Tom Ryan remembers cutting sod as a teenager on his family's farm in Blaine. He can picture the dirt roads that once characterized the area, even cows crossing the busy thoroughfare near his home.
It's a very different vision from present-day Blaine — which hits a major milestone today — as every last sod farm has disappeared, said Ryan, the city's longtime mayor.
Blaine became a city 50 years ago, on Dec. 3, 1964, and it's throwing itself a birthday bash from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. today, Dec. 3, 2014, at city hall.
The event kicks off a number of events that are in the works for the coming months, said Shari Kunza, program supervisor for the city's parks department. Those festivities will be unveiled at the party tonight, she said.
For Ryan — who will speak at the celebration — it's a bit surreal thinking back on things. He and his wife moved in next-door to his parents' homestead in 1969. Back then, the local banks "wouldn't loan to anyone out here. It's not an area that was ever supposed to happen," he said.
But a shift occurred, especially in the mid-1980s, as Blaine evolved from a "closed" to an "open community" — meaning that it became receptive to development, Ryan said. That's something he has lobbied for throughout the years.
In fact, over the past decade, a school, a day-care facility, bank and more have replaced his family's sod farm. If his parents were still alive, they "wouldn't recognize the place."
In Ryan's early days of working for the city, the population was in the 20,000s. Now it's over 60,000, and the city has become increasingly diverse. "We just continued to keep growing," Ryan said.
Although the city "isn't in any sort of race," it has the largest tax base in the county, he said. Additionally, the sheer number of building permits that crop up on Mondays speak to the fact that it still has plenty of potential, Ryan said.
A city that wasn't supposed to happen
Besides the events the city is lining up, the Blaine Historical Society is putting together a book that recounts Blaine's development, said Orville Lindquist, head of the organization.
The volume is still in its early stages and probably will be published in 2016, he said.
In the meantime, the society is gathering information about Blaine, which started out as a township in 1877. It later became a village before it incorporated as a city, Lindquist said.
Going back hundreds of years, the three rivers and wetlands in what is now Blaine made it an ideal habitat for wildlife, according to the Historical Society. American Indians hunted wild game in the area.
However, it seemed an unlikely area for development, which was well documented: In 1847, surveyor A.J. Hewitt wrote a report that said "this township is almost unacceptable for either men or beast except when frozen up. … The soil on the barrens is light-loose sand, third rate."
Nevertheless, settlers arrived, beginning with Philip Laddy, an Irish immigrant, in 1862. However, Laddy, for whom Laddy Lake was named, died shortly afterward. Another settler, Greenberry Chambers, a freed slave from Kentucky who fought in the Civil War, is said to be the first permanent resident of Blaine.
Chambers, who traveled to Minnesota by steamboat, acquired land and farmed on the site now occupied by Centennial High School. Ryan said that Chambers was able to buy his wife, Lottie, and their five children out of slavery.
Eventually, Chambers' once-productive farm fell into foreclosure. He and his family moved away, but a city bike trail along Lexington Avenue recognizes his place in Blaine history. It was named for him in 2009.
Another segment of the trail pays tribute to livestock farmer James T. Elwell. He built 200 miles of ditches, which made farming the marshland feasible, according to the Historical Society. Elwell was also the inventor behind the spring bed.
Blaine figures had an impact on the larger region in other ways, as well.
For example, Albert Johnson, a landowner in Blaine who arrived in the late 1800s, left a large sum to his cousin, Edna Dickerson. The career woman started the Radisson Hotel in Minneapolis in 1909, according to the Historical Society.
From sod farms to housing tracts
For a long time, Blaine was sparsely populated, Lindquist said.
However, after World War II, as people began moving outward from the urban core, folks from northeast Minneapolis migrated farther north, Lindquist said.
A couple of housing subdivisions emerged during that period. There was development around Laddy Lake, and homes also sprang up near 125th and Central avenues.
During this same period, the sod farms began to go away. "Growth, expansion and development" were the themes at this point in time, he said.
Although not necessarily connected to that development pattern, the Anoka County-Blaine Airport was built in 1952. In the beginning, it housed a University of Minnesota aeronautical engineering program that supported balloon research.
"The upper atmosphere balloon projects, many launched by university physics professor Edward Ney, sponsored by NASA and the Office of Naval Research, were key to America's entry in the space race," the Historical Society says.
Northtown Mall was built in 1972. It was a major development at the time, Lindquist said. The thriving National Sports Center came along in 1990.
Over the past 15 years, the city has changed quite a bit, as reflected by the population growth and building boom. One factor has been the presence of big-box retailers, Lindquist said.
"That's something it didn't have before," he said, adding, "Blaine has a lot going on."
Anna Pratt is a Minneapolis freelance writer. She can be reached at annaprattjournalist@gmail.com.
