Featured Stories
"Say it ain't so, Charlie!"
- The dispute between Charles Comiskey and orgainzed labor over the opening of Lexington Park -
On April 30, 1897, St. Paul's legendary Lexington Baseball Park opened to the public for the first…
"Where Two Waters Come Together": The Confluence of Black and Indigenous History at Bdote
Minnesota doesn’t typically come to mind when you think about slavery and the Civil War. It’s also not a place that’s figured into the national imagination when it comes to Black activism, either—at…
Rapinwax Paper Company
Rapinwax Paper operated in Frogtown for many years at 293 Como Av. The company made wax paper for food handling and food preservation. In the days before plastic wrap and resealable plastic food bags,…
Take a Tour
African American Heritage: Frogtown Area Churches
6 Locations ~ Curated by The Saint Paul Historical TeamWhile none of Saint Paul’s historic African-American churches are in what we know today as Frogtown proper, churches in adjacent neighborhoods served Frogtown’s African-American community. These were the churches Frogtowners could walk to.
The churches with the longest histories are Pilgrim Baptist, Saint Peter Claver, Saint James African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, Mount Olivet Baptist and Saint Philip’s Episcopal.
Other historically African-American churches were south of…
Historic Lowertown
22 Locations ~ Curated by The Saint Paul Historical TeamLayers of history give Lowertown its unique appeal. The Saint Paul neighborhood that sprouted at the "Lower Landing" on the Mississippi River grew into a major warehouse and distribution center serving the entire Upper Midwest. Lowertown's railroad, manufacturing, and wholesaling companies expressed their sense of pride and permanence in the structures they erected nearly a century ago. In 1983 Lowertown was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, giving the area protection under the…
Frogtown: Centers of Commerce
12 Locations ~ Curated by The Saint Paul Historical TeamUniversity Avenue is Frogtown’s best-known commercial street. It was once home to one of the Twin Cities’ busiest streetcar lines. The University Avenue line connected the downtown areas of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, and also served the University of Minnesota. It also connected to several other streetcar lines including Rice Street and Dale Street. University was the premiere streetcar line in terms of ridership numbers. It served shoppers as well as commuters.
METRO Green Line light rail…
Selby Avenue: Labor History
5 Locations ~ Curated by The Saint Paul Historical TeamThe “Selby Avenue” neighborhood got its label in the 1960's, after the construction of Interstate 94 largely destroyed the African American district known as “Rondo,” so called after its main thoroughfare. The demolition and clearing of a block-wide swath between Rondo and St Anthony Streets containing most of the black owned businesses and other institutions displaced hundreds of African American residents, and cut out the heart of the community. Prior to its destruction, Rondo, as the axis of…
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.
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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