The stained glass wall on the east side of Edina City Hall is exactly where it should be: close to the site of Edina Mill.
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Then & Now
“Moans from homeowners who find snowdrifts deposited by snowplows in newly shoveled driveways can be silenced,” Popular Mechanics wrote in November 1962, about an invention created in the village of Edina, Minnesota.
Between the scent of freshly baked bread and its tempting window display of cakes and cookies, Joyce’s Bakery lured customers inside its doors near 44th and France for almost five decades.
Clara Parsons might not be as well-known as developers Carl Hansen or Samuel Thorpe, who built large subdivisions in Edina, but she made her mark in Morningside by building homes one by one along Alden Drive in the early 1900s.
Edina’s student population grew rapidly in the 1960s, and overcrowding forced the district to open a second high school in 1972.
The Mann France Avenue Drive-in opened June 15, 1966, on the grounds of a former garbage dump at Interstate 494 and France Avenue.
Hollywood came to Minnesota in 1994, and Edina played a starring role. Castle Rock Entertainment filmed much of the feature film Little Big League at the Metrodome—not surprisingly, since the movie is about a 12-year-old boy who inherits his grandfather’s baseball team, the Minnesota Twins.
Most of the time, being locked in at school overnight would be a student’s worst nightmare. For graduating seniors of Edina High School, it’s something they look forward to all year.
The City of Edina’s first rescue vehicle, purchased in 1953, was quickly christened “the breadwagon” because it looked “like a big bread truck that the Holsum Bread guy used to deliver bread,” recalls former fire chief Ted Paulfranz.
Learn about the history of your neighborhood and its pioneers. Visit the Edina History Museum’s “Edina on the Map” exhibit on display through Fall 2014. 612.928.4577; edinahistoricalsociety.org
Now an established hockey power with 11 state high school boys’ hockey championships, Edina’s hockey program was in its infancy in the 1950s.
