St Paul

9 min readOct 26, 2022

While Minneapolis was a milling hub, St. Paul being located at the northernmost navigable point for steamboat transportation became a major center for transport/trade.

St Paul established in 1854 which is well before Minneapolis which established in 1867. The city’s first resident of European descent was Pierre “Pig’s Eye” Parrant — simply given that name because he had a patched eye. He arrived at Fort Snelling at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers where there was a burgeoning fur trade. Kicked out because he was selling whiskey so decided to settle just a couple miles downriver in a shack outside of a cave that provided natural spring water and coolness for his whiskey. This took place in 1838 and the area was called Pig’s Eye until priests arrived in the area. The priests built a log cabin chapel that they dedicated to St. Paul. When it came time to establish an actual city, the name St. Paul won out over Pig’s Eye.

We start our journey at Summit Overlook Park. This park was originally the site of the Carpenter’s Hotel, a towering wooden structure of the late 1850s. It is believed that the hotel burned in the mid-1880s and turned into a public park since that date. To adorn the park this imposing bronze sculpture of an eagle clutching a rock was added in 2004 to symbolize a guardian keeping watch over the stately mansions of the neighborhood. This eagle was originally atop the building for New York Life Insurance Company before it was shuttered.

Did I mention mansions, yes this is Summit Avenue in St Paul considered the grandest of the country’s Victorian-era residential boulevards. You can argue that Summit Avenue was the address for who’s who of all the people who made Saint Paul. The most famous house built on that street was that of wildly successful railroad tycoon James J Hill. It was built 1891 in Richardsonian Romanesque style. Today the site is a National Historic Landmark and museum open to the public.

Now we’re going to talk of the namesake of this city, the Cathedral of St Paul. The current cathedral is actually the fourth construction of it. We covered earlier how a small group of French priests rushed to build a log cabin church just to eradicate the previous Pig’s eye name. That was in 1840 and current structure built in 1915 was by architect Emmanuel Louis Masqueray who was met by a bishop from this cathedral at the St Louis fair. The commanding site they chose sits on the edge of a bluff which overlooks downtown St Paul and the capitol.

The grandeur of this can only be rivaled by Cass Gilbert’s state capitol, completed in 1905. Cass Gilbert is local to St Paul and famous for Woolworth Building (NYC) and aside from MN the capitols of WV and AR. Gilbert drew on the Italian Renaissance for inspiration crowning the white marble facade with a dome based on that of St. Peter’s in Rome. If you look closely at the foot of the dome you’ll notice four life-size horses pulling a golden chariot. You can get a closer look of them here

Back downtown I bring you to St Paul’s version of Richardsonian Romanesque municipal structure. St. Paul’s historic Landmark Center, completed in 1902, originally served as the United States Post Office, Courthouse, and Custom House for the state of Minnesota. It is is now an arts and culture center.

St Paul Hotel built in 1910 has seen presidents, gangsters, celebrities, and local businessmen pass through the lavish lobby. Lucius P. Ordway one of 3M’s original backers was one of the main contributors to the hotel being built

St Paul Central Library opened to the public in 1917 with the support of JJ Hill. Its in the Italian Renaissance Revival architectural style characterized by round arched windows and classical columns, among other features.

Just outside the landmark center you’ll find a statue for F. Scott Fitzgerald famous for writing The Great Gatsby. Was born 1894 in the upscale Summit Hill neighborhood. He was equally fascinated and distressed by the rich culture because he knew he could never be amongst them since he was born of modest means. Fitzgerald’s alcoholism, financial problems and turbulent relationship with wife Zelda led to his death in 1940 at only age 44. He never lived to see the success from his writing as it would only reach acclaim after his death.

William Hamm, owner of Hamm’s Brewery financed the development of this six story Baroque style building. The building turned into his brewery’s headquarters when it opened in 1919. With the passage of prohibition and a booming 1920s economy, the building transitioned into a multipurpose business hub and entertainment destination in the next decade. The Capitol Theater “movie palace” opened in Hamm Building as one of the most expensive and elegant theaters in the Midwest. In 1929 the Capitol Theatre became the Paramount Theatre lasting until the early-1960’s gutted and then spawned as Norstar Theatre. It only lasted for a little over a decade before it shared the fate of its predecessor closing in 1978. Since 1994 its been taken over as the Park Square Theatre.

Within the vicinity is Palace Theater dating from 1916, it was renovated in 2016 to become a live music venue.

I have a soft spot for vintage structures and here we have Mickey’s Dining Car. This famous diner has been around since 1937 and has been featured in films such as The Mighty Ducks. Since its opening its been open 24 hours 365 days a year until the pandemic shut its doors. They are hoping to re-open sometime by end of 2022.

360 Wabasha is a notable Art Deco building built in 1930 that was purchased by Ecolab in 1979 and has been maintained as a corporate facility.

The Saint Paul Building built in 1888 is the last remaining Brownstone “Skyscraper” remaining in St. Paul. It was initially built for Germania Bank but has since been occupied by various businesses.

Now to the most distinguishable emblem of the St Paul skyline, the 1st National Bank building. When it was built in the early 1930s it was the tallest building in St. Paul until 1986. Though it’s been quite a while since this famous building actually housed a bank after First National moved out a long time ago. Today a number of businesses rent out space inside the building.

The Pioneer Building, was built to house the St. Paul Pioneer Press, a newspaper resulting from a merger of the Minnesota Pioneer and the St. Paul Daily Press in 1875

What you see below is a warehouse built in 1908 by the Northern Pacific Railway. Today its been redeveloped into a co-working space for entrepreneurs, organizations, creatives, and creative enthusiasts to work, practice and host their workshops and special events

You can bet that I was not going to not cover the Union Depot. The building played a tremendously important role in nurturing the railroad industry that helped St. Paul gain its reputation as a major transportation and commercial center. Nine railroads joined to form the Saint Paul Union Depot Company in 1879 to better serve passengers traveling on the many trains available. The first building was lost due to fire and hence the neoclassical building that exists now was completed in 1923. In the early 2000’s the Depot had converted much of its upper floors to condos. In 2012 station transitioned back into multimodal hub serving the Twin Cities region and hosting bus, light-rail, and heavy-rail passenger services.

As we head into the West 7th neighborhood known as the oldest commercial corridor in the state. It was built around a historic Native American and fur trading path which ran along the Mississippi to Fort Snelling and early Minneapolis.

Below block consists of three adjoined commercial buildings that were construed from 1885–1895: Rochat-Louise-Sauerwein Block. They reflect the economic and commercial boom in St. Paul during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Cossetta’s was founded in 1911 by Italian immigrant Michael Cossetta, the restaurant has grown from a small store on St. Paul’s upper levee to its current location where it has been since 1988. Its not only a restaurant but more like cafeteria-style setting that also offers a full collection of grocery and specialty items.

Here we have the Smith Building built in 1888. Named after Robert Smith, prominent lawyer, financier and one-time mayor who razed his home to build it. Along the way, watering holes of one nature or another came to occupy its street-level most recently the Patrick McGovern’s Pub.

Last one I am going to leave you because I love flatiron buildings. This one named the Paulina Flats built in 1902 consisting of retail and apartments. Couldn’t find any history about it so leave you to enjoy it for what it is.

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St Paul

Written by Jad

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