History

Additional info coming soon on such topics as:
Cahill settlement
Edina Mill
Minnehaha Grange
Edina's name & founding
Streetcars
Morningside
Country Club District
50th & France
Southdale
Schools
Parks
Timeline of Edina events

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for more Edina history

Edina: from mill town to mall suburb

Edina Mill, copyrighted image. Do not copy without written permission.
Edina took its name from the Edina Mill, a flour mill located at Minnehaha Creek.

Edina Mill

Edina may not have been Edina without the little red flour mill on Minnehaha Creek.

Four investors built the mill in 1857, and a rural village soon grew up around it. The mill changed hands and names several times, but it became known as Edina Mills after new owner Andrew Craik purchased the business and named it after his native town of Edinborough.

The Edina Mill community grew to eventually include a general store, post office, church and school. Minnehaha Grange Hall No. 398 was built in 1879 at the southeast corner of Wooddale Avenue and 50th Street, current site of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church.

The area was then part of Richfield Township, but the community near Edina Mills developed a separate identity. In 1888, area farmers voted to secede from Richfield and incorporate as the Village of Edina.


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For further investigation:
Visit the Edina Mill site to find out more. Park at Wooddale Park and walk to the area east of Browndale Bridge near the creek. You can see the outline of the mill ruins. Interpretive signs show several historic photos and provide in-depth explanation. (See map at right)

Several pieces of the mill, historic photos and informative text are on display at the Edina History Museum. The museum collections include a research file on the Mill, including information from an archeological dig of the site.