City Name: Birchwood Village
County: Ramsey
Population: 968
City Hall: www.birchwood.govoffice.com
Chamber of Commerce: White Bear Lake Area Chamber
See available properties in Birchwood Village
School District(s):
Birchwood Village School Information
White Bear Lake (624) Phone: (651) 407-7500
Birchwood Village Utilities
Electric:
Xcel Energy, www.xcelenergy.com, (800) 895-4999
Gas:
Xcel Energy, www.xcelenergy.com, (800) 895-4999
Phone:
Qwest Communications, www.qwest.com, (800) 244-1111
Cable:
Comcast, www.comcast.com, (651) 222-3333
Newspaper: White Bear Press
About the Community of Birchwood Village
The community we know as Birchwood Village began quietly in the last quarter of the 19th century as a sprinkling of summer cottages on the south shore of White Bear Lake. Prior to the settlement of the area, it was the home and hunting ground of Indians, and as recently as the early 1970’s an arrowhead found in newly turned ground attested to their earlier presence here. This part of Washington County was offered for sale by the United States Government in 1854 and changed hands many times in the next 50 years.
The growth of Birchwood was due to some extent to the building of Wildwood Amusement Park, to the east of the present city limits on the south shore of White Bear Lake. The Twin City Rapid Transit Company built the park in 1899 and it offered such pleasures as a roller coaster, ferris wheel, merry-go-round, bowling alley, a fun house, pavilion, dance hall and restaurant. These drew eager crowds, as did the picnic grounds and swimming beach with long slides into the water. The electric streetcar line was extended from the park through Birchwood into White Bear Lake in 1904 and this brought dependable transportation to residents. Two lake steamers, christened the Wildwood and the St. Paul, traversed White Bear Lake, and would stop at Birchwood to take on or discharge passengers when needed.
When Allen S. Libbey, later to be the Village Treasurer, came to Birchwood in 1903 he noted that only two other families were living here through the winter. At that time the area was a tangle of woods and swamps with a bicycle path along the lake as the only way through.
