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.
]]>The story of Dayton’s Bluff begins on top of the bright white cliffs over-looking St. Paul, where the great Mississippi River cut hundreds of feet downwards into the sedimentary rock, forming the bluffs. This natural landmark attracted the first inhabitants who built burial mounds that can still be found upon this sacred site. Later, the Dakota would call the area Imniza Ska, meaning white cliff and their large seasonal village of Kaposia could be found just down river.
This bluff also stands on top of the sacred Wakan Tipi cave or “Dwelling of the Great Mystery” later called Carver's Cave, after Jonathan Carver, the first British explorer to visit and witness the impressive site.
Soon after the coming of the first explorers, and the U.S. achieved independence, other immigrants began to arrive, including fur traders and soldiers from Fort Snelling.
Claims were made, farming land was established and homes were built atop the bluff, by wealthy speculators such as Lyman Dayton and his wife Maria, for whom the area is named.
Before the railroad cut through a portion of Carver’s cave and filled the land below, the area was a vast swamp that separated it from downtown St. Paul, before bridges connected these two points. Phalen Creek, which fed this swamp, attracted many of the first flour, feed and lumber mills and here working-class neighborhoods grew.
The 1860's saw the growth of German and Irish communities, and businesses, churches and cultural institutions began to flourish. The wealthier began to build large houses higher on the hills - the most prominent being the Hamm’s mansion which overlooked his large brewery below.
Industries like the Hamm’s Brewery and the railroad provided new economic opportunities for the waves of immigrants coming into the area. Neighborhoods like Swede Hollow and Connemara Patch, separated by the 7th Street improvement arches, flourished along the Phalen Creek Ravine.
Soon, businesses like 3M and Whirlpool brought additional economic prosperity and housing flourished, up and beyond the ravine.
While Phalen Creek has since been placed underground and many of the mansions that topped the bluff no longer stand, much of Dayton’s bluff remains the same.
Today, Dayton’s Bluff is alive with vibrant insitutions like Metro State University and a more recent immigrant population that continues to build the character of the East Side of St. Paul.
But at any moment, you can travel back...
As you walk the bluff you can imagine the first indigenous peoples looking out across the marshy valley and vast river below, see yourself as an original pioneer hunting deer and meeting with the Dakota people, listen to the steamboat whistles and chugging locomotives coming up from the river valley, and watch the first aeroplane fly over the light tower, as you look down, seeing St. Paul for what it truly is, a gateway to our past and our future, flowing with the ever running river current below.
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]]>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.
]]>Peter John was a prominent shopkeeper and saloon owner in Dayton’s Bluff. After marrying Louisa Hamm, the daughter of Theodore and Louise Hamm, the couple lived in this 1906 Colonial Revival house. It was the work of the architectural firm of Buechner & Orth, which designed a number of early twentieth century buildings in Saint Paul, including the Orpheum Theater.
The large five-bedroom home with a matching carriage house was well maintained during the seventy-five years it remained in the family. It is unique because the home still retains many of the original wall coverings, complete with hand-painted motifs. A variety of wood carvings, stained glass and inlaid floors decorate the interior. Architectural historian Larry Millett wrote “occupying a corner lot, the house is a stately exercise in Colonial Revival”
Information about the John family is difficult to find, but two items do show up in the St. Paul Globe. The first dealt with an 1885 dispute between Peter John and another man over three Payne Avenue properties. Sadly, the second was a notice from Peter and Louisa John announcing the death of Theodore, their “beloved infant son,” who died at the age of one year and three months.
]]>This Queen Anne house at 680 Greenbrier has had not one but three families with Hamm’s connections living inside. It was designed in 1887 by architect Edward P. Bassford for Peter and Emma Classen. Bassford was probably the busiest designer in the city and mentored many architects who also became famous, including Cass Gilbert, Augustus Gauger and Clarence Johnston.
Peter Classen worked for Hamm’s as a collector and Emma had her own “fancy goods” shop downtown. The two lived here until 1899. Following Peter's death, Emma moved to a house on Margaret Street next door to her sister Alice Franzen. In 1900, George G. Benz, a second-generation German-American and his wife, Josephine Hamm-Benz moved into the house. Unlike many other Hamm husbands, George does not seem to have worked at the brewery, but worked with his father in the wholesale liquor business and then in real estate. He was on the St. Paul school board and served three terms in the Minnesota Legislature and was a member of several fraternal groups, including The Sons Of Hermann.
After Theodore Hamm's death in 1903, his son William and wife Marie moved out of their 668 Greenbrier home and into the Hamm mansion. George and Josephine moved into 668 Greenbrier and lived there until 1926.
John Flanagan and Emma Hamm—yes, another daughter of Theodore and Louise—arrived at the house in 1904. John worked at the Bank of Minnesota and later served as president of the Stockyards National Bank in South Saint Paul. Unlike others, they stayed there for an extended period. John died in 1941, and Emma died in 1947 in Dallas, Texas. Their son, John T. Flanagan and his wife Virginia lived in the Classen house until they moved to Minneapolis by 1941.
680 Greenbrier is now the home of the Greenhouse Recovery Center, a post-treatment transitional housing facility.
]]>One of three Hamm residences on Greenbrier, the Muller home was built in 1891 for Otto Muller and his bride Marie Hamm, the daughter of Theodore and Louise Hamm. Otto Muller moved to St. Paul from New York in 1872 and soon began to work at Hamm's Brewery. When Otto married Marie Hamm he was promoted to vice president of the brewery.
The Mullers occasionally showed up in the St. Paul Globe’s social pages. In September 1902, for instance, Marie hosted a Tuesday afternoon euchre event for a group of nearby German-American women. She and her husband were both active in the German-American Central Bund of Minnesota, the German-American Red Cross Society and the Saint Paul Mozart Club.
The Queen Anne house with its twelve rooms was designed by architect Augustus Gauger, a locally prominent German-American architect who designed several other structures in Dayton’s Bluff. In later years the home was turned into apartments, but now has been restored to a single-family home.
]]>Three splendid houses grace the eastern side of Greenbrier--once called Cable Street. All of them were connected with the extended Hamm family who decided to remain close to their company instead of moving to more prestigious areas. All three of the houses, along with the mansion across the street were heated by steam piped up from the brewery. There was a stairway that led from the end of Greenbrier to the brewery below that they walked to and from work.
One of the most startling Hamm family events occurred on this well-travelled route. On June 15, 1933 William Hamm Jr., then president of the brewery, was walking home for lunch around 12:45 in the afternoon. He was grabbed by what papers described as “four shadowy figures” and put in a car that had been sitting on the corner of Minnehaha and Greenbrier. He had been kidnapped by the infamous Barker-Karpis gang, was driven to a hideout in Illinois and held for ransom. A large sum on money was paid and William was returned, unhurt but shaken up by the experience.
The first of three Hamm residences at 668 Greenbrier, on the northeast corner of Margaret Street, was built in 1892 by William Hamm Sr. who, it is said, gave it as a wedding gift for his bride Marie Scheffer. They married in October 1893. The designer of the Georgian Revival house was the locally prominent team of Reed and Stem. It was neo-classical inspirit, and showed Stem's love of monumental exteriors and finely crafted interiors. One of the features that has disappeared are verandas with balustrades that faced both streets.
By 1904, William Sr. and his family had outgrown the house and moved across the street into his parent’s old brick mansion. For a brief time the Otto Muller and George Benz families, who earlier had Greenbrier homes of their own, lived there pending moves to other locations. In 1926, the George and Josephine Hamm Benz family moved to a new house on the River Road. Otto and Marie Muller moved from 672 Greenbrier into 668 Greenbrier.
When no members of the Hamm wished to live in the house, the family made the generous decision to donate the use of the house to the Community Chest. For a time it was East Side Relief Center where sometimes there were long lines of poor people who came for public assistance during the Great Depression. The Hamm's finally sold the house in 1934 and it began its forty- year history as a boarding house. It has now been returned to single-family use and is in the process of being restored.
]]>If you go east on Margaret Street and cross Greenbrier, you will come to a red brick pillar in a small park with a plaque— a small remnant of the old Hamm Mansion. The historic home was located on the northern section of the area and the rest was its elegantly landscaped grounds.
The brick Queen Anne house at 671 Greenbrier was built in 1886 for Theodore and Louise Hamm by their children, while the couple made an extended trip to their homeland in Herbolzheim, Germany. Designed by German-American architect Augustus Gauger, it had twenty rooms filled with ornate fixtures and eight fireplaces.
Family lore says that at first Louise didn’t like the new house and would have preferred to remain in their living quarters in the workers’ dormitory. Many elegant parties thrown there, often with Chinese lanterns hung throughout the yard. Sometimes tame deer and peacocks mingled with the guests.
Theodore lived there until his death in 1903 and son William and his family moved in. After he died in 1931, no other Hamm family members resided there and it was a boarding house for many years. In April 1954, while it was unoccupied, it was burned down by a teenage arsonist who said he set the fire “out of boredom.”
Local residents wanted the site to become a city park and tamed up with the St. Paul Garden club. Their leader, philanthropist Olivia Dodge, spearheaded the project. Upper Swede Hollow Park was officially dedicated in October, 1976. The red brick column you saw upon entering was a gatepost for the mansion found on the ground in nearby bushes. It was saved and moved to its current location where the plaque tells some of the story of the family’s story.
]]>William Hamm donated this park located at the corner of Greenbrier in memory of his father in 1910. The land for this “mini park,” as the city calls it, was created when Lyman Dayton's Addition and Irvine’s Second Addition met up at an angle. Originally a fifth of an acre, the size of the dedicated land was somewhat expanded in recent times by the vacating of a section of Maple Street Avenue.
As a City Council member, William Hamm had a special interest in public amenities and designed the large rock circle for flowers. He served on the City Park Board and believed that parks were a vital amenity of city life. The deed for the property states that if not used as a park, the property goes back to the William’s descendants.
In 2013, the Dayton’s Bluff Community Council sought city funding for a plan for a redesign of Hamm Park. Their restoration calls for walkways to create passages into the center of the park. They also hope to create features incorporating community history and diversity. Other possibilities include adding a small fountain and landscaping with sustainable plantings.
]]>The W. F. Stutzman Block, a Victorian commercial structure stands at 721-733 East Seventh Street. It was designed by August Gauger and constructed in two stages from 1885 to 1889, with the easternmost tower area going up last. Two of the original sections have been destroyed but the name of the original owner still remains in a rooftop pediment.
For many years it was a vibrant commercial corner. William F. Stutzman was a bookkeeper for a wholesale supplier of grain and produce and for a time also served on the Saint Paul City Council. William died in 1943 and his wife Bertha died in 1992 a few days before her ninety-fifth birthday. A Stutzman family member lived in a second story apartment through the 1930's.
In the early 1990s, this building was a victim of urban decay. It had become a problem for local neighbors and received many visits from the police. The area was heavily paved, littered with trash and blighted by a large billboard on the western end of the block.
The Upper Swede Hollow Neighborhood Association (USHNA) purchased the building in 1994. Their goal was to return this highly visible Victorian building to a community asset. Years of grassroots efforts and fundraising from foundations and area residents allowed the restoration of the building. It is now home to nonprofit organizations, affordable rental apartments and a busy café with an attractive outdoor patio. USHNA also made the structure more environmentally friendly and, instead of sending runoff into the storm sewer, water now goes into a rain garden area.
In September 1994, the west end of the property was named August Gauger Park, to honor the architect who lived in the neighborhood and also designed the nearby Schornstein Grocery and Saloon and many area homes. The community garden project, with its terraced flowerbeds and a stone pathway was started in 1993 with help from a class at Metropolitan State University, the Dayton's Bluff Community Council, USHNA, and many community people.
Gauger Park contains two items of women’s history. The first is a stone marker found at the base of the large cottonwood tree. It was placed there in memory of Bonnie Luke (1948-1994), a member of the nursing faculty and academic advisor at Metropolitan State University from 1988 to the year of her death. Metro students, staff and community volunteers worked to develop the surrounding park. Bonnie’s family and friends brought flowers from her former yard and planted them near her memorial.
The second item is the Maria Bates Rain Garden named for early resident Maria Bates Dayton who, with her husband Lyman, built a house in the area in 1854. Lyman became a prominent businessman and local land owner and their name became attached to the neighborhood.
Maria died in 1896 and several years later her son gave a tiny triangle for a park in her memory. The land was created when two early additions met at a forty-five degree angle at Bates and North Street. The city recently vacated a section of Bates Avenue between East Seventh and North Streets and the land was added to small the park, connecting it directly to what would later become Gauger Park. What had been the former triangle area is now known as the Maria Bates Rain Garden.
]]>The “Home for the Friendless” as it was first called, was founded in 1867 to provide shelter for destitute women and children. A group of twelve women - including pioneer teacher Harriet Bishop - from various local churches, formed a sewing group to raise money to provide services. Starting in 1869, a home for them was located in a converted large house on nearby Payne Avenue.
The next location at 753 East Seventh was originally the site of the Mayall family’s stone mansion, which had been built in 1881. When the original owners left in 1903 it was used as the Nugent Institute, a drug and alcohol program, the City Cycling Club headquarters and the Parental School and Detention Home, which the neighborhood children called the "Bad Boys Home."
Around 1913 Ada L. Mayall offered the group the family homestead. When the organization purchased the site, they decided to replace the original structure. Architectural plans called for for a Tudor style building with six double and thirty-nine single rooms. On January 3, 1917 the new "Home for the Friendless" as it was still known, opened its doors. Initially people could buy a life membership for $1,000. The building still stands in the middle section of today’s structure. Mercifully, in 1935, the name was changed to “The Protestant Home” and the term “inmate” was replaced by "resident."
Over the years, several additions were made to the original building and different organizational structures emerged, but it always remained a residence. The mission slowly changed and the focus became providing eldercare. Until recently it was part of the Wilder organization and then the Cerenity Senior Care system, which vacated the premises in 2011. The current plan is for another group to take ownership and develop the building into an assisted living facility.
]]>The Dayton’s Bluff Commercial Club was started in 1905 to provide a place for social exchange and community leadership. The clubhouse at 770 East Seventh Street was built for meetings and socializing for the area’s professional class. Later expansions added bowling lanes, private dining rooms, a men’s smoking room, a billiard area, as well as a banquet hall and dance floor.
The Commercial Club often spoke on behalf of the community and undertook a number of local initiatives. In 1909 they published a booklet entitled Picturesque Dayton's Bluff. In it, they discussed "the wonderful strides in material progress" that had been made in the area. There were photos of many area businesses and industries around East Seventh and the nearby homes of their owners. According to the booklet, “the many advantages offered on Dayton's Bluff are attracting home builders and residents” and over 700 new houses were going to be built.
The Commercial Club was involved in many activities in its early years. It had raised money for the erection of a ski slide in Indian Mounds Park. The organization launched an “industrial expansion project” to “encourage the establishment of industries in the East District. An energetic Women’s Auxiliary held many events including many “canned goods parties” to give food to charities. Large crowds also came to their annual picnics.
The Commercial Club shifted away from involvement in civic and economic matters after World War Two. The members were no longer the wealthy, but more of a cross section of the neighborhood. The leadership of the group had slowly shifted to small businessmen. It continued as a location for neighborhood events, including community sings, wrestling matches and wedding receptions. The annual bowling banquet after "pin season" was eagerly awaited by the community. Hundreds of people came to Commercial Club events such as musicals and vaudeville acts.
There were commercial clubs in many Saint Paul neighborhoods, but they slowly faded away. The Dayton’s Bluff Commercial Club was one of the few that hung on and continued to have members into the 1970’s. Since it closed, the building has often been empty, but has been sold from time to time. In the late 1970’s it was owned by a man who raised wholesale fish bait there and dubbed it “Worm City.” Most recently it has served as the meeting place for an Ethiopian Church.
]]>It is Bridge 90386 according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation, but architectural historians almost speak in reverent tones when they talk about the Seventh Street Improvement Arches. They consider them one of the most important feats of engineering in Minnesota history.
As the Dayton’s Bluff grew, its residents wanted a better and safer way to get across the railroad tracks and the Phalen Creek wetland that separated the neighborhood from downtown. As early as the 1850’s, they started demanding the construction of a bridge. Finally, in 1873, an elaborate wooden bridge appeared on Seventh Street. It was not all that well-built and soon became rickety. Once the heavy streetcars made their appearance in the city, it became clear that a stronger bridge was needed. The street also needed to be rebuilt because its steepness made it almost impossible for the streetcars to make it up the grade from downtown.
The Seventh Street Improvement Arches, with their unique spiral construction, were chosen to solve the special engineering challenges of the site. The street crossed the St. Paul and Duluth tracks at a troublesome sixty-three degree angle. The bridge also had to carry sewer and water pipes in addition to pedestrians and streetcars. Work on the project began in September 1883, and the bridge opened for traffic on December 18, 1884.
According to the State Historic Preservation Office, “the Seventh Street Improvement Arches are historically significant for its rarity and the technically demanding nature of its skewed, helicoidal, stone-arch design.” The bridge is one of the few of its style in the United States, and is the only one of its type known in Minnesota. The abutments and wing walls were built with gray limestone quarried in St. Paul, while the main structure was built with a buff-colored Kasota limestone quarried from the Minnesota River Valley.
William Truesdell, an experienced local engineer who had been involved with many kinds of construction, was the designer. Raised on a farm in Wisconsin, he studied engineering at the University of Wisconsin and graduated in 1867. After working as a school teacher and a surveyor, he joined the engineering staff of the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway in 1880 and was hired by the City of St. Paul Engineer's Office to supervise the entire project.
One newspaper article said he was imbued with "the desire to go the beginning of things" and studied mathematics as a hobby. He was not one to flaunt his technical skills. When he discussed his work on the Seventh Street Arches in a national engineering journal in 1886, he just remarked that "very few have ever been built in this country." But his fellow engineers recognized his achievements, and upon his death in 1909 characterized the bridge as "the most important piece of masonry in the city."
The Seventh Street Improvement Arches represent the only documented example of Truesdell’s design work and the structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. It was also placed on the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks in 2000. Today the arches of the bridge shelter a bike and a section of the Bruce Vento Regional Trail that leads into historic Swede Hollow. To view the arches, you need to follow the paved path leads down from the small parking area south of the intersection of East Seventh and Payne Avenue.
]]>The Carver’s Cave overlook at the western end of Indian Mounds Park is known for its vista and is one of the most photographed river scenes in the metro area. The overlook was rebuilt in 1995-96, including some low decorative walls, ornamental lights and a central limestone structure with an interpretive plaque explaining the history of the famous cavern located on the river flats below. There is also a drinking fountain, so if it’s a hot day, you may want to fill your water bottles.
The Friends of the Mississippi River (FMR) has been working in the surrounding landscape since 2011 with Saint Paul Parks and Recreation Department and community volunteers to remove invasive species and restore the native bluff prairie on the west side of this historic park's overlook. Scores of people have hauled and stacked invasive brush, including European buckthorn, on the overlook slope. They also weed and tend native shrubs planted on the west side of the overlook.
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