Slab Alley

Slab Alley was located south of the Joseph Wolf Brewery, and north of the Aiple Brewery (now the site of the Oasis Café). If you drive south out of downtown, you might be able to see some remnants of Slab Alley in the bluff area. Some building foundations remain, as well as sealed openings of caves that were once used for cold storage.

The alley was a series of several buildings made from the slab wood from the old Hersey, Staples, and Company sawmill, which was located across the street. The alley was approximately two blocks long, with the houses built very close to the steep bluff. There was a dirt road (South Main Street), which in the summer was very dusty and noisy, especially when the trains went by.

There were, of course, no green lawns and very few trees and flower gardens. However, Slab Alley, like the other areas of town, had its own atmosphere and interesting personalities. Some family names that lived at the Alley were Dunn, Lyons, Bernstein, and Harrigan. The latter family had someone special in the family, who would later become a part of an American entertainment family.

Dennis Harrigan and his wife Kate reared several children in Slab Alley until their move to the state of Washington in the early 1880s. On February 7, 1873, the Harrigans had a baby girl, which was named Catherine, after her mother. Little Catherine Harrigan was baptized at St. Michael's Catholic Church four days later. Her godparents were family friends, Mike Kinsella and Katherine Marie Dunn, and the Irish Catholic ceremony was presided over by pastor Rev. Maurice E. Murphy.

When Catherine Harrigan grew up out west she was courted by Harry Lowe Crosby and the two were married. One of the couple's children was Harry Lillis Crosby, better known to us as "Bing" Crosby.

Bing Crosby said in his later years that he would have liked to visit his mother's hometown, but never made it to Stillwater. Bing's closest known visit was in 1963, when he stayed at the Lowry Hotel in St. Paul. On August 23 Miss Stillwater, Roxanne Blomquist, got to meet and spend some time with Crosby in St. Paul. She gave him a copy of his mother's baptism certificate, an antique set of alter bells from St. Mary's Catholic Church in Stillwater, and a large framed certificate given by the Stillwater City Council making Crosby and honorary citizen of Stillwater. Unfortunately, Bing had to leave that Sunday and couldn't make the trip to Stillwater.

There were other families and other stories of Slab Alley. The typical youth fooling around is written about in December 1876 when some “slab alley” boys “mutilated and otherwise injured a beautiful Christmas tree which had been purchased for the festival at the Universalist Church.” There was a man named John Sullivan, who was known as “Slab Alley Jack,” and appeared more than once in front of the local magistrate for some illegal activity in that area.

A reporter for the St. Paul Daily Globe was walking by the Slab Alley area in Stillwater and notice a family out by their home. The reporter was taken with Bessie May Stowell. Bessie was nearly eight years old and weighed only twenty pounds. The reporter stated that “she is of the average height for a child of that age, but since baby-hood has shown no disposition to accumulate flesh upon her little form.” The child was physically fine, and was a pleasant sight for the Globe reporter that day in 1889.

The end of Slab Alley came when Highway 95 was enlarged in the 1930s. The only remaining objects of Slab Alley are the stoned up caves and a little of the foundations, and the memories of an area of Stillwater that is nearly forgotten.

—Brent Peterson

Brent Peterson is the Executive Director of the Washington County Historical Society.