What's Chanhappenin' — June 8, 2026

Hey Chanhassen! This week we're spotlighting a family hardware store that's been a downtown fixture for over 40 years — and the story behind it goes back even further than that. The community showed up in a big way for Old St. Hubert's last Friday, and we've got the update. We're uncovering a forgotten piece of local history that drew people from across the midwest to Chanhassen's doorstep. Plus summer concerts are back at Lake Ann, and a trivia question about one of Chanhassen's most recognizable landmarks. Here's what's chanhappenin'.

What creek runs through the heart of Chanhassen, lending its name to a golf course, a park, and an elementary school?

Scroll down for the answer

Old St. Hubert's — The Community Showed Up

Last Friday morning, the Wilder Room at the Chanhassen Library was standing room only.

Nearly 100 neighbors came out for a community conversation about the future of Old St. Hubert's — the 139-year-old church and the last historic landmark still standing in Chanhassen. Fr. Talbot and Jeff Burzinski, chair of the Save Old St. Hubert's Committee, opened the morning. A Q&A session followed, and then attendees moved between three stations to share what the church means to them, weigh the pros and cons of a community-led restoration, and consider how they might get involved as a supporter or donor.

Before leaving, each person dropped their vote in a jar marking the outcome they hope to see. The restoration jar filled up. The demolition jar stayed empty.

The feasibility study is now being finalized, and conversations are continuing with people who want to help make restoration — and a lasting endowment — possible. If you believe Old St. Hubert's is worth saving, share this with someone who grew up with it.

In 1950, a man named Merlin Ludford bought an independent hardware store on West Broadway in Minneapolis. He named it after himself, worked it side by side with his wife Dorothy, and built something that outlasted him.

His son Kent grew up in that store. He came home from the Naval Air Reserve in 1968 intending to become an architect — but his father's health was failing, and Kent was needed. Nine days after Merlin's 65th birthday in 1975, Merlin passed away. Kent kept the store going. In 1977, a coworker's 18-year-old sister named Deb came in looking for a job. She ended up staying for life — eventually as Kent's wife and business partner, carrying on the same arrangement Merlin and Dorothy had decades before.

When their New Hope lease was abruptly terminated in 1982, Kent needed a new home. He approached Herb Bloomberg — yes, the same man who built the Chanhassen Dinner Theatres — who had a hardware store for sale on the spot he'd operated since 1959. When the city council stalled over signage concerns, Bloomberg stood up and addressed them directly: "It behooves me to get this done tonight." The council approved the sale in about three minutes.

Kent and Deb have run Merlin's in Chanhassen ever since — first at the old Frontier location, then moving to Market Square in 1993 when they outgrew it. Four generations of the Ludford family have worked in the business. Deb became the store's "Paint Lady," known for matching colors by eye without a machine, and was the first in Minnesota to bring in Benjamin Moore paint. The store carries the name of the man who started it all.

Merlin's Ace Hardware · 7844 Market Blvd, Chanhassen · acehardware.com/store-details/05460

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Happenin’ Soon

1909 — On the border of Chanhassen and Chaska, there once stood one of the midwest's most unusual destinations: the Mudcura Sanitarium. Opened in July 1909, the facility drew visitors from across the region who came to soak in mineral-rich mud baths and sulfur springs believed to cure everything from arthritis and asthma to gout and alcoholism. The 27-bedroom building sat on landscaped grounds with a small creek, a man-made waterfall, and space for outdoor games. Patients often stayed for days or weeks at a time. The sulfur springs had been used by Dakota medicine people long before European settlers arrived — the founders simply built a business around what the land already offered. Mudcura operated until 1951, when the property was sold and converted into a seminary. The building burned down in 1997. Today the site is preserved as the Seminary Fen Scientific and Natural Area, one of the rarest wetland ecosystems in the country.

Source: MNopedia / Southwest Metro Magazine

Bluff Creek