Nicholas Arvanitis and his brother founded the Original Coney Island Café in 1923. Nicholas Arvanitis grew up in Greece, immigrated to the U.S. in 1908, fought in World War I, and, as a result, earned…

IIn planning for the freeway (I-94) connecting the two Twin Cities, MnDOT presented two options. One was to the north of the Rondo neighborhood along a series of mainline railroad trackage. But the…

Neighborhood House was established on the West Side Flats in 1897 to provide needed services to Russian Jewish immigrants. Women from the Mount Zion synagogue formed an association to found a service…

Torre San Miguel, the only remaining portion of the Irish-Catholic Church of St. Michael, is located on a slight rise of land at the far north end of the Torre San Miguel Homes on Wood St. Originally…

The histories of the church, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and of Sister Giovanni (“Sister G” as she was known) are intertwined. In 1931. the Guild of Catholic women rented space in a grocery store at 123 S.…

The Sterling Club, founded in 1918, is said to be the first African-American organization in St. Paul to have its own building. An article in the January 5, 1918 issue of The Appeal noted the…

The idea for the Changsha Friendship Garden, the first phase of which was completed in 2019, was included in the 2010 Phalen-Keller Regional Park Master Plan and approved in 2011, but no action was…

The Hamline Hotel, at 543 N. Snelling Ave, was the site of one of the earliest sit-ins of the Civil Rights movement in St. Paul. Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) a Black organizer and activist who…

Gordon Parks (1912-2006) was born in Ft. Scott, KS. The accomplished African American photographer only spent about 15 years in St. Paul, but it was there his inspiration and passion was…

Skyline Tower, the high rise building at 1247 St. Anthony built in 1972, remains the largest and tallest public housing building in the state. Built as part of HUD’s Section 236 program it was sold…

The Sibley Manor Apartments were built in 1952 as a 22-acre, 55-building group of low-income apartments with between 1,800-2,000 residents. Sibley Manor has hosted thousands of tenants who arrived as…

Katie McWatt’s life as an African American organizer, educator, speaker, and political activist (among many other roles) was a path of intensely dedicated efforts in support of and drive toward…

Many who pass the modernist synagogue at the SE corner of Summit and Hamline might assume that it is the only building the congregation has used. But Mount Zion Temple has deep roots in the…

Established in 1912, the Chesed Shel Emes Cemetery was founded on the principle of Judaism that refers to a “Duty of Truth”, a phrase with many different translations, including “true loving…

The Congregation of the Russian Brotherhood, founded in 1886, is shown on the 1904 Sanborn map at 202 E. Fairfield Ave., with “Agudas Achim” in parentheses below the building name; on the 1939 revised…

The Agudas Achim Synagogue was founded by members of the Congregation of the Russian Brotherhood, though the locations and date of closure are not certain. It seems, however, that this building was…

The Congregation of the Sons of Zion, or B'nai Zion, was organized in 1883 by newer Russian Jewish immigrants who were said to not want to affiliate with the already established Orthodox Sons of…

The Sons of Israel Synagogue was located at 110 Robertson Street, this street no longer exists and ran between and parallel to State and Eva Streets. The building is shown on the Hopkins 1916…

Beth Midrash Ha Godol Synagogue was organized some time in the late 1880s with Rabbi Isaac Lichtenberg serving as the congregation's rabbi. It is believed that the congregation worshiped at 165…

In 1888 Rabbi Herman Simon became rabbi of the West Side Congregations and proceeded to lead the effort to establish a Hebrew Institute on the West Side. The St. Paul Hebrew Institute and…