The Scope
2015 Material: Corten steel, mirrored stainless steel, 3M dichroic glass, copper-coated rods, 3M-salvaged brick, taconite, quartzite, rubber porous paving, granite
Bench
2015 Material: 3M-salvaged stainless steel stair railings
A project of the East Side Arts Council and the Saint Paul Port Authority, with additional funding from the McKnight Foundation and a Metropolitan Regional Arts Council Next Step grant.
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]]>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 mushrooms.
A project of the East Side Arts Council and the Saint Paul Port Authority, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Fast Track and the McKnight Foundation.
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]]>While the house at 470 Hopkins Street is not on the National Register, it has a rich history that can help explain the changes over time in the Railroad Island neighborhood. The stories of the people who lived here were discovered by a researcher for the Minnesota Historical Society. The work of discovering the house’s story was done by Benjamin Filene, who also curated a major exhibit called “Open House: If These Walls Could Talk ” that opened at the History Center in 2006.
It was constructed in a manner that resembled the interior of the house. Visitors could walk through and experience how the structure changed through the years. They could see what the place looked like, how rooms were furnished, examine photos and other documents and hear spoken reminiscences. At least fifty families passed through 470 Hopkins Street between 1888 and 2003. Here are some of their stories:
Albert Schumacher, a German immigrant, took out a building permit and had a home for his family constructed in 1887. He was a successful pharmacist and even appeared in the Dual City Blue Book, a listing of prominent people in the Twin Cities. When people enter the parlor in the exhibit, they experience how Albert Schumacher mourned after his wife, Henriette, died in 1894. Remaining family members stayed there until 1908 and, while they then moved away, Albert stayed in the neighborhood, and duplexed the old house, becoming a landlord.
Filomeno Cocchiarella, his wife Rose, and a cousin bought the house from the Schumachers in 1923 and Italian relatives and friends soon joined them. Filomeno was a track repairman for a railroad and died in an accident on the job in December, 1945. Michelina D’Aloia, Filomeno’s niece, had moved into 470 Hopkins in 1932, shortly after she and her mother arrived in America from Italy.
When Michelina was learning English, she taught her mother the new language as well. She also helped neighbors study for their citizenship papers. “I taught them how to answer the questions and everything,” she recalled. “It was kind of scary, but when I went with them, I think they had a lot of confidence.” Michelina married Russell Frascone and they raised their family in the Hopkins Street until 1956 when, like other Italians, they moved to a newer part of the city. As people open the oven door in the historical exhibit, they hear the story of how her brother made sure there was enough food at her wedding, which took place during the meat-rationing days of WWII. He bought over seventy-five baby chickens and raised them in the basement of the house.
When you open the door of the simulated bathroom in the Historical Society exhibit, the story of Dick and Angie Krismer is revealed. They lived in the house between 1958 and 1967, a time in which many Italians were leaving the area and were being replaced by Asians, African American and Latinos. The Krismers had what at the time was called a “mixed marriage”--he was German and she was Italian. Dick worked at a slaughterhouse in South St. Paul and the screams of the pigs permanently damaged his hearing. They raised four children in a small unit and remembered having to have an “assembly line” when it was bath time.
In the 1960s and 1970s, there were fewer ethnic people who moved in and most of those newcomers were poor. Though they often had blue collar skills, there were fewer jobs because of industrialization. By the 1980s and the 1990s, the people that lived at 470 Hopkins were diverse. African American, American Indian, Latino, and Hmong were among the residents.
The phrase “Nyob Zoo!”--hello in Hmong-- is written over the door as people enter the 2002-2005 era in the exhibit. Pang Toua and his wife Mai Vang, lived in the house during that time. Pang was a soldier in the CIA-supported Hmong army in Laos. In 1975., after the American forces withdrew from Southeast Asia, he and his family of six children fled. After spending four years in a Pathet Lao work camp and two more in a Thai refugee camp, they reluctantly left their homeland and arrived in Minnesota in 1986. There is a Hmong shaman shrine In the living room and the view out the window dissolves into scenes of Laos and Thai refugee camps.
470 Hopkins is a triplex today with a new side entrance. The spacious front porch shown in an early photo has long been enclosed and the third floor where Italian families cured sausages is gone, destroyed in a 1970 fire. All of the Victorian decorations on the exterior have disappeared and the structure is now sheathed in smooth pink siding. This ordinary house was picked almost at random by Minnesota Historical Society, because they had an old photo of the location. It was a good choice, because this house turned out to be a rich microcosm of the stories that help explain the development of the entire neighborhood. So in a way, walls can talk.
]]>Swede Hollow. Even though it has been gone for half a century, there are people who still remember it fondly. A number of articles have been written about its history, often in a nostalgic manner. Some say it was a slum, while others think it was a nurturing community that welcomed waves of immigrants to their first home in a new land. It was not large--around eighteen acres-- bisected by a creek and tucked into a valley with sixty to eighty foot high cliffs that hid its homes from the outside world.
An 1886 newspaper headline declared it “A Foreign Settlement in the Midst of St. Paul.” The article said that the area had a “quaint appearance” in the midst of a “still more quaint and picturesque surrounding.” One winter day a reporter had taken a look at “the little hamlet of shanties” that was “filled with a “flaxen-haired population.” According to The St. Paul Globe, the area was almost exclusively residential. “There are no stores, a single saloon being the only public place within the valley.” It was in “the front room of a little shanty and is kept by a woman.”
Swedish immigrants began settling there in the 1860s. According to the 1886 visitor, there were around 110 families in the hollow and the total population was estimated at around 600. Nels Hokanson, a Swedish man who grew up there, wrote about some of his families activities: “In the evenings friends often came to share the warmth, drink coffee, take snuff or smoke their curved Swedish pipes,” Nels wrote. “Mother spun wool or knitted and listened to the talk from her place in a corner under a picture of King Oscar II of Sweden.” While there were a variety of immigrants who settled there, those of Scandinavian predominated in the early years and the area became known as “Svenska Dalen” or Swede Hollow.
As the Swedish moved "up onto the street," others took over their spots starting in the early 1900’s. One of former residents was Gentille Yarusso, who later wrote about the community. "Our people chose this place because they were with their own countrymen, with familiar faces, family noises, gestures, facial expressions,” he remembered. “This enchanted landscape...resembled the place they had left behind. They loved the hills, the trees, the stream, the security of friends and relatives."
During the WWII era a stream of Mexicans began joining the Swede Hollow colony, adding their own customs and, as those before them, finding jobs. They eventually started a small chapel that met in a former railroad boxcar. Alberta Silva Rodriquez was among the last people to live there. She remembered times of sharing, when the Mexican women would trade onions, garlic and peppers for Italian bread cooked in outdoor ovens. Her mother and an Italian neighbor were able to communicate. “I don’t know how,” Alberta said, “but they did.”
In December 1956, the city Health Department decided that since Swede Hollow had no sewer or city water service it was a health hazard. The last fourteen families were moved out and the remaining homes burned down by the Fire Department. Thanks to the efforts of Friends of Swede Hollow and the city of St. Paul the hollow has been revitalized and is once again a center of the community.
In 1973 Swede Hollow was designated a Saint Paul Park. The restoration of Swede Hollow as a park was the Saint Paul Garden Club's Bicentennial project, for which they received a major award. A section of Phalen Creek, which had been diverted into a large storm sewer, was “daylighted” so it flowed through pools that attracted wildlife. Visitors could walk or bike through the park on new trails. There are a few reminders of the old days seen in sporadic remains of stone foundations and flowers that were planted in immigrant yards.
]]>The Brunson House, located at 485 Kenney Street and built around 1856, is thought to be the oldest brick residence in St. Paul. Its original owner was Benjamin W. Brunson who was born in Michigan and went with his parents to Wisconsin in 1835. He purchased an interest in the Chippewa Falls Mill in 1844 and three years later came to St. Paul. Once here, he assisted in surveying the first town plat with his brother Ira.
During the Civil War Benjamin served three years in the Eighth Minnesota Infantry Regiment and worked his way up from private to lieutenant. He became a lawyer and was a member of the first and second territorial legislatures.
He bought land on the eastern edge of Trout Brook and laid out what was known as "Brunson's Addition," where he built his own residence for his wife and three children. He was active in a variety of areas, including assisting Harriet Bishop in setting up the first Sunday school in the city. He was also a member of the Masons, a charter member of the I. O. O. F. and an active member of the Old Settlers Association.
According to one contemporary writer, at the age of 62 Brunson was “a quiet and unobtrusive man with decided opinions of his own and quite independent in character. He is not a large man; moves and talks in a moderate manner, and he thinks a good deal more than he talks” and was “bright, cheerful and active.” He died at the age of 73 and is buried in Oakland Cemetery. The Brunson House, located in the Railroad Island neighborhood, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
]]>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 no railroads had yet cut through the area. The area is approximately 180 acres in size and is bounded by railroad tracks on the north and west, Swede Hollow Park on the east and East 7th Street on the south.
Railroad Island was one of a few early neighborhoods that developed just outside downtown Saint Paul in the 1850’s. Initially it attracted fairly prosperous residents who liked the views of Trout Brook to the west. As a result, many Victorian houses were built in the area in the late nineteenth century on Burr, Brunson, Minnehaha, Desoto, Mt. Ida, and other streets.
But with the arrival of railroads, with their noisy and smoky engines, many people decided to move to newer areas in the western part of the city. In fact, the encirclement of the neighborhood by several railroads is where it got its name.
As the elite left, the community slowly developed into a blue collar area. Historically, the majority of the housing in Railroad Island was single-family and owner-occupied. Many neighborhood residents worked at the nearby brewery, Whirlpool, 3-M, the railroads and other East Side businesses. When an major influx of Italian immigrants started around 1910, a large number of them came to Railroad Island. Many hailed from the Benevento region of Italy, near Naples.
There were a number of important Italian institutions that developed in the community. St. Ambrose Catholic Church was created to serve the Italian community and was headed up by Msgr Louis Pioletti for several decades. On St. Joseph’s Day the men carried statues through the streets. There were special feast days for St. Anthony, and Mary. In addition, there were numerous restaurants and other speciality shops in lower Payne Avenue.
In recent years, closings and employment cut-backs have taken jobs and, with them, economic and social stability from the neighborhood. Owner-occupied housing slowly converted to rental units which generally has resulted in a lower level of maintenance of the neighborhood's housing. However, there are still many homeowners who savor the historic homes in the area. Railroad is now quite diverse in its population but then, hasn’t it always been?
]]>Phalen Creek was a spring fed-stream flowing from Lake Phalen through a deep ravine that ancient waters had gouged from the land. It ended up forming a small delta on the Mississippi River floodplain. Surrounded by trees and wetlands, it served as a corridor for songbirds and other wildlife. The local Dakota, who lived nearby, surely fished there and hunted along its banks.
When Father Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan priest and explorer was paddling up the Mississippi in 1680, his group met a Dakota war party who detained him and beached his canoe at the creek’s confluence with the Mississippi River. He is usually considered the first European person to visit Phalen Creek.
Shortly after Minnesota became a territory, Edward Phalen took up a claim on the creek that would later be named for him. In 1844 he sold it to William Dugas, who built Saint Paul's first saw and grist mill there. The meandering waterway would have a long-lasting impact on the East Side neighborhood and its water power led to the economic investment that brought settlers into the area.
The ample water supply and sandstone cliffs in which storage spaces could be dug were attractive and the site once housed at least four different breweries. The most significant of these was the one built at the northeast corner of Greenbrier and Minnehaha. Andrew Keller, a native of Germany, established the Pittsburgh Brewery there in 1860. Five years later he sold his small plant to Theodore Hamm, and he and his family transformed it into one of the largest breweries in the country.
After the Civil War, railroads were built in the area and one of them ran along the route of Phalen Creek and attracted industries that brought people to the East Side. The banks of the creek were also homes of Swede Hollow and Connemara Patch, two immigrant settlements. While these residents got their drinking water from artesian wells, they used creek for washing, watering their small gardens and some residents put their outhouses on stilts across the stream.
There were some dangers. Occasional heavy rains turned the creak into a raging torrent. In the spring of 1897, six year old Margaret Connelly slipped on a rock walkway across the creek near East Fifth Street and was swept into a sewer and drowned. Her parents investigated suing Saint Paul for lack of safety near the sewers, but the courts found that no liability attached to the city.
Over time, the creek was deployed into large storm and creek sewers and by the middle 1930’s all of the waterway was contained in a huge storm water system. While the Swede Hollow and Connemara Patch communities no longer exist, there is still a creek. But you can no longer see it, because it now runs underground from Phalen Lake to the Mississippi River.
]]>The Payne Avenue State Bank, a two-story brick building at 961-63 Payne Avenue, was constructed in 1923. With its four large classical columns it is probably the most impressive building on the commercial corridor of this part of the East Side. The building served as a center of commerce on a street that was, and is, a major contributor of the city’s immigrant history.
When it opened the avenue was filled with Scandinavian businesses and it became locally known as “The Swedish Bank Building. Over the years, the bank was the financial backbone of the early Scandinavians, Germans, Italians, and other settlers who established their cultural life in the neighborhood.
The bank was designed in a Beaux-Arts style by William L. Alban, who graduated from the Chicago School of Architecture. He began his practice in St. Paul in 1906 and specialized in church and school architecture with a concern for creating what was called “formal order.” He designed the Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church of St. Paul on Saint Paul’s East Side. He worked with a number of different architects and often teamed up with Charles Hausler. Alban died on July 1, 1961 and the bank he designed was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
By the mid-1990s, after years of neglect, the Old Swedish Bank had fallen into disrepair. The East Side Neighborhood Development Company (ESNDC) acquired the building in 1999, but the costs and challenges of redeveloping it proved so difficult that it stood vacant until 2005. ESNDC then partnered with the local Neighborhood Development Center and successfully created a plan for the building. It would mirror its historic role in the neighborhood as a trusted institution where residents could go for services to build assets for their families. It also provides financial planning and employment opportunities.
By 2007 they had completed an award-winning renovation of the historic bank. The building now houses a variety of finance related groups. There are small business opportunities as well as education and training. Different organizations provide financial services and counseling, economic development, business growth and individual asset building through providing culturally-specific training and education services.
The renovation of the Payne Avenue State Bank, which works for economic development, historic renovation, and revitalization, serves as a powerful symbol of economic re-birth and opportunity for the entire community. Today, Payne Avenue and the old “Swedish Bank” are renewing those collaborative roles.
]]>Casa Bella Plaza Latina — whose building was once slated to become a pawn shop--is a colorful mercado with a wide variety of locally owned businesses. Its 35,000-square-foot commercial space is located at 925 Payne Avenue. The project was driven by a cooperative of ten emerging Latino entrepreneurs. The renovation also provided refurbished office space for the East Side Neighborhood Development Company (ESNDC) which was one of the sponsors of the project.
With the booming growth of Latinos on the East Side, congregation members of the nearby Sacred Heart Church asked the organizers of the Mercado Central project in Minneapolis to help develop a similar enterprise in Saint Paul. Plaza Latina was established on Payne Avenue by members of the Mercado Central development team in collaboration with ESNDC.
In 2000 the first economic forum was implemented and led to business planning and leadership development and between then and 2002 the project opened with its first ten tenants. They were the initial Latino businesses to open on the East Side of the city. Today the plaza contains, among other things, a small restaurant, a jewelry store, dress shop, a hair salon, an alteration business, an insurance agency, and two non-profit service agencies.
Other new Latino enterprises have joined the older businesses that have served the community for many years -- a clothing and school uniform operation, a speciality work shoe store, a steak house, an antique shop, a few few bars and restaurants and the headquarters of the East Side Arts organization. Since then, many other Latino operations have moved into the avenue, ranging from restaurants, groceries, clothing stores and speciality shops in a manner similar to that of the Swedes, Italians and other immigrants throughout Payne Avenues history.
]]>Francesco and Dora Yarusso were the founders of today’s Yarusso Brothers Restaurant at 635 Payne avenue. They arrived in St. Paul in 1904 and headed for Swede Hollow, where they started to raise their fourteen children. They soon moved up the hill and Frank, as he was listed in the 1919 city directory, was a laborer living at 562 Decatur Street. In 1932 he and Dora opened a tavern that sold soft drinks and prohibition-allowed near beer.
The following year the couple opened the "Square Deal Café." They put in the first Bocce alleys in Saint Paul and the Italian sport quickly became a popular event outside the restaurant. Many area residents gathered on Sunday afternoons to smoke cigars and play the traditional game.
Francesco and Dora retired in 1947 and some of their children took over the restaurant, renaming it "Yarusso Brothers." The restaurant was enlarged and remodeled, but the food remained much the same and the original sauce recipe is still used.
Now a third generation of Italian-Americans are in charge. David, Fred, and Michael Yarusso have worked hard to keep their grandfather and father’s traditions alive, and the walls are covered with old photos and artwork that have family and neighborhood images. Yarusso’s continues to be a popular destination for Saint Paul diners. Spaghetti and meatballs are still the signature dish and the menu is stocked with familiar Italian fare like eggplant parmesan and, as they call them, “hot dago” sandwiches.
]]>Morelli’s, located at 535 Tedesco Street on the northwest corner of Payne Avenue, has been in the Italian food business since 1915. James Morelli and his young wife recognized that the growing number of immigrants who lived in the area were eager to find a taste of home, so they began stocking pasta, polenta and olive oil and other items.
Initially the Morelli family lived in Swede Hollow, joining many other Italian families who were filling in behind departing Scandinavians. According to the 1919 city directory the family was living above their store at 564 Bradley Street. By the 1930s the grocery had moved to its present location at 535 Collins Street, now named Tedesco.
Matthew “Matt” Morelli, the next generation to take over the store, was born in Swede Hollow. As a youngster he worked at the grocery and would lug purchases from the family store down the stairs to deliver to the residents of the small settlement along Phalen Creek.
The Italian specialty market was more than just a grocery store. It was a gathering place for the community and a place to go for help. If people had a problem, they could go upstairs to Matt’s office and he would assist newcomers to get jobs. After he had a stroke and had to rely on a wheelchair, he would still come to the store for a few hours a day.
Even now local Italians carry on many of the old traditions, especially when it came to food. On Christmas eve, the Morellis gather for a traditional Italian meal of salted codfish and chestnuts. In the spring they had Easter pizza. “And no matter what my mother would cook for Thanksgiving,” said one relative, “my father or grandfather would always want macaroni of some kind.”
As times changed, Morelli’s Market began to sell fewer groceries and more wine and beer — much of it imported from the old country. But it still has food, because they were grandfathered in after liquor stores could no longer offer groceries in Minnesota. There is still a nice selection of pastas, sauces, fresh olives and an old fashioned meat department that includes a variety of Italian cheeses and sausages.
]]>The David Barton Labyrinth and Reflective Garden is located just west of Maria Avenue and East Seventh Street on the Metropolitan State University campus. The community connection with the university began in the 1980’s when it chose the Dayton’s Bluff site for its new headquarters. The institution operated for several years in the old St. John’s Hospital structures, but there were plans for further remodeling and construction.
Ground was broken in 1991 for a new thirteen million dollar headquarters that was put up where the original hospital building had been, and the first phase of the project was officially opened in 1994. Metropolitan State was again linked with the neighborhood in 2004 when its new library was collocated with a long-awaited St. Paul Dayton’s Bluff branch library.
David Barton headed the Metropolitan State University Library from 2002 until his death in 2012. He was integral to the creation of the Library and Learning Center and served as its first Dean. His legacy can be found in the design of the library building and in the unique programs and partnerships that placed it at the center of much of what happens within the university and the community. Because he was an avid gardener, staff and faculty decided that the best way to honor Barton was to build a labyrinth surrounded by a reflective garden.
The project, which was funded through private donations, was built in two phases. The first phase-installing the labyrinth-was completed in 2013. “This labyrinth offers a safe walking path, a peaceful oasis for reflection and relaxation,” said a university representative,” and “it’s a place where neighbors of all ages, students, staff, and faculty can come together.” It is called The Paths of Peace Labyrinth, it was designed by Stillwater resident Lisa Moriarty. The second phase, planting the reflective gardens that will surround the labyrinth, were planned to be finished in 2014.
Labyrinths have been used for centuries by many different cultures as places of reflection and meditation. While there is no "right way" to walk a labyrinth, there is usually an entrance and path that leads walkers to the center. Then they typically exit at the same spot they went in. The entrance to the Metropolitan State University labyrinth faces 7th street, and the path itself is made of grass lined with bricks. And yes, you are supposed to walk on the grass.
]]>East Seventh Street was the main business strip of Dayton’s Bluff starting in the 1870’s. The railroad tracks just to the north attracted industry which, in turn, promoted the building of worker’s houses that joined the fashionable homes of more prosperous neighbors. At the time people walked or used horses to get around. Then the streetcar arrived on East Seventh and, starting on June 15, 1889, ran from downtown to Duluth Street.
Because horses could not easily make it up the steep hill, a cable car was used. It was replaced in 1893 when the system was electrified. East Seventh was one the main arterials in an out of downtown and eventually it went all the way to the suburb of White Bear. Like other streetcar strips, businesses lined both sides of the street.
Mom and pop stores served the needs of area residents who could find what they needed by walking up East Seventh, although they could take the streetcar to the large department stores in the city’s center. People later became more mobile when automobiles were more commonplace. Seventh Street stores suffered somewhat because of the lack of easy parking as residents could get to outlying suburban establishments.
Like the developments in transportation, there were also changes in the demographics in the surrounding area. Today the neighborhood is quite diverse and many of the stores reflect newer arrivals. You might keep this in mind as you stroll up Seventh Street and look at some of its landmarks.
]]>Inside of the municipal forest is an almost forgotten historical remnant. Its first mention appeared in the St. Paul Park Department records at the turn of the last century: “The grove will be known as the Past Matrons Grove of the Order of Eastern Star and will be used as a gathering place for members of the order." It was created in a section of the Municipal Forest, a short hike south of where today’s Burns Avenue and Point Douglas road come together in an area once referred to as “Six Corners” because of the earlier intersection of three roads.
The trees of the grove were placed in the shape of a star, the emblem of the O.E.S., a Freemasonry organization. From records, it appears that the group initially planted ten hackberries as memorials to past matrons, their presiding officers. Others trees were dedicated at different times as additional memorials. It seems to have been years since it has been visited by the O.E.S. and, while deteriorated, hikers with careful eyes can still find the remnants of the Past Matron’s Grove if they head into the edge of Municipal Forest.
]]>One of the remaining walls runs from the scenic overlook and heads west along the bluff line behind the Indian Mounds. The second of the WPA work is a more dramatic curved limestone wall that follows the turn of Mounds Boulevard as it leaves the playground area.
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a federal jobs initiative that employed people during the Great Depression of the 1930’s. They created local projects including public buildings, roads, sidewalks and these walls.
The WPA was a centerpiece of Franklin Roosevelt’s economic stimulation programs and was aimed at smaller-scale projects that could be quickly undertaken and completed. WPA dollars began to reach Minnesota in late 1935. At its height in 1938, 68,000 Minnesotans were enrolled. The program lasted for eight years, ending in 1943.
]]>Just beyond the easternmost Indian Mound, there is a scenic outlook that gives a nice view of Mississippi River below. In 1954 The Geological Society of Minnesota and the city of Saint Paul placed a plaque on a limestone structure that gives a brief summary of the area’s geology.
It points out that the steep slopes of the park were caused by the channeling of the River Warren, which drained historic Lake Agassiz as the glaciers melted. The massive flow of water created the broad valleys that now contain the Minnesota River and the Mississippi River below Fort Snelling. This spot in Indian Mounds Park sits on the northeastern edge of the valley where the Mississippi turns to the south.
]]>Today, there are six remaining Indian Mounds found on both sides of the current pavilion. At one time there were thirty nine, found in two separate areas along the bluff, but they were destroyed by early farming, houses and park development. These burial sites have been researched, photographed and written about extensively. However, there are still many unanswered questions about their origin and significance. There is an informational plaque behind the pavilion, but it is filled with questionable assumptions. The information contained here includes some confirmed facts as well as a few uncertain statements.
One of the first questions to ask might be, "when were they built?" No one knows for sure. An educated guess would be that they were constructed-probably a few at a time-between 200 BCE and--400 AD. They are certainly the oldest remaining examples of human works in Saint Paul. Many scholars see them as part of what they call the Hopewell culture, a concept that includes the beliefs and practices of Native American peoples who built mounds in many area of the country.
Another query: "who built them?" Again, there is uncertainty. The park plaque says that they were the handiwork of Hopewellian people who moved eastward into the area. However, there is no proof of this and it could be that the local residents were just influenced by the Hopewell practices. One source said that the mounds here are the sole archeological example of Hopewellian characteristics in Minnesota. The Dakota, who were here when European settlers arrived, made use of the mounds for some burials, but may not have been the original builders. One of several sources on the matter include a note in an 1849 issue of the Pioneer Pres, which stated that “mounds… are a subject of wonder and admiration... their ancient and inscrutable origin, baffle even conjecture. The present race of Indians, know as little of them as ourselves.” The truth is, we may never know who the mound builders were.
What do we know about the people or peoples who created the mounds? Once again, small bits of information allow a few speculations. Early excavations suggest the mound builders may have had a structured society with art that included figures with religious implications. The mounds that were examined contained carved animals on the utensils and pottery possibly used for feasts and rituals.
Artifacts that were found included stone knives, copper axes, a variety of carved pipes, pottery vessels, and ornaments made of copper and shell. Some items were made of material not available locally. There was volcanic glass from Wyoming, copper from Lake Superior area, mica from the Appalachia and marine shell from saltwater oceans. This suggests the existence of an extensive trade network.
We are also not sure who got buried there. Probably not everyone, or there would have been hundreds of mounds. Perhaps some leaders or prominent people. Several types of burials were discovered. Most were simple internments accompanied by mussel shells or projectile points. There were log tombs at the base of some mounds and two others contained seven inch high thin limestone slabs set upright. Human remains found there were accompanied by more elaborate grave offerings, including shells, perforated bear teeth and a hammered sheet of copper. Small bundle burials were found in the upper parts of several mounds and may have been placed there in more recent times.
Only four complete skeletons have been found in Dayton’s Bluff. On September 20, 1895, city park workers, razing Mound number eight “to improve the view from the park road”, came upon what they called “a gruesome find” after several tons of earth had been removed. The sets of bones were in the center and on the bottom of the burial mound.
While city residents were fascinated by the Indian Mounds, they were far from reverential in their actions. For years there were spiral paths cut into the burial sites so people could easily walk up to see the scenery. For many years there were poles for electric wires going through the area and even imbedded in the side of a mound until the utility company was forced by law to remove them.
Attitudes were changing by the 1980’s and this made for changes in the area around the Indian Mounds. In 1981 the city removal of roads between the burial sites and the bluff were completed, improving the setting and relationship of landscape to the topography. Around the same time, the Dayton’s Bluff Community Council led a successful effort to place decorative fences that still remain around the mounds to protect them from thoughtless visitors.
]]>German-born Albert Koehler, who actually had the first name of Heinrich, was a foreman at Hamm’s Brewery. He married Wilhemina Hamm, the daughter of Theodore and Louise Hamm. Since there was little remaining open land near the family grouping on Greenbrier, they chose to establish themselves in the Mounds Park area.
Wilhemina was an avid gardener—another reason for moving to an area with much available open land. Their new home encompassed almost all of the block, and became filled with large gardens that were lovingly tended by Wilhemina. The couple needed a large home because they had six children. Unfortunately, Albert only spent a short time on Maria Avenue because he died in 1916.
This 1912 Georgian Revival house was designed by local architect Thomas Holyoke. He came to St. Paul from Germany in 1877 and worked as a draftsman for architect Cass Gilbert and become his partner in 1892. Holyoke formed his own company a decade later.
There currently is not a lot of material on the family at 170 Maria. The Ramsey County Roll of Honor shows that Harold A. Koehler served in the First World War. Eleanor Koehler was an Arts and Music major at University if Minnesota and was a member of the class of 1919. And, according to the 1920 City Directory, a gardener named Edmund Behrens resided there, probably working for Wilhemina.
The large building now houses Northwestern Alano, a setting for alcohol and drug abuse twelve step group meetings. They have given the old Koehler Home the nickname “The White House.”
]]>When the European settlers arrived in vicinity of Saint Paul, the Mdewakanton band of Dakota had already lived here for decades. They called the general area "Imniza-Ska" or "white cliffs” referring to the towering sandstone bluffs. Their village of Kaposia, was located below today’s Dayton’s Bluff. Numbering a few hundred, they lived among the oak groves on the east bank of the Mississippi River, which they called Wakpa Tanka.
The name Kaposia means “light weight” thought to have been a reference to the fact that the Dakota travelled with few possessions. The group had a succession of leaders called Little Crow because their ceremonial garb included the skin and wings of a raven or crow. The most well-known was Little Crow whose real name was Taoyateduta, or “His Scarlet People”.
Kaposia contained frame buildings covered with bark and some could house more than two dozen people. Platforms were constructed outside for food drying, storage, and occasional sleeping during the warmer months of the year. Inside structures were covered by skins or rush mats used for sitting and sleeping.
Dakota life varied with the seasons. In late March there might be maple sugaring and muskrat hunting and by May the women would plant corn, pumpkin squash and beans. The men would fish, trap and sometimes leave for buffalo hunting further west. Late September was cranberry picking and wild rice gathering time, followed by Winter, a time of indoor work. With the arrival of Spring, the cycle began again.
Kaposia was sometimes visited by early explorers and visitors. In 1823, one member of Captain Stephen Long’s expedition wrote about the village, which he said consisted of ten or twelve structures, situated at a turn on the river. He said “the houses that we saw… here are formed by upright flattened posts, implanted in the ground, without any intervals…these posts support the roof, which presents a surface of bark. Before and behind each there is a scaffold, used for the purpose of drying maize, pumpkins, etc."
After the 1837 treaty with the Dakota, the United States took possession of Minnesota land east of the Mississippi and Kaposia was relocated across the river near today’s South St. Paul. However, the Dakota were still frequent visitors and traders in St. Paul until an 1851 treaty forced them to move westward to a reservation along the Minnesota River.
]]>The number of Latino people living on the East Side has increased dramatically since the 1980’s. There are now numerous restaurants, groceries and other stores that respond to their specific cultural tastes. The historic Latino area in the city was on the West Side, across the river from downtown. There are a number of groups there to serve the immigrant community, but in response to the growing number of Latino residents on the East Side, one of the important institutions chose Dayton’s Bluff for the location of their new headquarters building.
The groundbreaking for the new home of Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES) at 797 East Seventh Street took place in 2004. CLUES was founded in 1981 as the first language-appropriate and culturally-competent mental health clinic for Latinos. It has become a vital organization in Dayton’s Bluff and beyond, providing services that focus on health and wellness, education, and employment. They focus on the six core services: mental health, chemical health, aging well, family economic advancement and community health worker services.
A Mexican Consulate, the first in the state, was opened in a remodeled section of the CLUES building in 2005. In addition to its work in St. Paul, the organization will serve Mexican immigrants living in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and northern Wisconsin. The consulate can issue passports and an identification card called a "matricula consular," which can be used to open bank accounts, cash paychecks and obtain marriage licenses. It also offers visas, as well as emergency services and educational and cultural programs. Mexican citizens living in the Upper Midwest no longer have to get to Chicago or elsewhere to obtain such documents.
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