoned Rails: Elk River to Milaca. (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.abandonedrails.com/Elk_River_to_Milaca.
Great Northern Railway - Baldwin Township. (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.baldwintownship.govoffice.com/index.asp?SEC=0C14BA52-C9DA-417A-98C4-7D880E025A21&Type=B_BASIC.
Great Northern Depot (Princeton, Minnesota). (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Northern_Depot_(Princeton,_Minnesota).
About Us (Mille Lacs County Historical Society) (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mnmlchs/page2.htm.
Princeton Union-Eagle December 19, 2013 Jeff Hage Depot receives $245,685 grant. (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://unioneagle.com/2013/12/depot-receives-245685-grant/
Great Northern Depot (Princeton) (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.mnpreservation.org/2011/05/02/great-northern-depot-princeton/
Princeton Depot Grand Opening (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.mnbricks.com/princeton-depot-grand-opening
Minnesota Depots-A list of known surviving Great Northern depots in Minnesota (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.greatnorthernempire.net/GNEDepotsMinnesota4.htm
COMING SOON - Short Histories of the other two sisters