MAHTOMEDI GO ROUND
A ten mile coordinated walking and biking loop in Mahtomedi and Willernie using trails, sidewalks, paths and smaller streets.
Mahtomedi Chautauqua Hotel – 1883
Mahtomedi Go Round links nearly all of Mahtomedi and Willernie’s parks, playgrounds and beaches. It employs all or parts of virtually every trail and pathway in the two cities. Churches are on the pathway for convenient “walking to worship”. All of our schools are either on the path or on convenient, identified spur routes. Nearly all Mahtomedi businesses are on or within a few steps of the route.
Go Round is essentially a figure eight shape, so that either the north or south loop can be used as a separate shorter touring walk. Pedestrians and bicyclists can start and end at any point on the path, and nearly everyone in either town is within about a five minute walk of the route.
Mahtomedi and Willernie have many small streets and we are all accustomed to using them on bike or on foot. Go Round is designed so that it is not necessary to ride or walk on the sides of our two major roads, and that crossing Mahtomedi Avenue and Stillwater Road occurs only at crosswalks (assuming construction of a crosswalk at Neptune, and excluding crossing at the very north end of Mahtomedi). The route uses links and shortcuts of which many citizens are unaware, and provides vistas also unknown to many.
This pamphlet is only to describe the historic, scenic and recreational sites along the path. Please use the map and walking guide to find your way.
Mahtomedi Go Round – Anticipated Benefits
Sense of Community
- Meet your neighbors
- Know your community
- Know and use your neighborhood park
Fitness, Health and Independence
- Exercise without having to drive
- Children can move on their own, increasing independence
- Walk to church, to school, even to dinner
Park and Trails Improvement
- A coordinated plan helps us decide on needed links and improvements
- An articulated goal will help with grant applications
- Local fundraising for improvements will be facilitated
- People will have reasons to go to their parks – amenities with route
- May aid in establishing landowner voluntary, non-liability paths
Local Businesses
- Making it easy and plausible to get there will enhance businesses
- Nearly every business is on our close to the route
Partial Listing of Identified Historic, Scenic, and Recreation Assets Accessed by MAHTOMEDI GO ROUND:
Mahtomedi and Willernie have an astonishing past. Home to the Mahtomedi Chautauqua beginning in 1883, the area hosted speakers, singers, and entertainers for hundreds during summer religious meetings. Beginning about 1899 with the arrival of the streetcars from St. Paul, the Wildwood Amusement Park delighted thousands with a huge roller coaster, dance hall and other amusements, before closing in 1937. Overlapping with the amusement park, Mahtomedi hosted numerous gangsters and hoodlums during St. Paul’s wild days. (Of course, the worst ones stayed in Dellwood!)
Sites and Locations of Interest
H – historic
S – scenic
R –recreational
Locations are listed in the approximate order encountered on the route.
Location 2 – Chautauqua Area:
H - Oakleigh Station – Mahtomedi Streetcar route. A streetcar Wye by the Amusement park, sent cars to Stillwater and on up into Mahtomedi. A number of stations, including one at Hickory Street, served the population. Oakleigh was then the center of town since most of the town’s early settlement was in the Chautauqua area.
H - YMCA Building location – Mahtomedi Chautauqua 1887. The YMCA built a building with dormitory rooms and a dining hall for young men staying at the Chautauqua.
Grant, MN – fire department pumping location 1892
H - Harmon Cottage – construction date unknown, on Chautauqua grounds
H - Homesites on Chautauqua Grounds 1883
John Espy – organizer of Mahtomedi Assembly – Espy was a real estate developer in
St. Paul, an ardent Methodist, and one of the seven people who formed
Wildwood Park Association, the company that bought most of the land that
eventually became Mahtomedi. He continued to summer in Mahtomedi, and
lost his daughter to toad stool poisoning in 1905.
Rev. David Tice – the Methodist pastor in Stillwater, David lost that job and then,
quite mysteriously, became a land buyer, buying up parcels in the township Rev. Samuel G. Smith – president of Mahtomedi Chautauqua. Smith was a prominent Methodist pastor in St. Paul. Later he founded the huge,
independent Peoples Church in St. Paul, and the Sociology Department at the
University of Minnesota
H - Chautauqua Hotel Building -1883 – Built, but not paid for, by the Chautauqua
Association, the building was foreclosed and then bought back by Tice and others.
Parts of the hotel were removed and pieces of it, primarily windows, can still be seen around town (look at the eyebrow window on the house just to the south and watch as you walk through town). The rest of the hotel became a private residence long
owned by the Deans family.
R,S - CHAUTAUQUA PARK AND BEACH – First Park, 1883. In front of the hotel, this was
a gathering place in Chautaqua days and remains a fine beach.
H - Otagonal Home – part of the Octagon House movement which began in 1851. This
was more than an architectural fad – more in the nature of a belief that traditional
ways of doing things could be improved on. There are significant octagonal houses
in Hudson.
H - Dome Home – Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome craze – 1960’s. These houses are
very strong and storm resistant. They can be assembled from few pieces, but the
shape of the pieces precludes easy construction and the sloping roof sections were
inconvenient and limited the popularity of the houses. One of two in Mahtomedi.
H - Residence of Bank Robber, Frank “Jelly” Nash 1930’s. Nash rented this house
During the summer. It is said that the gangsters in Mahtomedi and Dellwood
could easily be identified since they stayed inside and had no tans. Nash
was said to be the most successful bank robber in the country. He was captured
in Missouri and killed in the “Kansas City Massacre”, along with three officers,
when members of the St. Paul mob tried to spring him. The more violent, and
famous Ma Barker and her sons, along with Alvin Karpis, rented a cottage up the
road in the lawless village of Dellwood.
H - Home of Edwin Lundy, famous Minnesota Architect (Lutsen Lodge) Lundy lived in the
red house on Mahtomedi Avenue, which was beautifully and authentically restored
by Fred and Lamese McDowell. Two other houses, 1823 and 1829 Park Avenue are
examples of his work.
H - Chautauqua Grounds – homesites originally leased to Chautauquans. The area between
the lake and Mahtomedi Avenue, from Neptune Street to the north city line, and
east of Mahtomedi Avenue, north of Quail, was all platted in small lots and leased to Chautauqua members who came to learn, to be inspired, and to have fun.
H - Viggiano House – one of the first large homes in the area – Chautauqua cabins were
small. After the organization of the Mahtomedi Improvement Company, in about
1907, some larger houses began to be built, and the original cabins were
expanded.
H - Methodist Chapel (subsequently Unitarian Church) – Chautauqua. This building was
near the Amphitheatre. It is now a private residence.
H - Helmes Cottage – one of two cottage strucutures remaining in
Chautauqua grounds.
S - Creek – Tamarack Street – one of the few inlets to White Bear Lake
LOCATION 3: R,H - STREETCAR PARK – Where the streetcars met the tracks of the Stillwater and St. Paul Railroad, the streetcar station and depot are gone. The railroad bed, farther east, is now the Brown’s Creek regional trail which extends through Grant, Mahtomedi, Dellwood and White Bear
Township. The Streetcar Trail in Mahtomedi connects to publicly-owned paths and trail routes here – an important junction.
H - Chautauqua Amphitheater Site – 1883
Site of Chautauqua gatherings, this building was east of Mahtomedi Avenue, between Quail and Tamarack, convenient to the railroad, which brought visitors to Mahtomedi.
H - First Mahtomedi “Downtown” – Spinks Grocery, Lumber Yard, Post office
1880’s
H - Hamline Lake – Partly filled in by volunteer labor to become the town
football field
H - Site of Ice business and first significant school
H - Site of Mahtomedi High School (then middle school, now district center)
1932
H - Early school, now residence, Maple Street
H - Unitarian Church (formerly the Methodists) Hallam Street
LOCATION 4: R – HALLAM PARK – formerly site of one of the early water towers.
Though underused, Hallam has a wide range of facilities.
St. Andrews Village – retirement home
R - EASTGATE TRAIL
LOCATION 5: R -GOSIWIN PARK AND TRAIL
H - Elsie Inn – speakeasy and house of ill repute 1930’s
H - Site of original Wildwood School – 1952-2012
H – Silver Slipper Speakeasy, 230 Warner Avenue, kidnappers hid their victim here.
LOCATION 6: St. Jude of the Lake Catholic Church – home of
Corn Fest and other community celebrations
R – STREETCAR TRAIL – right of way but not yet paved or complete
LOCATION 7: R - GLENDALE PARK
St. Andrews Lutheran Church – second church, first built 1922.
Ancillary Trail location to Mahtomedi High School, Middle School
And Wildwood School
Stillwater Road – connection to sidewalk/trail to Stillwater, connecting to
Regional Gateway Trail
City of Willernie – 1914 – Housing for employees of Amusement Park, platted by
The Belden-Mayo Company
LOCATION 8: R - WILLERNIE PARK – The hot spot for outdoor basketball
LOCATION 9: R - FERNDALE PARK, this park desperately needs improvement
Paddington Road – typical of small quaint Willernie streets
LOCATION 10: R - O.H. ANDERSON SCHOOL - playground, extensive nature trails
Safe “backdoor” connection to South Hallam Avenue by nature trails
Pine Springs, MN – one of the villages of western Washington County
Bichner Street – the back door to Katherine Abbott Park
LOCATION 11: R - KATHERINE ABBOTT PARK – a beautiful 88 acre park, purchased by the city from the girl scouts in 1988.
R - STREETCAR TRAIL – Southern end of the Streetcar Trail in Mahtomedi
LOCATION 12: R - SOUTHWEST PARK – Principal athletic facility owned by the city,
Long Lake Road – Mahtomedi’s only industrial development
LOCATION 13: R - ECHO PARK – Primarily wetlands with play area and lovely trail
R, S - ECHO LAKE CANOE LANDING – east side of pristine Echo Lake
LOCATION 14: S - ECHO SHORES PARK – north and west side of Echo Lake
LOCATION 15: R, S - WEDGEWOOD PARK – formerly part of the Moore Farm, comprehensive neighborhood park with walking connections
S - Old Wildwood Road – Once the primary road into town, now converted to one way with a path
H - Lakeside Club – a Mahtomedi landmark, featured in “FARGO”.
H - Gangland Killings – during the wild 1930’s the bodies of three dead mobsters were found on Lincolntown Road. Lincolntown, an unincorporated, and apparently dangerous, area was not fully incorporated into Mahtomedi until 1972.
LOCATION 16: R - WILDWOOD PARK – Mahtomedi’s most complete park with facilities of every kind.
R - STREETCAR TRAIL – This part of the trail on the streetcar route (streetcars ran from the 1890’s to 1953) was paved more than twenty years ago.
H-Wildwood Amusement Park! Roughly 1899-1937, all along the lake to the left. See the pictures at Four Seasons.
H - The Picadilly – Gone now, replaced with housing, the Pic was a steakhouse fixture in Mahtomedi for years.
LOCATION 17: H - TRIANGLE PARK – At the junction of Mahtomedi Avenue and Stillwater Road, Triangle park is the center of the community and includes a memorial to the community’s veterans. Each Memorial Day a parade and celebration commemorate their sacrifices for our community and nation. Also home to Farmers’ Market in the summer, featuring great food, produce and crafts.
H- Four Seasons (older folks know it’s Three Seasons) – Back to the 50’s!
Great food and a wonderful collection of pictures of the amusement park.
LOCATION 18: R - WILLERNIE BEACH – Willernie’s town beach does not have lifeguards. Swim or wade at your own risk.
LOCATION 19: R - MAHTOMEDI BEACH – Improved, with better parking, facilities and play areas, the beach provides a wonderful window on White Bear Lake
S - NEVILLE POND – Cleaned up by the city, Neville Pond is a beautiful, quiet spot with limited space for informal play.
H - Sullivan Property – Purchased in about 1892 by Lieutenant Governor Sullivan, this property and the houses beside it, are the dividing line between the north and south parts of the Mahtomedi Historic District.
H - Apartment Building. This building, now apartments, has served many roles, including coffee house and speakeasy.