Photo Enlargement

Staples Mansion, now the site of Pioneer Park in Stillwater

The home of Isaac Staples was a large Victorian mansion constructed in 1871 at the top of the North Second Street hill in Stillwater. It over looked the St. Croix River as well as Staples mill just below the hill. The mansion had a ball room in the third floor and was designed by St. Paul Architect A.M. Radcliff. After Staples' death, the mansion sat empty until it was torn down in 1906. Later the land the mansion stood on was given to the city of Stillwater and is now Pioneer Park.

Stillwater popcorn vendor, George Goutsos, ca. 1940s.

Popcorn has been a part of our culture for decades and continues to be one of the favorite snacks of Americans for most any event. Even in Stillwater, the popcorn wagon sat on the street corner popping corn and selling bags of the snack to passersby as early as the 1890s.

By the mid-1940s, popcorn wagons became motorized and George Goutsos, a Greek immigrant, became the town popcorn vendor. Goutsos would drive his popcorn truck around to most of the community events and there are people around today that still remember him parked at the high school football games selling popcorn to eager high school students.