Weinzierl

Jewelers

Victoria’s Corner Bar.  Nightly Specials and Menus.  952-443-9944

8 First Street in Waconia.  952-442-2885

942-443-2078

Funeral Home & Cremation Services

952-474-9595

Pediatric Rehabilitation Clinic.

Occupational Therapy.  Speech Therapy.

952-443-9888

Huber

City of Lakes & Parks  952-443-2363

“Trees Are Our Roots”

8099 Bavaria Rd * Victoria * 952-443-2990

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         When we were building our home here in Victoria in 1971, our street was not called Lilac Lane.  It was Maple.  I don't recall a street sign.  It wasn't even a gravel road.  It was a dirt path, and its north end was being developed by Fred Plocher.

         When the Victoria Senior Citizens -- a large group with officers, weekly gatherings, noon lunches, birthday parties, annual bazaars -- received the task of naming Victoria streets (there were few at the time), they chose to name them after flowers.

         Even though this property on the west side of Schutz Lake was covered with maple trees -- nearly 100 on our lot alone -- and there wasn't a lilac bush in sight, I didn't mind the name Lilac Lane, probably because of the alliteration.

         With that assigned nomenclature, Victoria came to have streets with names like  Hyacinth, Iris, Kochia, Lilac, Marigold, Narcissus, Orchid, Petunia, Quamoclit, Rose, and Sunflower.  I had no idea there was a flower by that name -- Quamoclit -- and I thought at the time it was an abomination to do that to downtown Victoria.  The  street led to Stieger Lake and was previously called Lake Street.  Go figure.  The Sr. Citizens were working in alphabetical order, and I thought "Q" could have been skipped.  In retrospect, it has worn well.

         Then Fred decided to develop another neighborhood, this time on the northwest edge of Church Lake.  He called the development Kirke Lachen, recognizing the German heritage of Victoria.

         Fred was also asked, or required, to name streets in Kirke Lachen with the flower theme rather than, say, Biergarten Boulevard or Schnitzel Street.  He got Trillium, a flower that often grows in the woods.  Kirke Lachen was, and remains, very woodsy.  And he was allowed to extend the moniker to Trillium Lane, Trillium Court, Trillium Circle, and so on.

         Shortly after Kirke Lachen was completed, Fred was interested in an acreage called Victoria Farms, 70% of it in Laketown Township at the time.  He gave us a tour in his trusty Jeep to the top of a hill in that pastureland and told about his vision of a golf course and homes on that golf course, similar to what he had seen out west.

         And then, thankfully, the power of the flower was allayed, and Fred was allowed street names reflective of a golf community.  Woodstone, Wedgemere, Ridge Ponds,  Fairway, and the like, came to meander through the Deer Run neighborhood.

         Subsequent Victoria developers followed suit, and streets in our lovely Victoria neighborhoods became aptly named.  Victoria is a City of Lakes and Parks and Neighborhoods, where a street name often reveals the neighborhood.  Not so for us.  There is a Lilac Lane north of Hwy 5 and also south of Hwy 5.  Same with Marigold and Kochia -- none of them connecting to the other side.  I think it was Curt Oakes' first job out of City Planner School.

         As I said, I didn't mind the name Lilac Lane, but one thing I did mind!  In order to get mail delivered to the end of our driveway, we had to have an Excelsior MN 55331 mailing address.  That didn't suit me!  So we bought a P.O. Box in town and everyone on our Christmas card list could see we lived in Victoria MN 55386.

         As our neighborhood and city grew, most everyone (not us) signed up to get mail delivered to their homes via an Excelsior, Waconia, or Chaska carrier route.  There wasn't a Victoria carrier route.

         That all changed in 1988 as Deer Run was coming on board and the Victoria Chamber of Commerce wanted to help put Victoria on the map.  We began by seeking our own carrier route.  It was not fun.  As Chamber Secretary, I spearheaded the effort and worked full time for six months, volunteer, fulfilling every criteria, detail, and demand of the U.S. Postal Service.

         We sent cards to every home in Victoria, many times twice, asking for support and personally begging.  We needed a response from at least 70% of the homes, and of those responses we needed 90% to approve switching from Excelsior, Chaska, or  Waconia to Victoria MN 55386.

         There were 707 Victoria homes with Excelsior, Chaska, and Waconia zip codes -- which means the population of Victoria in 1988 was approximately 3,000 -- plus the many Victoria boxholder families.

         The job got done.  And I've got the paperwork on file to show that it got done and how it got done.  It tells who said YES and who said NO and who didn't respond.

         I continue to advocate for new Victoria neighborhoods to rightly receive Victoria MN 55386 addresses -- especially those properties south of Marsh Lake Road, soon to be annexed into Victoria.  When those plats are drawn and the streets are named, the mailing addresses of those hundreds of new homes should be Victoria MN 55386.  Patrick Smith, is that your responsibility?  I hope City Staff is not intimidated by the USPS.  Let me know if you have trouble.

         Six Victoria carrier routes now serve the residents of Victoria, and it began with the first one, the hardest one, exactly 30 years ago.

From the Editor

Dedicated to the sunshine of truth,

the moonshine of meeting deadlines,

and the starshine of Victoria.

The Victoria GAZETTE

Sue’s Album

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at www.VictoriaGazette.com

September 2018