CRYSTAL | ROBBINSDALE NEW HOPE | GOLDEN VALLEY
COMMUNITY GUIDE 2025-26
Historical societies keep the past alive
26 | Crystal • Robbinsdale • New Hope • Golden Valley | Community Guide 2025-26
There are people in the quad communities who work diligently to ensure that a record is kept of the people, places and events that shaped their communities. Through a number of initiatives, programming and fundraising, these groups take on the important duty of remembering our collective local history. Robbinsdale has an active historical society that operates a museum in a historical library at 4915 42nd Ave. N. The museum is typically open for viewing 10 a. m. to 3 p. m. Fridays and Saturdays. The space is shared with the arts nonprofit Robbin Gallery. The society was first organized in 1978 and has membership meetings six times per year. For more information visit robbinsdale. org.
Another Robbinsdale preservation group, America’ s Classic Cinemas, continues to preserve the legacy of the former Terrace Theatre and other historical U. S. theaters. The theater was demolished in 2016 after years of collecting dust, but artifacts have been salvaged via the Terrace Legacy Project so that the Robbinsdale institution may remain in the public memory.
The Crystal Historical Society received its nonprofit status in 2018. The society has a board of directors who work to preserve the city’ s local history. Most recently, the society partnered with the city of Crystal to place a time capsule in the new police station. Currently, Crystal artifacts are available for viewing through the Robbinsdale Historical Society, which plans to maintain preservation of the artifacts, with loans to Crystal’ s historical society. Crystal’ s society also seeks donations of news articles, firsthand accounts of events and photos of people or businesses that have come and gone. For more information, visit facebook. com / crystalhistoricalsociety. For direct membership inquiries, call 605-222-7445.
The Golden Valley Historical Society was established in 1974. It hosts regular educational presentations and operates a historical museum. Its longtime home is at the little white church at 6731 Golden Valley Rd.
The space was purchased in 1997 and served as a meetinghouse for the society. The museum was funded by benefactor and society member Edward Jordan and completed in 2018. The museum is a past winner of the American Association of State and Local History Award of Excellence. The society was recently given a collection of historical recordings, documents and photographs from the city of Golden Valley. It is also working to diversify its collection to include the voices of the city’ s Native American, African American and Asian American voices. The historic church’ s Don and Mary Anderson Chapel can be reserved for weddings and other group events. For more information, visit goldenvalleyhistoricalsociety. org.