M.L. Berg, Minot

The flood of 2011 took a terrible toll on Minot. One of the hardest hit areas was my old neighborhood in northeast Minot, lying east of 3rd Street NE and south of the railroad tracks.

My family lived in this part of town in the 1950s. At that time, its boundaries were the Great Northern Railroad tracks to the north and the Mouse River on all its other sides (with the exception of 8th Street which went into Eastwood Park).

As seen from above, its shape resembled a bowl, broadening out to the east and to the west.

The area was accessed by five bridges in the 1950s. The first bridge built into the area was the 4th Avenue bridge, for carts and cars, that diverged off 3rd Street and then followed the south side of the Great Northern tracks as far as 8th Street, where it ended. The second bridge also came off 3rd Street, just south of the 4th Avenue one; it was originally built as a foot bridge off 1st Avenue NE sometime after the flood of 1904. Later on, it was replaced by a wider, and stronger, bridge for cars and light trucks, as well as pedestrians.

The next two bridges faced each other on opposite sides of 8th Street NE. Central Avenue was a dead-end street at that time. When you came to its east end, you found a foot bridge leading across the Mouse River to the west side of 8th Street. On the east side of 8th street was the fourth bridge crossing the river over into Roosevelt Park.

When you entered the park from that bridge, you found a camping and picnic area set somewhat lower than the level with the city swimming pool and Lunder’s Kiddie Land. Gilbert Lunder operated what was a mini-midway with rides and concessions that entertained city children every summer.

The fifth, and last, bridge built into this neighborhood crossed the Great Northern tracks at the north end of 8th Street. In 1922, the Great Northern Railroad had considered putting in place an underpass underneath its tracks. If it had been dug, it would have resembled the underpass that was built underneath the Soo Line Railroad tracks that crossed 4th Avenue SE (as it was known in the 1950s, and later renamed Burdick Expressway). In any case, the bridge was built instead, from November 1924, until sometime in 1925. The bridge allowed us school children easy access to Roosevelt School, on the west side of 8th Street north of the tracks. Roosevelt School had opened in 1923, two years earlier.

The bulk of the land in this part of NE Minot had previously been owned by Carl Torbenson. He and his wife, Anne, were born and raised in Norway. Carl came to Minot in 1887, and he ran the Scandinavian Hotel on 1st Street NW for two years. He also farmed east of town near Sawyer. His northeast Minot property was surveyed and platted in three stages, from 1902 to 1905, during which time he was serving as a Ward County Commissioner.

Back in the ’50s, this neighborhood had two dozen businesses, half of them lying along 4th Avenue. Today, there are only four.

At the west end of the area, is Minot Welding, and at the east end, are Lowe’s Gardens and a fuel facility. (From 1916 until 1946, the Lowe family had owned a grocery store at the northeast corner of 3rd Street and 1st Avenue NE, a grocery store that later became a bar known as Roy’s Tavern by 1959.) The other remaining business is Ben’s Tavern, although Benjamin Hodge and his family sold out years ago.

Also back in the ’50s, there were about 90 separate family dwellings, including a ten-unit apartment building next to Ben’s Tavern. Today, fewer than ten have tenants. But for how much longer?

Gone are the two neighborhood grocery stores and the Church of God of Prophecy, which had been at the northeast corner of 1st Avenue and 6th Street NE.

And gone is the local full-service restaurant, the Hamburger Express. But everyone just called it Aggie’s. It was owned by Agnes Rakness, who lived just around the corner from her restaurant.

To us kids, it seemed we always got good service there no matter how busy the waitresses and cooks were waiting on the many men and women who came there to eat before work, after work or on their lunch breaks.

The Hamburger Express is no longer there, but the attentiveness, almost the maternal treatment, we received are fixed in the mind.

The ethos for the neighborhood was set by neighborhood residents – by the family who adopted two children, by the mother who raised her severely developmentally disabled son in her own home for his whole life, and by the many families who prepared sack lunches, and sit-down meals, year after year, for the many strangers who came to their homes hungry and in need of food (coming out of a ‘Hobo Jungle’ east of the neighborhood and south of the Great Northern yard tracks).

I feel fortunate to have been raised in this northeast neighborhood, surrounded by so many considerate and giving people. The northeast neighborhood properties I knew might be disappearing from sight, but the stories of the exemplary lives of the people who once lived there ought to be kept in mind and passed down through the generations.

The soul of that neighborhood was caring. And may the people of Minot continue to form such neighborhoods.