Alvena Cota's Beauty Shop opened in 1945 and operated into the 1980s. Her shop was located first on the south side of Tenth Street and later moved to Old Highway 8, behind the Skelley Station.
Undue influences by the railroad and sanitation problems forced the operation to close in 1901. After the packing industry left the New Brighton area, the pens were used for many years for feeding and watering livestock before they were shipped to Chicago, Illinois, or Sioux City, Iowa. Sheep pens are shown in this photo.
The Devine Hotel, also called Brighton Hotel and Long Lake House, in New Brighton was located along Front Street and Sixth Avenue in New Brighton during the stockyards heyday. It was built by William Devine I. There were five hotels in downtown New Brighton, all catering to the stockyard staff and workers. The hotel also contained a saloon. On the far right is the spire of the old Town Hall located on 5th Avenue.
Duluth Missabe and Iron Range Railway was formed by the merger of the Duluth and Iron Range Railway (D&IR) and Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railway (DM&N) in 1938. It was a railroad operating in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin to haul iron ore and later taconite to the Great Lakes port of Duluth, Minnesota, and Two Harbors, Minnesota. DM&IR train is shown leaving Proctor, Minnesota.
Ernie Swanson and his horse-drawn wagon from the Swanson Dairy Farm on Silver Lake Road in New Brighton delivering milk on his northeast Minneapolis route.
Mounted cattlemen in front of the opulent Exchange Hotel in 1900. Built to accommodate 159 guests, the hotel, first called the Cattlemen's Hotel, was constructed at a cost of $30,000. This building housed a hotel, dining room, bank, land company, railroad offices, stock commission offices, telegraph office, newspaper presses, barber shop, saloon, and gaming rooms. It eventually became a canning factory and lastly Beisswenger's Hardware. The building was razed in October, 1988.
The First Congregational Church of New Brighton was incorporated in 1890 and built in 1892 at a cost of $1500. It was located on the west side of 5th Avenue and 6th Street and operated in that location until 1958, when it was purchased by the New Brighton Christian Church. It relocated to Long Lake Road and changed its name to United Church of Christ in New Brighton. Social events at the church included annual picnics at Como Park.
The first church in New Brighton was the First Congregational Church of New Brighton, incorporated on September 5, 1890. This church was built in 1892 at a cost of $1500. It was located on the west side of Fifth Avenue and Sixth Street.
New Brighton Elementary School, originally called District #18, was built in 1890, and served students in the area until 1939, when the second New Brighton Elementary School was built on 8th Avenue. The first building eventually housed the Setchall-Carlson electronics company.
The first school in New Brighton was located on Fifth Avenue west of Cleveland Avenue. Originally called District #18, It opened in 1890 and closed in 1939, when a new New Brighton School opened. Students and staff pose outside the school building on a winter day.
Tommy Kowaksi was one of New Brighton's first policeman, but also served as the town street sweeper. This photo was taken on present day Fifth Avenue, facing north, with the Hudoba Building and the Transit House Hotel in the background.
Prominent local businessman Franklin M. Searles, owner of F. M. Searles Lumber, a firm that also served as the Post Office, fuel store, and feed store in New Brighton. Pictured, far right, with children Monna, DeWitt, Isola, Coy, and wife Sadie Alice Sackett Searles. Searles also served on the Village Council and as a delegate to various Republican conventions.
The Peder Foss home, located on Silver Lake Road in New Brighton, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Minnesota Historical Society stated that it recognized the Foss House as "historically and architecturally significant as the largest and most intact Victorian house" located in New Brighton. The home was built in 1896 and still stands today.
Children of Franklin Searles, New Brighton prominent businessman, are shown: son Coy Searles; daughter Marnie Searles; friend E. Lawrence Haglund; daughter Maude Searles
Among the retail establishments in New Brighton in the 1920s was Frank Zamor's Ice Cream Parlor with Rosina Boryczka working behind the counter in 1925.
Harris Brothers Forge and Rolling Mill began in the Irondale area in 1891. This mill turned bundles of scrap iron into large balls which were made into various shapes and forms. Seventy-five company homes were built for workers and their families near the mill. Ruinous fires brought the demise of the iron foundry in 1893.
The Hudoba Building, built by Alexander Hudoba, served as a general store, saloon, living quarters, and hotel, with the basement level used for farm animals. Alexander Hudoba, and sons, Walter, Alex, and Leonard Hudoba stand outside the building.
Long Lake water had a reputation for its clean quality and the ice-making industry flourished for over sixth years. A conveyer carries the ice up from the water to a platform from where it is loaded on sleighs at the Peoples Coal and Ice Company. Commercial ice houses dating back to the early 1890s were located on the north, east, and southwestern shores of the lake. They flourished until the 1950s when modernized refrigeration made them virtually extinct.
Peoples Coal and Ice Company worker Hank Bona, working with a scorer to split the ice into blocks before it loads the conveyer. When ice was 10 inches thick, snow was removed with teams of horses and scrapers. First an ice marker cut a groove one-half inch wide and two inches deep. Each block was 20 inches by 32 inches. Then a groove eight to ten inches deep was cut with an ice plow and horse power. After cutting, the blocks were floated to the conveyer by a man riding the block using a pike pole. The chains of the conveyor extended into water three feet.