A new bridge for Lyndale

“Down by the old mill stream . . .”
That’s what they used to think of Minnehaha Creek at Lyndale.

According to Brian Johnson in Finance and Commerce, “Before 1892, a flour mill operated in the area along what was then known as Little Falls Creek. Today, there are no visible signs of the mill, which was torn down shortly before the current bridge was built.”

Archeologists combed the area before the new construction to find evidence of the old mill, but, sadly, there have been no startling discoveries of old ruins. The water power from the creek was used to turn a number of mills in the 1880s before milling moved big-time to downtown and the Mississippi River. Johnson continued: “No photographs of the mill are known to exist. But based on property records and maps, historians believe the mill was very close to the site of the bridge. The mill — most commonly known as “Richfield Mills” (and also known as Richland Mill, the Old Red Mill and the Prescott and Co. Mill, Frame said) — was one of six flour mills that operated along Minnehaha Creek in the 1800s.

Bob Frame, a senior historian with the local office of the architecture and engineering firm Mead and Hunt, which is working on the Lyndale Avenue bridge project, told Johnson, “The mill was owned by prominent Minnesotans Philander Prescott, Willis Moffett and Eli Pettijohn. In 1886, with the intention of building an orphanage at 50th Street and Nicollet Avenue and surrounding it with residential development, William Washburn purchased 12 acres that included the mill property. The project was never fully developed, and the city annexed what was known as Washburn Park in 1887.”

The old bridge was built in 1892 and served the city well for 120 years, but it began showing signs of dangerous deterioration. The last sufficiency rating for the bridge was 29.3 out of a possible score of 100, and it was classified as “structurally deficient.” According to the Hennepin County report on the bridge, “Portions of the sidewalk have been closed due to accelerated deterioration of steel beams supporting it. The trail below was recently closed due to the potential for falling debris.”

Donald Shaffer, the Hennepin County engineer in charge of the construction, says, “The Lyndale bridge is on schedule to be opened to traffic this fall. We do not have an exact date since work can be affected by weather, unforeseen obstacles, etc. We would like to have Lyndale Avenue opened to traffic sometime in middle to late October. There still may be work that needs to be completed but it would be done with traffic on Lyndale Avenue. In conjunction with the bridge, we are hoping to have the Lyndale Avenue road project substantially completed at about the same time.”

The Nicollet-East Harriet Business Association (NEHBA) is planning a ribbon-cutting event to officially celebrate the opening of the new bridge in October.