Non-basic Commercial Development - Early Downtown Anoka
In response to milling activity, a nonbasic commercial scene developed. Supporting service and retail establishments were required to meet the associated needs of conducting business and sustaining a labor population. Trade activity required spaces to accommodate and entertain visiting businessmen and a post office to facilitate communication. The growing labor population required accommodations and access to everyday goods and services. A school was necessary to attract men with families to work in the mills. Within just fifteen months of the opening of the first mill site in Anoka, an infant downtown was active. |
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Description of Downtown Anoka that appeared St. Anthony Republic, November 22, 1855 "On the west side of the river stands the Farnham House, a large and commodious hotel; also a post office, three stores …groceries... dry goods…and clothing; a livery stable …two shoemakers and a tailor's signs, greet the hungry, the naked, the weary and sick. Here 21 buildings in a town of scarcely 15 months of age, enliven the western banks of the Rum River. On the east side of the river are located the mill, the Anoka House… hardware store.., dry goods and grocery…, which with dwellings swells the total number of buildings to 50 and over in the town … a comfortable school house is in the process of construction." |
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| Artist's rendition of an early business in Anoka, 1884 | |
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The first form of public transportation shortly followed initial industrial activity. In the early 1850s regular ferry service connecting Anoka to neighbors across the Mississippi and Rum Rivers began. The first bridge over the Mississippi, the river on the Minneapolis-facing side of Anoka, soon followed. It would be thirty years before construction of a bridge over the Rum River, connecting Anoka to Champlin Park. The fact that the bridge over the Mississippi preceded the Rum River reflects the precedence of facilitating efficient connections with Minneapolis due to Anoka's reliance on economic ties with the central Twin Cities. |
| Artist's rendition of ferry crossing site on the Rum River, 1884 | |