Union Elevator
Photo from James Sinclair, courtesy of the New York City Public Library. It shows the Union Elevator in the background and Steam Engine in the foreground. The photo is ca.1890’s. The photo was from a stereopticon slide.
Union Elevator and Freight and Passenger Depot
Stillwater, MN 1870’s
This is another James Sinclair photograph of Stillwater from the early 1870’s. It shows a steam engine sitting on tracks adjacent to a freight and passenger terminal. This was long before there was a Union Depot, built in 1887, in Stillwater.
In the background, you can see a rather large grain elevator. The drawings of the elevator show that the roof height was 110 feet. The Union Elevator was built in 1871 and burned in 1898. The same scene today shows a great view of the St. Croix River, but there is no footprint or shadow of either the elevator or the original freight/passenger depot to be seen. There were other elevators and buildings in Stillwater, but the Union Elevator had to be the tallest structure at that time.
The Union Elevator was just one building that stood in front of the St. Croix River that is no longer there. During its lifetime, it was very important to sustaining the food supplies used by the early lumberjacks, sawmill, boomsite, rafters and other workers and tradesmen in Stillwater. A barrel of flour was generally allocated for each person sent to the north to cut trees needed for lumber. The Elevator also provided grain for the livestock used in the lumber industry. The railroads were just beginning to be used to ship lumber and manufactured products elsewhere in the country. The Union Elevator location provided access to both the railroad and the steamboat traffic.
The photo credit is James Sinclair and the copy is courtesy of the New York City Public Library and The Stillwater Public Library.
The scene is at approximately the same location in all the photos. The first two photos are from JM Kuhn courtesy of the New York City Public Library.The last photo is from the John Runk Collection, courtesy of the Stillwater Public Library.The date on the first two photos by Kuhn is 1882.The date on the Runk photo is 1894.At that time, the elevator was owned by Isaac Staples and the occasion was a spring flood that caused much damage in Stillwater. You can also see that there was a combination Freight House and Passenger platform in front of the grain elevator.The view is looking north from where the bicycle path is located in 2020.
Time Tunnel from 1894 to 2018 to show location of Union Elevator in Stillwater. Historic Photo is from the John Runk Collection, courtesy of the Stillwater Public Library. The 2018 photo is from Google Maps Street View of Stillwater.
