Featured Stories
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…
Discover the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary
A thousand years ago the area around the confluence of Trout Brook and Phalen Brook near the Mississippi River was a marshy flood plain. By the early 1900s, the entire delta had been expanded by…
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…
Take a Tour
West End: Labor History
6 Locations ~ Curated by The Saint Paul Historical TeamSt Paul’s “West End” is on an intermediate plateau, located between the bluffs rising on the north side of the neighborhood and the bluffs on the south side that descend to the Mississippi. Running southwesterly from Seven Corners to the Fort Snelling Bridge, its main arterial street, West Seventh, was once known as “Fort Street,” and is now co-named “Fort Road.”
“Is Dis Here Goin’ to Fort Street or Fort Street?”
Fort Street used to continue past Seven Corners along what is now named “Main…
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.
Mapping the Early Synagogues of the West Side
7 Locations ~ Curated by Barbara Bezat This is an unusual "tour", in that none of the buildings remain. In fact, most of the streets are long gone as a result of the city's plan to demolish over 500 structures located on the flood plain of the Mississippi River across from downtown. Map locations are approximate as most of the addresses and streets no longer exist.
The first Eastern European Jews arrived in the late 1880s and settled primarily in what was once called the “Lower West Side” of St. Paul. The majority of them were…
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…
West Side: Beyond the Bluff
9 Locations ~ Curated by The Saint Paul Historical TeamThe top and edge of the bluff, overlooking the river valley, was the precinct of the well-to-do and mostly still is. But once you get just a few streets south, the neighborhood becomes more varied and, for some, more interesting.
Start near the base of the slope that rises west from Wabasha Street, at the corner of Humboldt and Robie. St. Matthew’s School, built in 1902, is probably the second-oldest school building in the city, after St. Joseph’s Academy/Christ’s Household of Faith (1863).…
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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