Valley House Supper Club
This page will cover the same property, which was in turn,
- The Valley House
- The Murphy House
THE VALLEY HOUSE
The Valley House Supper Club was first described as being located 1.3 miles south of the Mendota Bridge on Highway 13 in Eagan Township.
Highway 13 became the Sibley Memorial Highway, the building was assigned the address 2600, and the Mendota Bridge was replaced by Interstate 494. Eagan became incorporated as a city in 1972.
The Valley House was owned by partners Ray E. Goneau and Jeanne Lommen of St. Paul. The building cost $75,000 to construct and could accommodate 200 diners. (Minneapolis Tribune, April 13, 1957)
Supper Clubs usually have some music, and here is some evidence that there was music early on:
The ad below was kind of hidden in a classified section. One wonders how such a stark-looking building would incorporate a “Rumpus Room!”
On March 8, 1964, an ad announced that the Valley House was open under new management.
MURPHY HOUSE
Apparently the new management didn’t catch on, and the Valley House was sold to Ray Murphy in December 1964. Murphy changed the name to the Murphy House Supper Club, and advertised for an organist. The Grand Opening was on December 13, 1964.
LUNCH AT MURPHY HOUSE
Although the Murphy House was a Supper Club, one fellow on Facebook tells us that lunches were also available:
In the 1970s there were no restaurants in the area to grab lunch, but the Valley House had a buffet line set up in the bar with some of the best food around. Older women would bring in and set up these big old white pots full of chili, roast beef, fried chicken, etc lined up on makeshift tables in the bar. Workers for miles around would come and line up in the feed line for it. In the days before the predominance of fast food places, there were several bars and legion clubs like this around town transformed at lunchtime to accommodate the working men and women.
THE END OF THE MURPHY HOUSE
In November 1980, a notice appeared in the classifieds that the State has purchased their property and they were auctioning off their equipment. The old location appears to be right in the middle of Sibley Memorial Highway, at approximately Highview Avenue.