- 624 W. Central Avenue - Saint James AME Church was organized in 1876 in a one-room house near Seventh and Robert streets. The church had its ups and downs with membership but finally found a site…

Frogtown had parochial schools including Saint Agnes (530 W. Lafond Av.), Saint Adalbert (260 W. Edmund Av.) and Saint Vincent (645 Virginia St.) Catholic schools and Trinity/Saint Stephanus and Saint…

Frogtown’s largest church is Saint Agnes Catholic Church, 548-50 Lafond Avenue. The current church is the third church built on this site since 1887, when Archbishop John Ireland founded the parish to…

Saint Adalbert’s Catholic Church, 265 Charles Avenue, was built in 1911 to serve Polish Catholics. Today its three-tiered twin front towers greet many Vietnamese worshippers. The original church…

Saint Adalbert School, 260 W. Edmund Avenue. The school first opened its doors in 1882, using spaces including the priest’s residence and the sacristy as classroom space. A wooden school was built and…

A block from Rice Park stands the Roy Wilkins Auditorium. Renamed in 1984 for the executive director of the NAACP and longtime civil rights advocate, the auditorium has been an important venue for…

Most of the original Rondo Avenue and much of the historic Rondo neighborhood were destroyed when Interstate 94 was built. The street was named for an early settler, Joseph Rondeau. Part of the…

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…

(1831-1900) When the steamboat Northern arrived in 1863 carrying labor and equipment to defuse a Dakota Indian uprising, it also towed a raft of 76 ex-slaves that had been found drifting. The…

The first bridge here opened in 1886 and served until the early 1920s, when a higher bridge was required to accommodate a raised railroad platform at St. Paul Union Depot. Designed by Toltz, King and…

A short distance south of St. Matthew's School, at the corner of Humboldt and George, you will find Riverview Library. The industrialist (founder of US Steel) and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie…

Located in the North End neighborhood, Rice Street began as a commercial corridor that served St. Paul’s working class. Rice Street is unassuming; when it was rushed into being, more than a century…

- 534 Blair Avenue - Conversion of buildings for housing and moving of buildings to make way for new uses is not uncommon in Frogtown’s history, especially east of Dale Street. This is one of a few…

The familiar Midwest urban decline began along Selby during the Depression, accelerated after World War II, then hit its nadir with two nights of violence after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King in…

All along Rice Street commercial buildings predominate, designed for profit, not for show. Between 1880 and 1925, both sides of the street from Sycamore to Maryland filled with storefronts and…

Hooray for Hollywood! Frogtown’s unique contribution to the early film industry began at 823 University Avenue. A film projectionist named Charles Bell came to St. Paul from Seattle in 1908. He…

Continuing west on George Street, there are three residences worth admiring. Just south of the Riverview Library is the Rau-Strong House at 2 East George. Adam Rau was a stonecutter and…

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,…

15 West Kellogg Boulevard, Suite 250 // Saint Paul, MN 55102 Ramsey County Court House, and historic Art Deco building built in 1923, features woods, marbles, Art Deco, courtrooms, 38-foot Vision…

Benjamin Brunson, a surveyor of Saint Paul in 1847, planned Brunson’s Addition in what is now lower Payne Avenue. The neighborhood had pleasing views of Trout Brook, Phalen Creek and downtown, because…