The Healing Place
Who remembers driving by the old seminary building on old US 212 between Chanhassen and Chaska?
Who knows what the site originally was opened as in 1909?
Who, as a teen, hung out in the building they called "Hell House?"
Who remembers witnessing its deterioration and eventual demise?
Who knows what the site is now?
The video below should refresh your memory or at least pique your interest!
Note - the text below the video is basically the same text in the video. It flies by pretty fast in the video, so if you want to read about it at your leisure, you can scroll down and read it.
The Healing Place
The Story of a Sanitarium, a Seminary and a Calcareous Fen
in Chanhassen, Minnesota
The year 1909:
William Howard Taft was sworn in as President
The polio virus was discovered
Explorers were approaching both poles
First radio broadcast was made on shortwave
US Army purchased the first military plane
Indianapolis Motor Speedway opened
The Excelsior Rag was popular music
Benny Goodman and Burl Ives were born
Apache leader Geronimo died
Mudcura Sanitarium opened near Minneapolis
In 1908, Dr. Henry P. Fischer partnered with two other men and formed the Shakopee Mineral Springs Company. They began construction on what originally was to be called the Swastika Sulpher Springs Sanitarium (the "swastika" actually stands for life, power, strength, and good luck, not Nazi Germany) but by the time it opened in July of 1909 its name was Mudcura Sanitarium.
It was a grand building that had 27-guest rooms that could house up to 50 people. It also had a cigar and newsstand, a smoking room, and a barbershop as well as treatment rooms and offices. There was a small creek and man-made waterfall out back and plenty of room for outdoor games and relaxation on the grounds. There was even a small 6-hole golf course there for a few years!
People came from all over for mud baths and other "cures" for arthritis, rheumatism, gout, neuralgia, asthma, skin diseases, kidney issues, alcoholism and more. They would sometimes stay for months. This era being the heyday for such miraculous cures and treatments, Mudcura thrived for many years.
By the 1950's the miracle cure boom had slowed considerably. In 1951, Mudcura was sold to the Black Franciscans, Order of Friars Minor Conventual, from Louisville, Kentucky and became Assumption Seminary. The seminary was linked with both St. Thomas and St. Catherine Colleges in St. Paul. For a few years it hosted the Franciscan Retreat Center that is now in Prior Lake, Minnesota.
Assumption Seminary operated until 1970.The property changed hands numerous times in the ensuing years, but nothing was ever done to use or preserve it. For all intents and purposes it was abandoned. By the mid to late 1980's it was known to local adventure seekers as "Hell House" and had an almost cult-like following. The building was also a favorite party spot for some of the local kids. Its interiors ended up being stripped almost bare by salvagers and vandals.
On November 8, 1997 a fire gutted the main building, and that was that. Mudcura/Assumption Seminary/Hell House became a pile of rubble. Eventually the rubble was hauled away and little remains. Part of the driveway, a well, the man-made "falls" on the creek, a toppled and empty grotto and a few other relics are all that shows this place to have been anything but an open meadow.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources eventually took control of the site and it is now designated as the Seminary Fen Scientific and Natural Area. It can be accessed by the public, though there are no established hiking trails or amenities. The site contains a rare calcareous fen. These fens only occur at the base of bluffs or slopes and have springs and groundwater that is mineral-rich, creating peat bogs.
Mudcura aka Assumption Seminary aka Hell House aka Seminary Fen has meant a lot of different things to a lot of people since 1909. What will be here in another 100 years?
