Yoga instructor Jean Auger and her husband Michael Auger have owned the 100-plus-year-old home, 4911 Lake Ave., for 25 years. “When we bought it,” she said, “there had been only two family owners, and one other owner in between them. Houses on Lake Avenue often pass along family lines. People in these neighborhoods don’t move out – they move around from house to house.”
Jean Auger in front of her 107-year-old fireplace and the entrance to her home during the summer of 2023.
Jean has been fortunate to learn quite a bit about her home’s history. June (Jantzen) Osmundsen was born in the house in 1920, and during the summer of 2008, she visited the house as part of her 90th year birthday celebration. Jean just happened to be home when June dropped by, so she invited June in and learned some fun details about the house.
Photographed in 1922 in front of the still-standing fireplace, June’s parents Frederick William Jantzen Sr. and his wife Nannie, posed with their three children: June (age 2) sitting on her mother’s lap, Ruth (15), and William Jr. (10).
The house was one story when June grew up in it, but it still has the same prairie stone fireplace, steam radiators, and enclosed cases between the living room and dining room she remembered growing up. Her parents had the house built in 1916.
After the visit, June wrote to Jean about the plants and trees in her childhood yard. One hundred years ago, the landscaping sounds similar to that of many homes around White Bear Lake today: tiger lilies, bridal wreath, fir trees, oak trees, a patch of Lilies of the Valley and white and lavender lilac trees. They also had peonies.
Family that built 4911 Lake Ave. started many businesses here
According to a 2010 White Bear Press article, June’s family was very entrepreneurial – her Dad Frederick William Jantzen Sr. attended business school as a young man, and worked eventually at Mannheimer Bros. Department Store in downtown St. Paul as a timekeeper (before time clocks existed) and as a wrapper. He ultimately became general buyer and merchandiser for 13 departments. He even created a popular electronics department when electronic products were becoming more commonplace (1930s).
Jantzen was key as the store transitioned from Mannheimer’s to Schuneman’s, where William worked until his death in 1941. (Some may recall that Schuneman’s was bought by Dayton’s, which ultimately became Macy’s.)
Around 1934, William Jr. (Bill) owned and operated “The Cabin Camp” which consisted of little cabins with sinks, a small restaurant and drive-in curb service on Goose Lake, on old Highway 61 (now Scheuneman Road). It was a popular destination for folks from St. Paul to vacation, or for those traveling further north to rest. June’s older sister Ruth worked at the restaurant, and June ran the curb service for 25 cents an hour.
In the late 1940s, Bill sold the camp and opened The Malt Shoppe at 4760 Washington Square, the current location of the Cobblestone Café. He and his wife Dorothy built their home and Jantzen’s Motel on Highway 61 and 10th Street where the Country Inn is now located; they added a restaurant in 1958.
June also worked at Shuneman’s when she was a teenager. At age 20 in 1940, June moved to California and worked at a bank in the escrow department where she met her future husband, Dean Osmundsen, a fellow banker. They married and raised their daughter in La Puente, Calif., where June occasionally corresponded with Jean Auger.
During her 2008 visit, June’s daughter bought her a little wooden sign from a White Bear Lake shop that says “Home is where your story begins.” And June told Jean in one of her letters: “Your home is where my story begins. In that front bedroom.”
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