Golden Valley

You can own a piece of Golden Valley history by attending the Saturday, Dec. 11 “Vintage Golden Valley Street Sign Holiday Sale & Museum/Historic Church Open House.”  Nearly 1,200 decommissioned city street signs – most delightfully aged and dented from the late 1940s era  – are being sold as a fundraiser by the Golden Valley Historical Society (GVHS).

VINTAGE GOLDEN VALLEY STREET SIGN HOLIDAY SALE
From Avondale to Zane, from Aquila to Zealand, that special sign you’re seeking may be available. 

Arguably, there is no better or more economical holiday season gift for a proud current or former resident of Golden Valley than a $25 vintage street sign, many that are 60-70 years old.  They’re perfect for a basement or garage, as a gift for a family member, college student’s dorm room, and best-ever gift for the nostalgic former resident. These signs are already prized possessions throughout the metro area, in outstate Minnesota, and throughout the country.

The sale takes place Saturday, Dec. 11, from 11 am to 3 pm, at GVHS Golden Valley History Museum and Historic Church, 6731 Golden Valley Road.

Enter through the Golden Valley History Museum door, toward the back of the building. Signs are $25 each - cash or check only. Want to know if the special sign your hoping to purchase is available? In advance of the sale, you can check out the Street Sign Inventory which is as up-to-date as Society volunteers can promise.

If you’re interested in a sign, but unable to attend the December 11 sale, here is the  Street Sign Order Form which can also be found at www.goldenvalleyhistoricalsociety.org.

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MUSEUM AND HISTORIC CHURCH OPEN HOUSE

While you’re at the sale, you may want to also take the time to visit the Golden Valley History Museum and its award-winning Golden Valley: No Place Like Home exhibit presents the history of Golden Valley from the ice age to the present.

Also, during the 11am – 3pm sale hours, the Society will have its 1882 Historic Church, the oldest in Golden Valley, open for a walk-through. If you’ve ever wondered what it looked like inside that “Little Church in the Valley” as you travel Golden Valley Road, this is your chance.

Current Covid/safety requirements for GVHS events: For the protection and respectful consideration of others, face coverings are required of those attending, as is maintaining safe physical distancing.

 
More:
100 YEARS OF VILLAGE AND CITY STREET SIGN HISTORY

An investigation of the origin of Golden Valley street names was completed in 1996 by a committee of the Golden Valley Historical Society chaired by Leone Johnson. The study confirmed that Golden Valley streets have three separate A to Z alphabets; one has U.S. state and Canadian names, and another carries a patriotic theme.

A number of streets identified in the study were named after early settlers or historical events. Among them: Bassett Creek Drive and Lane (Joel Bassett owned a lumber mill and served on the Territorial Council), Bies Drive (prominent early settler, Christopher Bies), Ewald Terrace (Ewald Dairy), Lilac Way and Drive (1939 lilac sales to beautify Highway 100), Medicine Lake (Indigenous name); Schaper Road (Shaper Manufacturing made the popular “Cooties” game), Schuller Circle (Schuller’s Tavern), Turner’s Crossroad (Paul Turner had a truck farm across from Tennant Co.), and Varner Circle (prominent early settler, Charles H. Varner.)

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According to “Golden Valley 1886-1986,” a book produced by the Golden Valley Historical Society; “In 1920, the people of Minnesota voted for Amendment 1 (also known as the Babcock Amendment) which created the Highway Department, effective in 1921. All roadwork was done by counties and the state paid part of the cost.”

The earliest road signs in the Village of Golden Valley were arrows on a post pointing toward a village with the number of miles from the sign post to the village. These signs were put up by the Minnesota Automobile Association to encourage people to purchase these early cars. To this day, at the corner of Meadow Lane and Sunnyside Ridge is such a sign, a magnificent relic stamped with the year 1922. (It is not necessarily the original location of this sign.)

Don Anderson, 30-plus-year secretary of the Golden Valley Historical Society contributed the following recollections on the history of street signs in the Village and City of Golden Valley:

“The roads of Golden Valley became more prevalent after World War I. The need for road identification required the Village of Golden Valley to buy street signs and posts. This vintage sign had the road name in black letters on a white background.

After World War II the need for more housing and industry in the Village required more roads and more street signs. This generation of Village street signs from the late 1940s featured a green background with white letters.

Decades later, the state required that these street signs be replaced with larger signs, with a reflective surface, easier for first responders (and others) to see. So, Golden Valley began to systematically replace the old signs with the reflective street signs. The old street signs were hauled to the city's street maintenance building and put in a stack on wooden pallets.

In 1997, the street superintendent of the city contacted me and asked if the Society would like to acquire a bunch of old street signs. I said yes. That (and periodically ever since) is when the signs began to be delivered to the Society's Historic Church on Golden Valley Road, and the Society initiated a fundraiser by selling the vintage street signs.”

Learn more, ask a question, volunteer, or become a member of the Golden Valley Historical Society:

www.goldenvalleyhistoricalsociety.org   
763-308-5059

gvhistoricalsociety@gmail.com

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