List of evaluated roadside properties
Stillwater Overlook - South
Lake St. Croix
SHPO number: WA-OHC-005
The Stillwater Overlook (also known as Stillwater Overlook – South or the Lake St. Croix Overlook) is located on the eastern side of Lookout Trail near 63rd Street North in Oak Park Heights just south of the Stillwater city limits. The site is at the original intersection of Trunk Highways 212 and 95 and provides stunning views of the scenic St. Croix River Valley. Developed between 1938 and 1939, the Stillwater Overlook was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
Significant historic elements and status
Evaluated under the Multiple Property Documentation Form entitled “Federal Relief Construction in Minnesota, 1933-1941,” the Stillwater Overlook is one of the most sophisticated and intact waysides built during the formative years of the Roadside Development Division of the Minnesota Department of Highways. It helped the agency meet important goals related to improving highway safety and aesthetics, supporting the automobile tourism industry, and providing roadside amenities to travelers. The Stillwater Overlook represents a partnership between the Division and the National Youth Administration (NYA), a federal relief program that provided essential work and job training to young people between the ages of 16 and 25 during the Great Depression. The NYA workers dismantled portions of the Minnesota Territorial Prison located two miles north of the wayside and used the salvaged limestone in the Stillwater Overlook and other roadside development work.
In addition to its historical associations, the Stillwater Overlook is significant for its design in the National Park Service Rustic Style. It is also an important work of Arthur R. Nichols, a consulting landscape architect working with the Roadside Development Division’s engineer Harold E. Olson. Built atop a former quarry used for road construction, the 0.6-acre site includes a limestone overlook wall and an asphalt-paved parking area lined with limestone stone curbing. The overlook wall is roughly 140 feet square and built of tan, random ashlar, roughly cut limestone laid on a stone footing. It combines classically inspired formalism with the rugged naturalism found in the Rustic Style using curves, reverse curves, and straight lines. The panoramic views of the river valley are enhanced and framed by vegetation that includes mature cedar trees, oak, ash, and maple, as well as low shrubs.
Features that contribute to and help convey the significance of the Stillwater Overlook include: the concourse’s location overlooking the St. Croix River Valley; the overall spatial organization, circulation, and vegetation; the stone overlook wall; stone and concrete benches, the freestanding Aluminum Plaque (“Lake St. Croix”), and a stone culvert.