Historian Kate Thomas walked through Afton’s Old Village on Tuesday afternoon, stopping often to point out different historic sites — and struggling to rank them against each other.

“The bank is really interesting,” said Thomas, a member of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission who helped spearhead a new online walking tour of the Old Village’s historic sites. “It was built in 1913 and robbed in 1921. It used to have a berry shed in the back. The boats would come along the (St. Croix) River, and people would buy the berries.”

Just south of the former Citizens State Bank is the former Lerk’s Bar, which also gets a mention on the tour, Thomas said.

Lerk’s Bar is one of the stops on a new self-guided walking tour of Afton. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

The building housed a confectionary store until prohibition was repealed in 1933. In the 1940s, Harold “Lerk” Lind established his hamburger and tavern business — famous for its “Lerkburger” — in the building. A faded painting of an onion hangs on the sign out front; “lerk” sounds like “onion” in Swedish.

The city’s Historic Preservation Commission applied for a $6,600 grant from the State Historic Preservation Office to create the online tour, which is adapted from the Afton Historical Society’s “Historic Afton Village Walking Tour,” Thomas said.

The city of Afton contributed $900 for signs and window clings advertising the tour, which can be accessed through a QR code using a smartphone, said City Administrator Ron Moorse.

Eventually, bronze plaques will be installed at 10 historically designated sites that are included in the tour, he said.

The walking tour is a “living document,” Moorse said, that will continue to be updated as city officials receive additional historic information regarding the sites.

Great Idea spinoff

Thomas, a retired University of Wisconsin-Stout history professor, said Afton was able to use the format set up by Stillwater historian Matt Thueson, who created the “Stillwater Area History Spots,” which won the 2023 Stillwater Area Community Foundation’s Great Idea contest.

Thueson has installed QR codes in and around Stillwater that link to historic photos and information about the different sites, Thomas said, and Afton officials were able to use the same format and site. The two met at a State Historic Preservation Conference in Mankato in September 2023.

“He said, ‘I’ve already got the site. If you guys have the text, you can just put it up on our site,’” she said. “He also gave us their design for the signs — and the window clings. We tweaked it a little bit with colors that we wanted and font and text that we wanted to use, but he really helped us make it happen.”

One of the signs advertising the “Old Village Walking Tour” — with the accompanying QR code — has been installed on a stop sign near the old Citizens State Bank building, which is now home to Dwell Furniture and Home Decor.

Dwell Furniture and Home Decor, located in the old Citizens State Bank, is one of the stops on a new self-guided walking tour of Afton. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

“It still has the vault in it,” Thomas said. “I went in it just the other day to see the vault. There’s a great story online too, with each of these sites. We’ve got a historic picture, and a story that any tourist or visitor coming might find interesting. For the bank, there’s the story of how and when it was robbed. … The whole story of how the guy got caught is just very interesting.”

(Spoiler alert: He was caught after robbing another bank.)

Rich history

Thomas, who taught history for 20 years, said it’s important for people to know about the town’s history.

Historian Kate Thomas, left, and Afton City Administrator Ron Moorse collaborated to create the “Old Village Walking Tour.” (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

“Some of the buildings have disappeared already,” she said. “Getting the bronze plaques in place, using the technology to get the information up online means that anyone — not just residents, but anyone who comes to visit — can learn about our rich, diverse history.”

Selma’s Ice Cream Parlor, at 3419 St. Croix Trail S., is one of the stops on the online walking tour. The historic photo posted online shows the store’s namesake, Selma Holberg, “standing in a white dress on the front porch of the Holberg home and shop,” the entry reads. “In the picture, under a four-paned display window, a sign reads: ‘We sell Starkel’s Ice Cream.’ … On the 1940 census, Selma was listed as a widow and the proprietor of a confectionery store. Selma died in 1966.”

Selma Holberg ran the business by herself after her husband, Eddie, died, Thomas said.

“The stories that are on (the website) are about her selling beer and sandwiches, that it was a tavern,” Thomas said. “We wanted to look at the store’s history and see how it changed over time.”

Also featured on the tour: Margaret Bonga Fahlstrom, a local Afton woman of mixed African and Ojibwe ancestry who was part of the Bonga family of fur traders in the Old Northwest, Thomas said.

“She raised nine children on an Afton Township farmstead in the area that now contains the Fahlstrom Cemetery,” she said. “It’s now called ‘Indian Trail.’ It’s off of Stagecoach Trail. … I would like to do more with the Valley Creek area, where the old Township Hall is, and talk about indigenous history and who was originally here.”

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“A lot of the original history out (in the township) has been forgotten,” she said. “Which I just think is so crucial because those are the common people, the farmers, the whatnot. As a historian, I’ve been to a lot of small towns. There are so many background stories that come out about family history that I think people can relate to, and then I think pulls them into our national history and the larger trends.”

Included on the tour’s website is an email address where people can send in their own family’s stories about the sites.

“We thought it could be a way that we can start to accumulate more stories, more photos,” she said. “If the Afton Museum is interested, we would have this cache of photos and memories that they could display. I think we’re lucky to live in Afton, where we have such abundant history in the Old Village area and along Valley Creek.”

Afton walking tour

Afton’s new online walking tour was adapted from “Historic Afton Village Walking Tour” by the Afton Historical Society.

A brochure version is available at the Afton Historical Museum, 3165 St. Croix Trail S., or Afton City Hall, 3033 St. Croix Trail S.

Have a memory or photo of Afton? Please email the Afton Heritage Preservation Commission at HPC@ci.afton.mn.us.

The tour can be found online at historicplace.org/afton.