Although this site is known today as the Earl Brown farm, it originally belonged to Captain John Martin, who was involved in steamboating, lumbering, banking, flour milling and railroading. In the mid-1880s, he purchased 420 acres of rich Hennepin County farmland. Martin sold the farm to his grandson, Earle Brown in 1901. Brown gradually increased the size of the farm to about 750 acres.
Aspiring to be a gentlemen farmer, Brown initially used the land to breed award-winning Belgian Horses. But the farm was destined to become famous for activities unrelated to agriculture. In 1911, the village of Brooklyn Center was formed at a meeting held at the Brown farm. As the nation became interested in aviation during World War I, Brown offered his farm and its buildings as a training field for U.S. military aviators. Though this offer was declined, the Brown farm did become the first commercial flying field in Minnesota in the summer of 1918, when hangars were erected and pilots began using the site as a training facility and airport. Although planes had previously landed on Minnesota lakes and at the Parade (grounds) near Dunwoody Institute, no formal air fields had been constructed. In 1920 Brown was elected Hennepin County sheriff, a position he held twice, from 1920-1929 and then from 1943-1947. In 1929 he organized the Minnesota Highway Patrol, which used the farm as a training facility. In 1932 he unsuccessfully ran for state governor, and lost to Floyd Olson. Brown lived on the Brooklyn Farm until his death in 1963, raising horses and collecting carriages.
In 1949, Brown willed the farm to the University of Minnesota, hoping that it would become the University's Agricultural Extension Center upon his death. After Brown died, however, the University sold the land and used the income to build the Earle Brown Continuing Education Center of the St. Paul Campus.
In 1985 the City of Brooklyn Center acquired the buildings and property of the original homestead. Preserved for the people of Minnesota, it is a tangible link to the agricultural heritage of what is now an urban area. It is also a memorial to an important figure in Minnesota history.
The Great Seal of the Sate of Minnesota 1858.
Erected by the Minnesota Historical Society
1998
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