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 castle-like complex southwest of city center, along Fort Road and right on top of Fountain Cave: and Hamm's along Phalen Creek just east of downtown.
Though St. Paul has cultivated an Irish image, and Minnesota a Scandinavian one, in fact Germans comprised the biggest national ethnic group in both city and state from the mid-19th century forward. Beer was one of the resulting cultural manifestations, and St. Paul remained a major brewing town until the late 20th century.
These were family businesses, and in this now scarcely imaginable era, industrialists often lived near their factories and their workers. The Schmidts and their successors, the Bremers, lived across the street from their brewery. Old Man Hamm's mansion perched on the bluff above Swede Hollow; he could look down from there on his factory, his workers, and some of his his customers. The Yoergs were no different.
Anthony Yoerg's house on 215 West Isabel still stands today - a French Second Empire box with a mansard roof, designed by Monroe Sheire, who was also the author of the Alexander Ramsey House.
]]>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) of Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew Louis-Napoleon, and by extension some styles of architecture that became popular during that time.
Melady was one of the blufftop magnates who made his money on the lower West Side. He came to St. Paul in 1860 and began as a laborer for the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, then became a foreman at the Northwest Fuel Co., then ran his own coal and wood business on the flats at East Indiana Street.
He served on the St. Paul city council in the 1880s and 1890s, at times with Anthony Yoerg (see Yoerg's Heritage tour), and a brother of James Minea (see John and Mary Minea House). They were stalwart Sixth Ward men, business leaders and politicians. Melady retired in 1903, and died at 361 Stryker, living at that time with his daughter and her husband, Eugene P. Shanley.
]]>Across the street from one another in Prospect Terrace are two prominent French Second Empire homes.
The first, the Durkee House is located at 58 Prospect Boulevard. Built round 1875, this is one of the first built on the bluff – a French Second empire with a mansard roof. The mansard, or hip roof, was popularized in France by Francois Mansart and is recognizable by the two slopes, the second more acute than the first. This house has been remodeled over and over, so it has lost some of its original character; to some it resembles a paddlewheeler about to steam over the bluff.
Reuel Durkee came to St. Paul from New Hampshire in 1870 and commenced a long career in the wholesale grocery business, mostly as R.A. Durkee & Co., downtown. According to his grandson, Reuel Harmon, Durkee guessed that Prospect Terrace would equal or surpass Summit Avenue as St. Paul’s prestige boulevard; he got it wrong, but you can see his reasons. Harmon described his grandfather is crusty, with some eccentric ideas; he believed, for example that the moon was getting progressively closer to earth. And when young Reuel asked him what happens to the soul upon death, the old man snuffed out a candle flame.
Reuel the elder died at 58 Prospect Boulevard in 1923. Reuel the younger was born at that address and went to a very successful business career as president of Webb Publishing Company, publisher of The Farmer magazine, a publication founded in 1882 and still going strong today.
]]>William Schornstein was a prominent member of the local German American community. The first mention in the historic record said that listed him as a bartender at the Tivoli, a downtown tavern. By the 1880’s he had a combination saloon and grocery made of brick. Unfortunately in 1884 a fire destroyed that building as well as a nearby house.
The Schornsteins then decided to rebuild in grander fashion and he hired prominent German-American architect Augustus Gauger to design the structure at 707 Wilson. The result was one of the few French Second Empire style business buildings in the city. It was a combination grocery and saloon, that included family living quarters. The establishment was especially popular among the area’s German-Americans and there was a large hall on the third floor for meetings and special events.
William Schornstein and his wife Wilhelmina resided at this address starting in1885. He operated his grocery and community gathering place until 1920, the year of his death at the age of seventy-two. The building continued to be used and, for instance, the 1937 city directory listed it as a grocery and meat market.
Architect Augustus Gauger and his family left Germany for the United States in the 1860’s. He moved to St. Paul in 1875, was employed in one of the city's most successful architectural firms. He set up his own practice in 1878 and remained active until the late 1920s. In addition to his private practice, Gauger served as architect to the State Board of Education and was a St. Paul city building inspector. His firm was responsible for buildings throughout the country, including courthouses in fourteen states, school, commercial and institutional structures and many residences. The Schornstein Grocery and Saloon was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
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