The West Side of St. Paul originally got it's name not from the fact that it sits west of St. Paul, but because at this point of the river, the Mississippi bends from its north-south bearing, to an…

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…

Since 1840, St. Paul has taken on different identities: frontier hamlet, steamboat burg, provincial capital, and railroad boomtown. These transformations have left their marks all over town. Nowhere…

The electric streetcar service began on Selby Avenue in 1890. St. Anthony Hill, however, proved to be a vexatious impediment; the steep grade made for slow and hard going travel, especially in winter.…

A short distance west of Engine House #21 and turning north on Smith Avenue, you will eventually cross the Mississippi River on the Smith High Bridge. Of the first three bridges in the area, the High…

At the corner of Baker Street and Ohio is Engine House #21, a great example of early adaptive reuse. Built in 1910 for horse-drawn equipment, it is a pleasing example of fire station design with a…

Located just a couple of hundred feet west from the Haas House at 241 West George is the Samuel Dearing House. Augustus Gauger, German-born and prolific St. Paul architect, designed this one, and…

Half a mile west of the Rau-Strong House is the Charles Haas House at 214 West George. Note the wonderful front porch and attic windows above. Built in 1889. Charles Haas was born in Indiana…

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…

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…

On your way up Humboldt, take a left on Winifred Street and stop at Jerabek’s New Bohemian Coffeehouse and Bakery. There is nothing historic about the building, but the family has been operating a…

Built in 1902, St. Matthew’s is probably the second-oldest school building in the city, after St. Joseph’s Academy/Christ’s Household of Faith (1863). The school itself, originally housed in the first…

Directly below the Yoerg residences, nestled into the bluff at Ohio Street, was his brewery, which was lost to a fire in 1958. Follow Isabel Street west to Ohio; there you will see an outcropping of…

A few houses down on West Isabel is another French Second Empire home Yoerg Sr. built for his son, Anthony Junior, who followed him in the beer business. The other sons, Louis and Frank, did so too.…

After the Yoergs built their new brewery in 1870, It did not take long for competitors to show up: Brueggeman, Banholzer, Stahlman, Schmidt, and Hamm. The last two grew giant, with Schmidt's…

If you make your way one block south and two blocks west of the Grady Flats, you will be at the Eugene and Christina Villaume House on 123 West Isabel. Eugene Villaume, born in St. Michel, France,…

Located a short distance further east from the Heimbach House are the Grady Flats - a beautiful rowhouse with parapets, turrets, and finials at the roofline.

Located one block south and one block east from the Minea House is the Edward and Elizabeth Heimbach House at 64 West Delos. Martin Brueggemann (see John and Mary Minea House) also built this one…

There are two Brueggeman residences in Prospect Terrace within a block and a half from one another. The first is located at 382 Winslow. Martin Brueggeman made a fortune in brewing and spent a lot…

Across from the Durkee House is another French Second Empire at 361 Stryker. The James Melady House is believed to have been built around 1885. The term Second Empire refers to the reign (1852-1870)…