Featured Stories
Brewery Workers, Bosses and Consumers
German workers and German bosses had a monopoly on brewing beer in St Paul, as they did almost everywhere in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries. As historian Gary Brueggeman has…
From the Land of Sky Blue Waters
When German immigrant and former butcher/saloon owner Theodore Hamm bought a struggling business on Phalen Creek in St. Paul in 1864, would he have thought it would become one of the largest breweries…
Gita Ghei: Bubblicious, 2014
Bubblicious 2014 Material: steel, aluminum, solar lighting This sundial-inspired artwork evokes the visual imagery of creatures whose bodies are comprised of 90% or more water - jellies, rays, and…
Take a Tour
West Side: Yoerg's Heritage
4 Locations ~ Curated by The Saint Paul Historical TeamAnthony Yoerg (1816 – 1896) came to St. Paul from the little town of Gundelfingen, Bavaria in 1848. St. Paul was still a village then, and the big German migration to Minnesota was just beginning. He opened the state's first brewery, near where the Science Museum stands today, in 1849. In 1870 the Yoergs moved across the river to the West Side and built a new brewery at the base of the bluff, and dug five caves into the soft sandstone; the caves offered cool and stable temperatures for storage.
Along Selby
7 Locations ~ Curated by The Saint Paul Historical TeamFollow Selby Avenue west from where it begins. At Selby Avenue’s beginning, you will find remnants of the empire-building years of the late 19th-century atop Cathedral Hill. Here lived people of wealth, ambition, and ostentation. A little farther along, there are vestiges of the city’s expansion along streetcar lines.
This tour follows the streetcar line west, with short forays into the neighborhoods north and south. It has literary, architectural, and commercial features.
Those with…
African American Heritage: Points of Entry
16 Locations ~ Curated by The Saint Paul Historical TeamMinnesota's African American history begins with pioneers who trapped, traded and developed lasting relationships with the Indian nations. In the 1790s, Pierre Bongo (Bonga or Bungo), a free black fur trader, came to the territory and married an Ojibwe woman. Their son, George Bonga, born in 1802, was Minnesota's first recorded African American birth. George became a fur trader, too, as well as an important interpreter who helped negotiate agreements between the Ojibwe and the U.S.
From…
3M & Saint Paul
29 Locations ~ Curated by Saint Paul Port Authority | Marjorie Pearson, Summit Envirosolutions, Inc. | the East Side Arts CouncilMinnesota Mining and Manufacturing, as 3M was originally named, moved from Two Harbors, MN, to the Dayton's Bluff neighborhood in St. Paul in 1910 and was headquartered there until 1962. The company started with sandpaper and abrasives, and eventually became a major international corporation making a wide variety of products. 3M closed all operations at it's Dayton's Bluff location in 2009. The on-site interpretive program and and this online resource were developed with funding from the Saint…
Frogtown: School Days
9 Locations ~ Curated by The Saint Paul Historical TeamFrogtown has been home to more than a dozen public, parochial, and charter schools over the years. In the early days Frogtown children went to school close to home years ago and almost always walked to school.
Most of the first schools were too small for each grade to have its own classroom. Two or more classes shared a room, with one teacher to help the pupils.
In early schools desks were bolted to the floor, with inkwells for the older children to dip their pens into. (Sometimes a…
About
Saint Paul Historical
A project by Historic Saint PaulSaint Paul Historical is a free mobile app that puts Saint Paul's history at your fingertips. Explore the people, places, and moments that have shaped the city's history. Click on any point on the interactive map to read historical narratives and to view images. Take curated historical tours of Saint Paul and share our stories and your experience using social media. This project has been financed in part with funds provided by the State of Minnesota through the Minnesota Historical Society from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. This site is powered by Omeka + Curatescape, a humanities-centered web and mobile framework available for both Android and iOS devices.
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