Saint Paul Historical

Featured Stories

Marketing 3M & Its Products: Creating the Image, Telling the World

By Marjorie Pearson, Summit Envirosolutions, Inc.

3M promoted its products to a wide variety of markets and used many methods.

West End: An Introduction

Saint Paul’s West End is Minnesota’s first urban neighborhood. With West 7th/Fort Road as its spine, it extends from Seven Corners near downtown to the overlook on the east bank of the Mississippi…

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,…

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Saint Paul: Cultural Heritage

17 Locations ~ Curated by The Saint Paul Historical Team

Saint Paul, with its ethnic festivals, diverse neighborhoods, cultural traditions and historic sites, wants to share its culture and heritage with the world. Saint Paul is truly a big city with small town charm. Quaint neighborhoods and family destinations are its cornerstones. Museums featuring art, history, and more make it a cultural hot spot. We've got culture - and heritage - so it just makes sense to invite you to experience our stories.

West End: Religious and Social Life

5 Locations ~ Curated by The Saint Paul Historical Team

Each component of the arriving populations had its particular religious needs. Religious life in Saint Paul from its earliest days was fertile, with Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Jewish, African Methodist Episcopal and others established as soon as enough persons of the same religion gathered. In 1872, the Saint Stanislav Kostka Church was established, serving both Polish and Czech parishioners but with services in Czech. The Poles established Saint Adalbert’s Church. In…

Walking Up Payne Avenue

10 Locations ~ Curated by The Saint Paul Historical Team

“Growing up on Payne Avenue was like living in a small town,” former resident DeAnne Cherry once wrote. “My family knew all the merchants and Payne Avenue was where we spent our money.” While this remembrance dealt with the area's life in the 1950’s, the story goes back to a time before Minnesota became a state. Like many other streets, it is named after an early resident, but in this case there is a somewhat unusual story. In 1856, thirty-eight year old Rice W. Payne of Virgina set out on a…

Frogtown: Who We Were and Are

11 Locations ~ Curated by The Saint Paul Historical Team

Frogtown has always been one of Saint Paul’s most ethnically diverse neighborhoods. Much of the neighborhood’s ethnic history can be followed through its churches, its community institutions and its businesses and industries. Several of those destinations are noted in the other tours. French-Canadians were among the earliest settlers here. Also present in the early days were Germans, Austrians, Irish, Poles, Hungarians, Romanians and other Eastern Europeans. Scandinavians and Italians also…

West End: River and Rail Commerce

2 Locations ~ Curated by The Saint Paul Historical Team

Infrastructure and commercial development proceeded rapidly, supported by the intense river trade that brought all kinds of goods and people to the area. River commerce that seemed invulnerable was really at the start of its long decline and defeat at the hands of the railroads. Riverboat companies and their commercial advocates ashore managed to convince the Federal Government to undertake an escalating series of river channel improvements from 1866 to 1925. By 1925, when the six- and nine-foot…

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