Tragic Foreshadowing for the Warden’s House

Just in the last issue of the Messenger we discussed how newspapers of the past didn’t shy away from publishing private personal matters. While this may have upset the subjects of the stories at the time, it really does allow historians a very intimate look into the lives of these people.

Warden Henry Wolfer was the longest serving Warden of the Old Stillwater Prison. Since he was the resident of our humble museum for 20 years, we know a good deal of information concerning not only his professional life but also his personal and family happenings. The main drama of the latter being the death of his daughter Gertrude.

After marrying the prison physician, Gertrude and her new husband moved across the state to Blue Earth, Minnesota around 1907. Unfortunately, shortly after the birth of their first son Winston, the young mother suffered a case of appendicitis and passed away.

Although I had always imagined to be a case of a sudden and lethal bout of unhealthiness – the following short article reveals poor Trudy’s appendix woes to be part of a longer pattern. It also tragically records her family’s ultimately futile efforts.

News Briefs – Stillwater Messenger – December 30, 1905

Mr. and Mrs. Warden Wolfer and daughter Gertrude leave in a few days for Florida, to be gone a couple of months. They go in the hope of benefiting their daughters’ health, which has been poorly of late.

Pulling Up Tracks

by Brent Peterson

There have been many buildings that have come and gone in Stillwater either by fire, flood or by just being torn down. Some don’t bring many memories back, some bring a few, but no other building brings back the flood of memories than the old Stillwater Union Depot.

It was the Stillwater and St. Paul Railroad that constructed an 18-mile railroad track from White Bear Lake to Stillwater. The track reached the north part of Stillwater on December 29, 1870 (144 years and a day ago) and that was when Stillwater was connected with the rest of the world.

Within the next 15 years, Stillwater was the end of the line for four branch lines of three different railroads. This made for much passenger confusion, so a petition was passed around by Stillwater residents for the creation of a “Union Station.”

The transfer company, which linked the railroads together, took on the depot project. The head of the transfer company was Dwight M. Sabin, a Stillwater resident and U.S. Senator.

The transfer company was in “receivership” or what today we would call chapter 11, but the company went ahead with the construction of the new depot in July 1887. Chicago architects Edward Burling and Francis Whitehouse were contracted to design the building and local contractor L.W. Eldred was hired to build it.

The building opened to the public on February 7, 1888 to a great charity ball. The headline in the Stillwater Gazette read, “For Sweet Charity’s Sake” and continued with “The opening of the Union Station a Brilliant Success.”

The exterior of the building was done in the Gothic Revival style with stone arches, gables and at the northwest corner, a 75-foot clock tower. The building was built with “drab colored cut stone, furnished by Henry Furst & Co. of Chicago.” Each stone was numbered and fit in the place for which it was designed in a “snug” manner. The foundation walls were constructed with Stillwater stone furnished by C. Colgren. The roof was made of slate with tin and copper rain spouts. All the pine timbers used in the construction were purchased from Hersey & Bean lumber company and from John G. Nelson. F.H. Lemon, of Stillwater, did the painting and decorating of the building.

Inside the building there were oak, maple and pine floors, along with beautiful stained glass windows and terra cotta fireplace mantles. It had 20 functioning rooms on two floors that were ornately decorated with tongue and grooved wainscoting and bevel edged mirrors. The depot was equipped with electricity, but it also included gas lighting.

The total cost of the depot was $45,000 and Sam Hadley was the proprietor of the “cozy little barbershop” and Dan Harkins was in charge of the baggage room while George Hill oversaw the “check room.”

Three transfer companies operated the depot at one time or another, all failing. James J. Hill’s Northern Pacific Railroad purchased the final transfer company in 1902. Northern Pacific stopped passenger service from the depot in 1927, but kept a ticket office there until 1954.

In 1903, just after Hill purchased the transfer company, a new ticket agent started at the depot. Joseph Carroll, later known to most of Stillwater as “Papa” Joe Carroll would work and live at the depot for more than five decades. The depot went through many changes of occupants during its life. Morey Crotto operated the lunch counter starting in 1932. The ladies waiting room was converted into the bus depot in 1946. By 1952, the bus depot closed and the place was used by the St. Croix Valley Arts group until 1955.

Russell Gilbert took over ownership of the depot in 1955 where he began his business called United Fabricators and Electronics [UFE]. He sold the depot to Hooley’s in 1959 when his new building on South Greeley Street was completed (which, of course, WCHS purchased and is the process of converting into the new Washington County Heritage Center).

Hooley’s torn down the old depot in April 1960 to make way for a new and modern supermarket.

It has been more than 50 years since the Union Station was hauled away from the skyline of Stillwater’s downtown. It is probably the most felt and grieved building that was lost in Stillwater, but not the only one. As Stillwater prepares itself for another transformation with the construction of the new St. Croix River Crossing, let us not lose sight of what once was and vow to not to lose anymore than we already have.

Full Image of Depot