🌿 RelaxedDay trip · from Minneapolis, MN
Stillwater Slow Day: Antiques, Lowell Inn & Sunset on the St. Croix
Stillwater — Minnesota's birthplace city, platted in 1843 and once the wealthiest logging town in the Upper Midwest — makes for the perfect unhurried day trip from Minneapolis: 30 minutes east on Highway 36 and you arrive at a six-block Victorian Main Street lined with 80 antique dealers operating out of former lumber-era storefronts. The day moves from the layered treasure of the Midtown Antique Mall through the colonial-elegant Lowell Inn for a midday lunch unchanged since the Truman administration, then up to the bluff at Pioneer Park for the finest panoramic view of the St. Croix River valley, with sunset pints at Lift Bridge Brewery and an optional 5-minute water taxi crossing to Wisconsin before the easy drive home.
Day 1 — Stillwater, MN
Day 1 — Stillwater, MN
Day 1 — Stillwater, MN
🚗 1 hr driving📍 5 stops
🌅
Morning
🚗
Drive
Minneapolis, MN → Stillwater Historic Downtown
30 min
Stillwater Main Street Antique District
★ Reviews →Stillwater's Main Street houses the highest concentration of antique dealers in the Midwest — more than 80 individual dealers operating out of former logging-era storefronts and brick commercial buildings from the 1870s–1890s. The town was platted in 1843 and became one of the wealthiest cities in the Upper Midwest during the white pine logging boom, when logs floated down the St. Croix from forests as far north as Cable, Wisconsin, to Stillwater's 14 sawmills. The merchant wealth of that era built the Victorian commercial blocks that house today's antique trade. The Midtown Antique Mall on Main Street has three floors of individual dealers specializing in everything from Art Deco furniture to Wisconsin dairy memorabilia to Lake Superior agates.
~1 hr📍 See location
🍽️
Lunch
Lowell Inn — George Washington Room
★ Reviews →Built in 1927 by Arthur and Nella Palmer, the Lowell Inn is the most formally elegant dining institution in the St. Croix Valley. The George Washington Room features hand-painted murals of Mount Vernon's Virginia countryside, white-columned neoclassical architecture, silver-and-crystal table service, and a menu of chicken almondine and walleye almondine that has anchored the kitchen since the Truman administration. The inn has hosted every Minnesota governor and numerous dignitaries. It is the kind of midday dining experience that was once routine in prosperous American river towns and is now extremely rare.
☀️
Afternoon
Lift Bridge Brewery
★ Reviews →Lift Bridge Brewing opened in 2008 in a Stillwater warehouse building, taking its name from the 1931 vertical lift bridge that crossed the St. Croix River at the foot of Chestnut Street — for decades the primary vehicle crossing between Stillwater and Houlton, Wisconsin. The bridge was replaced by the new St. Croix Crossing downstream in 2017 but restored as a pedestrian and cycling bridge, still raising for river traffic. The Farm Girl Saison and the Crosscut Pale Ale are the year-round anchors. The taproom patio looks across the valley toward the Wisconsin bluffs.
~1.5 hrs📍 See location
Pioneer Park Bluff Overlook
★ Reviews →Pioneer Park sits on the limestone bluff 200 feet above downtown Stillwater — a small city park established in the 1890s at the peak of the logging prosperity that built the city below. The view from the park bench at the bluff's edge looks directly down the St. Croix River valley, taking in the historic Stillwater Lift Bridge, the new St. Croix Crossing, and the Wisconsin shoreline. In autumn the forest on both bluffs turns orange and red and the river valley becomes one of the finest fall foliage scenes in Minnesota.
~30 min📍 See location
🌙
Evening
St. Croix Riverboat Water Taxi
★ Reviews →The seasonal water taxi operating May through October crosses the St. Croix River between Stillwater and Houlton, Wisconsin — a 5-minute boat ride that is the most pleasant way to experience the river from the water level rather than the bluff. The Andiamo dinner cruise also operates from the Stillwater marina on weekend evenings, a 90-minute narrated cruise up and down the river between the Minnesota and Wisconsin bluffs. The combination of the Lift Bridge's silhouette against the evening sky and the cottonwood forest along the riverbank makes this one of the most atmospheric river experiences within an hour of Minneapolis.
~1 hr📍 See location
🚗
Drive
Stillwater, MN → Minneapolis, MN
30 min
← All Minneapolis trips
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