Richfield: Minnesota's Oldest Suburb

• By: Frederick L. Johnson
• Format: Hardcover, 160 pages, 9.5 x 11.25 in.
• Publisher: Richfield Historical Society
• Usually ships in: 1 to 3 business days
• Product ##: 9781605856360

An engaging local history with wider appeal due to the community's status as a perfect prototype of a post-World War II American suburb.

Geography and politics combined to assign Richfield an important role in Minnesota history. Even before the town was formally constituted in April 1858, its farmers helped supply two larger neighbors to the north - St. Anthony and the boomtown of Minneapolis. Richfield: Minnesota's Oldest Suburb tells the story of the town's evolution from a large and prosperous agricultural district to a densely populated suburb just one-tenth its original size.

Frederick L. Johnson's narrative details the Richfield story from its years as a frontier outpost in Minnesota territory to the present day. It gives special emphasis to the community's metamorphosis from rural enclave to suburban boomtown, so strikingly illustrated by the photograph on the front cover.

Johnson notes, "The emergence of 1950s-era Richrfield as an examplar of the new American suburb almost perfectly mirrored the nations's growth during the remarkable postwar boom years."

The Richfield HIstorical Society's extensive collection of photographs augmented by maps, including some newly-created, help illustrate this well documented account of the community's first 150 years.