Minnesota's Greatest Generation Oral History Project: Richfield in the Postwar Era: Interview with Eugene Elsen

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Minnesota's Greatest Generation Oral History Project: Richfield in the Postwar Era: Interview with Eugene Elsen

Saylor, Thomas

Elsen, Eugene

Created: 04/19/2007

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Eugene Elsen was born in Richfield, Minnesota. He attended Assumption School and graduated from De LaSalle High School in Minneapolis. Elsen married and raised his children in Richfield and Bloomington. He worked in financial planning before being employed by his family's business, Elsen Brothers. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Changes in the services Elsen Brothers provides, from services for farmers and pumping gas to auto work; neighborhood descriptions; postwar growth and development of Richfield; transportation options: walking, hitchhiking, and streetcars; recreational sports; his family's sale of property in Richfield; postwar commercial development; World War II air raids; 1950s housing shortage in Richfield; close-knit community and family; increase in shopping options; role of Assumption Church in social life; rapid expansion of Assumption School in the 1950s and 1960s and subsequent decline; demographic changes: increase in minorities, older population; employment options in Richfield; prominence of charge accounts in family business; 1951 tornado; impact of I-494 construction and the airport on business; police-community interaction.

Minnesota Digital Library

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http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display.php?irn=10868648