Albert Lea residents and merchants saluted the holiday season in the pre-electrical days with various decorations in their homes and business places. With the coming of electricity, some of these decorations changed from candles on the trees to strings of colored light bulbs for trees and for use as garlands and festoons.

A real historic highlight came in December 1912 with the placement of what has been called the nation’s first municipal Christmas tree in the intersection of Broadway Avenue and William Street. This tree became a part of one of the city’s major intersections until the 1920s. Then it was replaced with more elaborate suspended street decorations and the placement of the yearly tree in a different location.

The suspended decorations were made possible by cables stretched in an X from the four corner buildings and/or utility poles at the intersections of Broadway Avenue with College, Main, William, and Clark Streets. In the middle of the blocks cables or wires were strung straight across Broadway between the buildings and utility poles and at the corner of Water Street.

The cables were put in place in the early winter of 1928 as a special project by Bailey Electric, Central Electric (which became Gordon Electric the following year), and Interstate Power Company.

With the cables or wires in place, a greater variety was possible with suspended decorations. One type which was used and still remembered by some people was a bell hanging in the center with strings of lights leading out from the four corners or from each side of the street..

The concept of the municipal Christmas tree on Broadway was retained with the yearly placing of a tree on a platform in Fountain Lake Park at the north end of Broadway. This lighted tree seemed to complement the new street lights which extended down both sides of Broadway to the south.

The large lighted tree on the north end of the city’s major business street

was matched by the Southside Businessmen’s Association with another decorated tree at the south end of Broadway near Seventh Street.

The two lighted Christmas trees at each end of Broadway gradually became a memory because of three factors. First, a change in the street layout at the north end of Broadway in the late 1950s or early ’60s removed the traffic turn-around loop with a tee-intersection and cut into the part of the park used for the tree. Second, the Southside Businessmen’s Association quit putting up the tree at the other end of the street. Third, vandalism and the constant stealing of light bulbs from both trees discouraged the sponsors.

Meanwhile, businessmen on the city’s Northside added to the Christmas spirit with their own sets of decorations.

One of the first Northside decorations consisted of a pole in the center of the Bridge Avenue and Marshall Street intersection with strings of lights leading to the buildings or utility poles on the four corners. Another year the merchants cooperated to string lights on temporary posts along the sidewalk through Lincoln Park from the bridge to the east.

The decorations in what was then the city’s third major business areas were sponsored by the once very active Northside Businessmen’s Association.

For example, Dahl’s Grocery, which existed for 70 years, would actively participate in the yearly street decoration projects, and also have decorations across the front of the store, seasonal reminders in and above the merchandise and a lighted Christmas tree in the window.

Dahl’s Grocery, incidentally, was the first grocery store, and the second business firm on the Northside, or what was then appropriately called “New Denmark.” The first of three grocery stores in the small business district was started by Iver J. Dahl and then operated by his son and daughter-in-law, Oscar “Ted” and Florence Dahl, until 1977. (Security Bank Minnesota is now located at the site of the former Dahl’s Grocery and home site.)

The Northside decorations died out about 1975 with the demise of the businessmen’s association.

The seasonal Christmas decorations in Albert Lea have taken many forms since 1912. Several changes resulted from newer versions of street lighting standards on both sides of Broadway Avenue. For a few years, civic-minded merchants decorated the small trees on the outer edges of the sidewalks along both sides of Broadway. This project faded out, again partly because of vandalism. Also, as a set of decorations wore out, it was replaced with something hopefully more attractive and more modern.

Several years ago miniature light strings were placed on the trees in New Denmark Park, plus lighted animal figures on nearby Katherine Island. In a way, this helped to revive the spirit of Christmas on the city’s Northside.

There was still one reminder of the Christmas decorations of the past to be seen suspended over Broadway Avenue through the years. These were the bare cables, especially the full &uot;X&uot; at the William Street intersection. Now, this year, these cables are again being used for lighted decorations to enhance the seasonal spirit with the illuminated fixtures on the street light standards on both sides of Broadway Avenue.