In a quiet space downstairs in City Hall, the Roseville Historical Society keeps track of the community’s past.
The Roseville Historical Society collection housed in City Hall includes documents, photographs, objects and files of information dating to the early white settlement of the area in 1843.
Its purpose: to make Roseville’s history visible.
RHS encourages and supports archival research by individuals and groups, and preserves artifacts and historical documents donated to its archives. The Heritage Trail, their system of street‑label markers paired with a mapped collection of historic sites across the city, offers residents a way to encounter Roseville’s past while moving through familiar neighborhoods. The Society’s archives also serve as a resource for those tracing family history, including locating ancestral graves.
According to Beverly Kroschel, a volunteer historian at the Roseville Historical Society, their collections have grown in volume and quality over the last 30 years. Most of the work to make this possible is done by a team of dedicated volunteers.
State-of-the-art archival preservation
The Society’s space in City Hall houses their office and showrooms. A legacy donation allowed them to rent and revamp the space to include quality preservation and record-keeping facilities.
For example, shelving with acid-free containers for donated objects is stored in a climate-controlled setting to help preserve historical items. A state-of-the-art digital referencing system, similar to those used in museums, is now used to reference the collections the society maintains. The filing system was set up using another historical society’s collection as a model.
Records are available about current and former churches, businesses, civic organizations, cemeteries, schools and city government, organized for easy access. There is even a file labeled “Disasters.”
Restoring Rice-Dale Cemetery
A lesser-known Society project is the preservation of what is now known as the Rice-Dale Cemetery (formerly Rosedale Cemetery), located near Rice Street with County Road B to the north and Burke Avenue to the south.
It is home to the oldest known graves in the Roseville area, including many of its early Scandinavian settlers. The cemetery was privately owned and, in its later years, mismanaged and neglected. Several scandals related to its upkeep resulted in the city taking over the property.
In 2008, RHS undertook the task of cleaning up and recording burials. Using interment records from its archives and coordinating with volunteers, RHS identified more than 3,000 graves. Then it created a digitized list of known burials, making it possible to better locate gravesites, though many of the oldest graves appear neglected to this day.
RHS collects and maintains history as a public service and its collections are publicly available. The collections, office and a small museum are located at Roseville City Hall, 2660 Civic Center Dr. Their facilities are open to the public Mondays, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m., and Wednesdays, noon – 3 p.m.
RHS can be reached at rhsmn1977@yahoo.com or 651-792-7440.
Stop in sometime and take a look. You never know what you might find!
