The archaeological dig at the future site of Wadaag Commons unearthed porcelain dolls, medicine bottles, broken dishes, toy marbles, railroad tags, and fragments of everyday life.
But look a little closer, and you’ll begin to see something else: families.
Through census records, newspaper articles, city directories, and more than 11,000 artifacts, archaeologists pieced together the stories of neighbors who lived here between the late 1800s and the mid-1900s.
Many of them never met, some lived here decades apart. Yet archaeology allows their stories to sit side by side, revealing how one neighborhood has been continually shaped by the people who built lives here.
Before There Was a “Seward”
Long before streets were surveyed or houses popped up along Snelling Avenue, this land was part of the homeland of the Dakota people.
For thousands of years, Dakota and Ojibwe people lived throughout this region, building deep relationships with the land, waterways, and natural resources that sustained them. The archaeological work at Wadaag Commons focused primarily on the residential neighborhood that emerged in the late nineteenth century, but it’s important to remember that Native families shaped this area long before then.
Building a Neighborhood
By the late 1800s, Minneapolis was booming.
The city’s flour mills, railroads, factories, and growing industries attracted families from across Europe and beyond. Germans, Norwegians, Swedes, Irish, Poles, Italians, and others settled in this area, bringing with them languages, traditions, skilled trades, and dreams of building better lives.
The families archaeologists came to know through this archaeological dig weren’t wealthy or famous.
They were mechanics, railroad workers, clerks, laborers, homemakers, veterans, and small business owners. Most belonged to Minneapolis’ working class. Ironically, that is part of why archaeologists were able to learn so much about them. Working-class households often disposed of more of their household waste on their own properties, leaving behind an unexpectedly rich archaeological record of everyday life.
What is an Ash Pit?
Before modern garbage collection, many Minneapolis households relied on ash pits to dispose of non-organic waste. In order to save time and money, many families burned their household trash instead of paying licensed haulers to remove it.
The City of Minneapolis placed very few restrictions on backyard burning for many years. City ordinances initially focused only on animal remains and vegetable waste because of concerns about odor and disease. It wasn’t until 1939 that the city began regulating how residents could burn refuse – and even then it wasn’t prohibited.
What once seemed like a practical solution for managing waste also carried unseen costs for both people and the planet. We now understand, of course, that burning household waste releases harmful pollutants, fine particulates, and toxic compounds into the air, emissions which can negatively affect human health and contribute to broader environmental impacts.
In 1967, the Minnesota legislature created the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Within two years the MPCA put new air pollution regulations into effect, including a ban on backyard trash burning. Two years later (in 1971) Minneapolis began enforcing the rule in earnest.
The Drake Family
The earliest documented residents of what would become 2115 Snelling Avenue were the Drake family. Rachel Drake, widow of Stephen Drake, lived here with Charles P. Drake and James T. Drake as early as 1875, when the address was still described simply as “19th Avenue South between 21st and 22nd Streets.” James Drake remained in the home for more than twenty years, often sharing it with boarders including a railroad conductor and a house painter.
Their story reflects one of the earliest chapters of the Seward neighborhood, when Minneapolis was still expanding outward and addresses, streets, and even house numbers were changing as the city grew. The house itself would later become known as 2115 Snelling Avenue, eventually passing to the Deblon family in 1902.
The Deblon Family
German immigrant Nicholas Deblon and his wife, Theresa, lived at 2115 Snelling Avenue for nearly three decades while raising a large family of 8 children: Christian, Clara, Mary, Barbara, Josephine, Lizzie, Anthony, and Catherine. In 1899, Lizzie died of diphtheria at 1 year old, a harrowing reminder of how fragile childhood could be before modern vaccines and antibiotics.
Archaeologists recovered a German mineral water jug, German-made tableware, porcelain dolls and doll tea set pieces, a railroad luggage tag, and a bronze medal from the 1906 Midt Sommer Fest celebration at Como Park (a typically Swedish celebration). Together, these objects suggest a family that remained deeply connected to its German heritage while enthusiastically participating in community life in Minneapolis.
The men in the family worked as skilled and unskilled laborers mainly at Lenhart Wagon Co. and Hennepin County Barrel Co. The women in the family worked as clerks of LA Leavitt and Holtzermann’s Chicago Store. Newspaper advertisements show the store proudly selling “real German toys,” making it entirely plausible that the German-made dolls uncovered during the excavation once passed through the very store where they worked.
The Jensens: Putting Down Roots
As earlier residents moved on, new families continued shaping the neighborhood.
Among them were Peter and Lena Jensen, Norwegian immigrants raising five first generation American children. The Jensens purchased the home at 1912 E. 22nd Street in 1920 and lived there until 1956.
On the site of their home, archaeologists uncovered beauty products, buttons, beads, tableware, and household goods. The archaeologists speculate that the presence of unique beauty and apparel-related items, coupled with their status as homeowners, suggests the Jensens had purchasing power which boarders and renters residing on neighboring lots did not have.
The Thomas and Royster Families: Leadership, Community, and Perseverance
In 1938 (in the midst of the first wave of the Great Migration and the increasing presence of racial covenants on houses in Minneapolis), railroad worker Jessie Thomas bought the Deblon family’s former home at 2115 Snelling Avenue, moving in with his wife, beautician Rose, and their 13-year old daughter Pauline. Young couple Roy and Lilian Royster joined them in the house a year after their wedding in December 1940 with their one-year old daughter Judy. That same year, Roy Jr. was born and Roy Sr. enlisted in the armed forces to help fight in WWII. The third Royster child, Raymond was born in 1941.
Historical records reveal lives devoted not only to family, but to community leadership. Jessie Thomas was active in organizations including the NAACP and the Improved Benevolent Order of Elks, and both families participated in Bethesda Baptist Church and the Phyllis Wheatley House, helping strengthen Minneapolis’ Black community.
The artifacts connected to their household tell a deeply personal story, revealing a busy household filled with children, routines, celebrations, responsibilities, and hopes for the future.
One Neighborhood. Many Lives.
The Deblons remind us of the courage it took to leave one country and build a life in another.
The Jensens show the determination of working-class families who weathered economic change, raised children, rebuilt after hardship, and gradually transformed a growing neighborhood into a community.
The Thomas and Royster families demonstrate community leadership, resilience, and perseverance.
Today, Wadaag Commons welcomes a new generation of residents, with hopes for the future remaining remarkably familiar: A safe place to live, opportunity for their children, and a neighborhood where they can belong.
All these families are part of the same story: a neighborhood continually renewed by those who live here.
Come See the Artifacts
A selection of artifacts recovered during the Wadaag Commons excavation is on display at Redesign’s office. We invite you to stop by and experience this history for yourself.
