APG Specialty Publications 00_LAKEVILLE_MD_19_DIGITAL | Page 11

Rich in History! 1908 – Electric Investment Company a subsidiary of Minneapolis, Rochester & Dubuque Traction Company - Dan Patch Line purchased land and platted 237 acres. Prairie Lake renamed Lake Marion after Marion Savage, President of MR&DCT. 1853 – Captain William B. Dodd directed construction of a road connecting the military forts in Saint Paul to Saint Peter and Mankato. 1910 – Dan Patch Line completed. Additional 40 acres added to and continued development of Antlers Park, named after an angler’s surprise hooking and pulling antlers from the lake. 1856 – First school building. 1858 – Lakeville Township was formed, encompassing the rural farms. Immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, England, and the Scandinavian countries settled. Growth included a general store, two hotels, a boarding house, a blacksmith shop, a saloon, and a shoemaker’s shop. 1890 – Creamery started by a group of farmers. 1911 – Antlers Park Farm barn was converted into a dancing pavilion, with a confectionary and restaurant. A hotel was also added but later turned into a clubhouse and café. 1892 – The Claro Mill, located by the railroad tracks and 208th Street, was up and running. 1912 – 50 arc and 1,200 incandescent lights installed to illuminate Antlers Park, and the pavilion ceiling was painted by John L. Hall to resemble a “fairyland”. A music platform added with 6 mythological plaster statues 8 feet high. A playground, baseball diamond, tennis courts, band concert promenade, water slide and diving platform added. 1878 – New site named Lakeville. 1850 1880 1869 – Hastings and Dakota Railroad, unable to purchase land adjacent to the Village, bought 20 acres one-half mile east. Existing businesses abandoned the first town site and moved to Fairfield. 1915 – $50,000 spent on park amusements, attractions and buildings. 1910 1901 – the Village and Fire Hall opened, complete with a bell tower to summon townspeople to fight fires. 1913 – An illuminated aerial swing with cigar- shaped airships was purchased from the closing of Wonderland Park and installed at Antlers Park. 1900 – The village grew to a population of 373. Voters approved a $3,500 bond for a new engine house, lock up, and Village Hall. 1855 – 250 acres platted by Lakeville’s early settler, Joseph J. Brackett, at the halfway point along the Dodd route. German immigrant John Weichselbaum, operated a successful summer resort with cottages and a dining hall on Prairie Lake (now Lake Marion). 1891 – Wheat was the major crop produced by MN farmers, and the Village Council offered $1,500 for a mill. 1889 – The Village Council appropriated $1,000 to start a creamery. 1940 1967 – Lakeville Township and Lakeville Village merged to form the City of Lakeville. Festival called Panorama of Progress began. Lakeville has continued to grow into a dynamic suburban community where residents and businesses work together, just as their pioneer ancestors did. Today, Dodd Boulevard still bisects the City, and Lake Marion (formerly Prairie Lake) is still a valued recreational and environmental feature. Striving to preserve its small town heritage, the original village and fire hall with its bell tower still stands in downtown Lakeville today. The original bell now hangs at the Fire Department located on Holyoke Avenue. LAKEVILLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY [phone] • www.mnlahs.org [email protected] www.lakevillechamber.org | 5