Wheeler Park

Recently we moved to what is affectionately known as "Lower" North Mankato. It is an interesting neighborhood rich in history and diverse in culture which I am just starting to tap into. One of the reasons we moved to where we now live was the architecture. The buildings are brick and the apartments are styled with a hallway arch and lots of light and windows, the two things that sold me on the place.

Through incidental conversation, I have found out that these apartments were built in the 40's  for troops returning from World War II. I also learned that Wheeler Park, across the street from the apartment buildings, was once the Wheeler & Bennett Brickyard and the reason the park is below street level on our side of the park is that this was where there was once a clay pit there. From this pit, workers dug the clay from which the Wheeler & Bennett bricks were made. It would also be my guess that the building we live in was built from Wheeler & Bennett bricks from this brickyard.

Here is a picture of the Wheeler Brickyard from the Minnesota Reflections Collection of the Minnesota Digitial Library <http://reflections.mndigital.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/blue/id/2895/rec/1>.

Brickyard, North Mankato, about 1895

This picture was taken facing the area that would eventually be Page Avenue with Wheeler Avenue the next street down and then Belgrade Avenue, North Mankato's main street..

Here are some pictures I took last fall facing the same direction across Wheeler Park. I am not sure my orientation is completely correct and I suspect that the original picture was taken further back than I was from a point that is now built up.

Wheeler Park, Fall, 2013