Redwood Falls buildings featured in new book about urban design

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

By Joshua Dixon
Staff Writer

Posted Aug. 27, 2013 @ 10:00 am

The new book Signs, Streets, and Storefronts looks at more than 200 years of what American main streets have looked like, from pioneer villages to Times Square, from painted wooden signs to neon casinos.

When you get to page 37 of the book, where Treu writes about frontier American architecture, you might be jolted to see the following sentences:

"Tiny Redwood Falls, Minnesota, which did not have a store until 1865 or the railroad until 1878, was built up almost entirely during this indulgent, eclectic period.

"Redwood Falls was not an unusually prosperous town, but one would not know that from looking at the complex, lacy Gothic filigree on the crest of its Philbrick Building (1886)....")

Treu continues on for several more paragraphs, comparing Redwood's early architecture to that of Chicago and Minneapolis being built at the time.

Turn the page, and you'll find several photos of the building now known as Connie's Hallmark as it's appeared over the past 127 years.

How did Redwood Falls get featured in a book about American architecture?

The Gazette contacted Martin Treu this month to find out.

It turns out Treu's grandfather, Max Russell Treu was born in Redwood Falls in 1925. Treu's grandmother, Amy Barnes Treu, spent most of her life here.

Gazette: "How did you learn about Redwood Falls?"

Treu: "I was born in Toledo, Ohio. This is where my father settled after moving from Redwood Falls to help his father run a beer distributorship that he established after leaving my grandmother." Click here to read the entire article!

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