This article first appeared in the July/August 2024 edition of Home & Harvest magazine.
By Hayley Noble, Executive Director
Many American towns and cities drew immigrants from all over the world. Those from Scandinavia grouped together forming cultural neighborhoods throughout the country, keeping Scandinavian traditional practices and languages alive. Moscow was no different and was home to many of the town’s early Scandinavian residents at the turn of the 19th century. In Moscow, the largest country of origin was Sweden, hence the term “Swede Town.” Many of the Scandinavian families who settled here previously lived in the Midwest before deciding to make their way west by railway. Here, “Swede Town” most often refers to the area centering on 7th and 8th streets near Lynn Street, in southeast Moscow, but those are loose boundaries. The early 1900s census records are full of 7th and 8th street addresses associated with Ramstedts, Olsons, Nelsons, Otnesses, Obergs, Linds, Lundquists, Gustavsons, and others with birth places in the mid-west (think Minnesota), Sweden, or Norway.
Of course, not everyone who lived in the neighborhood was of Swedish descent, but the nickname was well-known around town and stuck. Lucinda Tuttle Jenks recalled that her family moved to 724 E. 7th Street near Lynn in the summer of 1920. The Tuttles were of British and Scottish heritage, with Lucinda’s parents born in Michigan. They moved from Michigan to several Washington farms before settling in Moscow. Lucinda remembers that living in town was different in many ways compared to the farms of her youth. The chiming church bells were a vivid memory, as were running water and electricity. Lucinda walked to the Irving School, adjacent to the old Russell School, while her sister went to the Whitworth School, where the present high school is located. Lucinda attended the High School and the University of Idaho through the 1920s and early 1930s and continued to walk to classes while living at her family home.
According to Carol Ryrie Brink, Moscow had several social classes. The largest was the middle class who attended to business and their social life mainly revolved around neighborhoods and church. Below that class, were the people of “Swede Town,” then the “pool hall and saloon habitues, the plumbers and gravediggers.” Harry Sampson recalled in his oral history interview that Moscow was divided, and since his family was Norwegian, they naturally settled on the corner of 7th and Logan Streets at 616 E. 7th Street. The neighbors, Gustav and Theodore Johnson and Allen Ramstedt, all pitched in to build the Sampsons a house, outhouse, barn, and plant fruit trees. The land south beyond Mabelle Street was home to orchards and fields, considered the “outskirts” of town by the early 1900s, and numerous descriptions recall the rows of fruit trees that occupied the area at the time. Many of the “Swede Town” men found work in Moscow’s various stores, like Creighton's and David’s, or as bookkeepers and clerks. One of the few jobs afforded to women was to work in domestic service, often as a “hired girl” in one of the upper-class homes. Those duties usually consisted of cooking, cleaning, and childcare. Elsie Nelson wrote in her memoir that her mother, Mary Linda, worked as a nursemaid first in the Hannah home, then in the Sweets home, where in addition to childcare, she helped prepare and serve dinner to guests in the late 1880s. We know that the McConnell's also kept a Swedish hired girl but not many details remain as to her identity or duties beyond urban legends.
A large portion of “Swede Town'' found community at church and those remain as reminders of this past. Cordelia Lutheran Church is believed to be the oldest Lutheran church in Idaho, dedicated in 1883 and home to the first Swedish congregation in Idaho. The church is eight miles outside of Moscow in the countryside and served those Swedish farmers who resided outside of Moscow. An in-town church was needed, and the Swedish Lutheran Church was constructed in 1888 at the corner of 2nd and Van Buren Streets. The Norwegians also wanted their own church and established the Norwegian Lutheran Church at 217 E. 6th Street. Each church offered sanctuaries of language, cultural traditions, food and cookbook publishing, and community service groups, like Ladies Aid Societies. Both churches merged in 1961 to form the Emmanuel Lutheran Church. Additionally, community picnics on Moscow Mountain were popular ways to spend an afternoon. Attendees brought food, sang folksongs, and played games together. In any culture, food is one of the most prevalent ways to connect to ancestors and homelands. The Scandinavian peoples were no different, serving lutefisk, krumkake, koldalmer, potatis korv, and other holiday delicacies in celebration of the current season.
In 1909, the Moscow School Board constructed the Ward School, also known as the Lincoln School, at 730 E. 8th Street, which served many of the children in “Swede Town.” Clarice Sampson recalled that Mattie Heddington was the principal of the Ward School, with Myra Moody taking on the job later. The neighborhood was also home to the Swedish Hospital at 845 E. 7th Street. Both of these buildings are still standing, but are now residential homes, with the Ward School converted into apartments.
“Swede Town” is also home to a different kind of history, when Theodore Pritchard created an artist colony on Apple Lane just off of 8th Street. Pritchard designed the homes in the 1930s and lived there with other University of Idaho faculty members Marion Featherstone, Alf Dunn, and Mary Kirkwood. All four were accomplished artists teaching at the University and comprised this small, off-the-beaten path neighborhood on the edge of “Swede Town.” The residents called their neighborhood “the farm,” and believed in an alternative concept of social aggregation based on cultural and ideological connections. Now, Pritchard, Featherstone, Dunn, and Kirkwood are all house-hold names in the Palouse art scene, and this tid-bit about them being neighbors makes the history a little sweeter.
Not long ago in 2019 and 2020, University of Idaho landscape architecture professors Roberto Capecci and Raffaella Sini explored this history of the Apple Lane development in an outdoor installation that projected art and photos onto one of the existing houses and a piece that was displayed in the Pritchard Gallery. The projection piece titled “Community,” explored Moscow's artist village from the Great Depression to our times at 808 Apple Lane. The showing was perfectly timed to happen in September 2020 as the COVID pandemic and social distancing meant outdoor gatherings The legacy of university faculty in “Swede Town” continues with their interest in the development’s history and with Sini as the current owner of 808 Apple Lane.
Moscow was not alone in this influx of Scandinavian immigrants – Troy, Nora, and other Latah County communities and farms saw an increase in immigrants from the 1880s to the 1920s. Nora and Big Bear Creek even gained the nickname “Little Sweden” because Swedish was spoken so frequently. Many Latah County towns can trace their residents back to some of the early Swedish settlers.
Few remnants remain of “Swede Town’s” history beyond the structures that survive. The churches are still standing, and most of the houses continue to be occupied although some have been moved or renovated to their original shapes can be difficult to discern. Small references in oral histories or recollections name the neighborhood, but nothing formal exists recognizing the former Scandinavian residents. The local lore is that “Lynn” Street is thought to be the anglicized name “Lind” reminiscent of one of the families who resided there. Mentions of “Swede Town” persist from those who have lived there for decades, but many of the newer residents do not know that this neighborhood was considered “separate” from other parts of Moscow. I know a few folks who grew up in the neighborhood and never left. Because of the area’s long history, in 2021 the City of Moscow Preservation Commission considered turning the neighborhood into a historic district by nominating it for the National Register of Historic Places. They had proposed that the parameters of the district would encompass 6th Street to north, Spotwood and Mabelle Streets to the south, Hayes Street to the east, and Jefferson Street to the west. To my knowledge, the survey work to make this a reality has not been completed. I hope this short glimpse into some of the Scandinavian history of Moscow sheds some light as to why the area surrounding 7th and Lynn Streets is still referred to as “Swede Town” by certain Muscovites.
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