The Robbinsdale Lions Club was organized February 28, 1939, with 24 charter members. The first officers included Donald Ruble, president, H. Elmer Westmoreland, Jim Lowe, Arthur Starbird, Orvold Boyum, E. J. Cooper, Ivan Wagner, Clyde Cutter, Thomas Howard, Dick Ude, and John Ellis.
One early accomplishment was the erecting of the flagpole on Highway 52 which was dedicated on November 11, 1939. Al Bossert was the contractor, the cost was $500. It is 50 feet high and has a six-foot Kasota stone base. Another project was the establishment of Lions Park on lower Twin Lake at Highways 100 and 52, equipping it with tables and fireplaces.
The Lions Club is a service oriented organization and by many money raising events has, over the years, helped the community in many ways glasses for needy school children, toy projects at Christmas, support of the eye bank, collection of 16 tons of clothing during and after World_War II for the needy overseas, sweat shirts for a soft-ball team, flags for the flagpole on Highway 52, a braille typewriter for a blind girl, flags presented to each school building, sponsored athletic teams for youth to name but a few projects. During World War II the Lions Club helped give the “boys” a send-off with coffee and doughnuts, participated in War Bond drives and erected an Honor Roll Service Board on West Broadway with names of all service men with a blue star, replacing the blue with gold if the service man died in action.
A July Robbinsdale Post issue reported that there were “180 husbands of families laid out of work due to the national W. P. A. strike. The W. P. A. had been started as an emergency measure and striking seemed to not be sound reasoning.”
In September, the American Legion had its fourth annual breakfast and turkey shoot at the North Minneapolis Gun Club, one-half mile north of Robbinsdale on Highway 52. Shooting offered included fa-ap, skeet, rifle and archery. “You do not have to be a shooter to win a turkey” the advertisement said as prizes also went to the worst shooters. This “shoot” had been originated by Commander James F. Lowe.
Also in September, Bertha and Ruth Trump were on a trip to Europe on a German ocean liner when hostilities broke out. They were taken to the neutral port of Rotterdam and returned home.
In October, Mr. and Mrs. J. V. Dutton, 4130 Quail Avenue, celebrated their
60th wedding anniversary. They were really pioneers. Mr. Dutton’s father, Josiah, came from Vermont and started a farm at Bass Lake Road and Jefferson Highway in 1853, during the days when the Sioux and the Chippewa Indians were at war. He donated land for this area’s first church, the Little White in Crystal. Several Robbinsdale families attended this church until the organization of the First Congregational Church in 1889. J. V. Dutton married Eva Robinson, daughter of the pastor at the church.
1n the December 5 election, voters approved a primary election for local officials to be on the same date as the state primary. The four precincts were to become wards and lines were to be redrawn, giving 600 voters to each ward.
Wally Moore, 40th and Lakeland, was awarded first prize in the Christmas outdoor lighting contest sponsored by the Woman’s Club. Frank Hollsten and Les Thieland won 2nd and 3rd. Except during World War II, we’ve always enjoyed the outdoor lighting. Some homes were fantastically decorated until the 1973 OPEC oil crises and conserving electricity has become a way of life.
This post is part of a series loosely based on the book Robbinsdale Then and Now by Helen Blodget. The image at the top of the post features a bird’s eye view of Robbinsdale’s Regent Avenue schools.