Woodbury Tutors

About Woodbury

Woodbury, Minnesota, became a city on February 14, 1967. Before that it was known as Woodbury Township, and before that, Red Rock.

When first settled in 1844, the area was wooded. The land was fertile, however, so pioneers cleared timber and turned it into farmland. They grew wheat, corn, barley, potatoes, and, later, soybeans. They also raised dairy cattle. In those years, Woodbury had no grocery store, bank, or railroad. It had seven one-room schools by 1868, each with an average of thirty-five students who were taught by the first Woodbury tutors and teachers. The town also had plenty of barns.

Woodbury’s Heritage Society has created a partnership with the city to repair and preserve one of those barns. Although it was built in 1921–1922, the August Miller Barn is associated with a farmstead that dates to 1850. It has a gambrel roof and was constructed using post and beam techniques. No nails were used in the construction: the joinery was secured with wooden pegs, with steel spikes added later for reinforcement.

The project fits right in with the society’s goal of spreading an appreciation of the town’s early history to current and future residents. The organization also maintains the Heritage House, which was built around 1870 and originally was an attachment to a log cabin owned by Frederick Raths. At the time, it was used as living quarters and a kitchen. The house was relocated in 1993 and lovingly restored by the society and community volunteers. Just outside the home’s front door is a garden representative of those planted by the early settlers. Sunflowers, barley, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, potatoes, and pumpkins are grown there, many from heirloom seeds. Another structure with historical significance in the area is the Charles Spangenberg Farmstead. Its three oldest buildings—a farmhouse, granary, and barn—date to 1871, 1875, and 1887, respectively, and in 1978 were listed together on the National Register of Historic Places for having local significance in agriculture.

Old farms and barns are special to Woodbury because farming was the primary way of life until the 1950s, when urban development began and farmland gave way to housing developments and shopping centers. Woodbury’s population grew rapidly, from 3,014 in 1960 to 46,463 in 2000 and about 68,000 in 2015. Now the ninth largest city in Minnesota, Woodbury is expected to grow to a population of 84,000 by 2030.

The city celebrated Woodbury’s fiftieth birthday on Valentine’s Day, 2017, with a golden birthday party. This anniversary was an opportunity to honor the town’s agricultural past and one-room schoolhouses, which the pioneers worked so hard to create, and celebrate its thriving community, amenities, and educational facilities, made excellent by Woodbury tutors and teachers.