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Parkside Neighborhood Fred founded Streeter Andrus West Real Estate, a company that had offices in Chaska, Waconia, and Victoria. His contacts and his knowledge of properties for sale led him directly into his passion -- land development. The first property he developed in Victoria was down by Schutz Lake, on the west side of the lake by Carver Park. "This was originally part of the Fink farm," said Fred, whose mother was Ruth Fink before she married E.B. Plocher. The land came to be owned by Milton Fink, Ruth's brother and E.B.'s brother in law. "Milton needed money to send one of his daughters to St. Olaf College so he sold off this parcel to my dad to pay off her tuition. Cousin Jim Fink (whose dad was Elmer Fink, brother of Milton and Ruth) inherited the rest of it so we platted it all together." Thus, on the plat it's called the Plocher-Fink Addition. "The Park wanted there to be nothing down here, no homes, just parkland," said Fred, who won that argument. Today there are about 30 homes at Parkside. "I can remember when Donny Kerber came down to do some roadwork for me and he asked, 'Where should the road go?' and he looked at me and I said, 'Over there where the cow path is.' It never dawned on me that I needed a survey and plat work done." Well, Fred became familiar with development procedures rather quickly. He contacted an Eden Priaire firm by the name of Brauer and Associates, and a young civil engineer who was working for Brauer at the time, Allan Orsen, came out to survey the property and set lot corners. One of those lots was especially appealing to Allan and his wife Sue, who bought their lot on the Plocher side in 1971. There was already one home on the Plocher property that was built in 1969 for Fred and Karol Plocher and their family. Ken and Sonja Huber had bought the first lot on the Fink side in 1970. More homes were to come into this lovely secluded neighborhood, but it would never be crowded since it was bounded by the lake and Carver Park.
Kirke Lachen Neighborhood Fred said that half of the woodsy Kirke Lachen property was owned by Wilbert and Darlene Kelzer (it was part of their farm), and the other half was owned by the City of Victoria (perhaps Salter's Park). "I outbid Marv Hartman on the city piece," he said. "Kenny Diethelm, a councilmember at the time, almost fell off his chair when the bids were opened. He couldn't believe the price was so high." The year was 1979. So Fred purchased the property and designed and developed 45 lots on the west side of Church Lake, along with Bill Maple who arranged the financing. The development was appropriately called Kirke Lachen in recognition of the German ancestry of the Victoria community. Access to Kirke Lachen was a major issue at the time which came to be resolved through the extension of 81st Street. The development included a tennis court park that was given to the City of Victoria for public use. Fred hired his neighbor Al Orsen to engineer sewer and street improvements (there was no municipal water at that time) at Kirke Lachen, and together they suffered untold miseries because sections of the street fell apart. Although the streets were designed and engineered according to the plan and the existing city specifications, they were not constructed according to the plan and city specifications. This was discovered when the streets were redone -- at city expense, since the City of Victoria was responsible for supervision and inspection during construction.
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At a family reunion at Lions Park in Victoria in 1998 (l-r): Wilfred (born in 1922), Dorothy Hill (born in 1924), Pat (born in 1925), Jeanne Firestone (born in 1931), Marion Olson (born in 1933), and Fred (born in 1940). |
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July 2012 |