Stacked logs owned by the Bronson and Folsom Company on the Stillwater levee near Mulberry Point in 1904. This is approximately where P.D. Pappy’s restaurant is located now. Photos: John Runk/Minnesota Historical Society
Stillwater Area History Spots project uses QR codes to share stories from St. Croix Valley’s past.
A project funded by the Stillwater Area Community Foundation’s Great Idea Competition will allow visitors and residents to look back in time from their smartphones.
Stillwater Area History Spots is an initiative that brings a simple, free way to access a breadth of historical research and archives in Bayport, Stillwater, Lake Elmo and Marine on St. Croix. About 70 QR codes will be displayed on windows, street poles and sidewalks; passersby can simply pick up a smartphone, scan the code and learn about the area’s history.
It’s a free project that Stillwater’s Matt Thuesen has been working toward for much of his life, since his grandmother brought him to view the St. Croix Collection at Stillwater Public Library in grade school. “[I] kind of fell in love with the idea that anybody could go to a library and learn more about the places around them,” Thuesen says.
As an adolescent, he was intrigued by the location of the first Stillwater High School, which burned down in 1957 and is now a parking lot. “It was a really neat building with a tower on the corner, and I remember thinking how cool it’d be to go to a school that had a tower,” he says.
Now, it will be one of dozens of historic sites included in the project, alongside others like Stillwater’s first cemetery on North Hill, the locations of two of the area’s first breweries—including the Joseph Wolf Brewery on Main and Nelson streets—and a portion of streetcar line, known as Rattlesnake Curve, that’s now a walking trail near McKusick Lake.
Historic photograph of Downtown Stillwater taken from the Main Street Stairs.
“It was important to not just have things in the main tourist areas, but also the neighborhoods so that it’s really for residents and visitors,” Thuesen says.
At some sites, viewers will be able to see the shifting landscape of a scene via a historic image, standing in the exact spot as the photographer. Others will link viewers to articles and audio files compiled by area historians over time and in collaboration with recent projects like Lens Flare Stillwater. “I’m hoping that the codes tie it all together,” Thuesen says.
Thuesen, who serves as chair of Stillwater’s Heritage Preservation Commission and is a former board member of the Washington County Historical Society (WCHS), has been in conversation with area governments and historians, including Brent Peterson and Donald Empson, to identify the QR code locations and content. The $10,000 grant from the contest will go entirely to material costs, with a modest amount going to WCHS for staff research time.
There are no plans to share a map of all QR codes, and Thuesen adds that it’s likely residents will continue to find new codes in the months and years to come. While the sidewalk decals will be removed before winter, the window decals and signs will stay up longer.
“History of a town is something that we all share, whether we’ve lived in a town a long time, or we’re totally brand new to a city or we don’t even live in a community and are just visiting it for a day or a week. [History is] something that ties all those people together and belongs to all of us,” Thuesen says.
“I’m just really grateful that the Stillwater Area Community Foundation has the Great Idea competition and was willing to select this as the idea,” he says. “I think it’ll be something nice for both residents and visitors this summer.”
Grant applications for the 2024 Great Idea Competition are due June 30. For more information, visit stillwaterareafoundation.org.
Stillwater Area Community Foundation
715.386.9490
Facebook: Stillwater Area Foundation
