Even though pre-Civil War legislation attempted to restrict the movement of African Americans to Minnesota, free blacks and fugitive slaves continued to come. The highest concentration of blacks…

The large brick and stone house at 332 Summit Avenue was built in 1889 by Edgar and Mary Long. Designed by the architectural firm of Gilbert and Taylor, the mansion is Romanesque in style, and…

Some of the oldest public and private schools in the City and State are located in the West 7th neighborhood. While some schools have come and gone—Riverside, Davis, and St. Stanislaus—the community…

The intersection of Lexington and Marshall represents two points of entry by African Americans: education and athletic achievement. In Saint Paul, access to educational institutions was generally…

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…

On the site where 421 Summit stands today, there stood a small frame house. It was purchased in 1882 by Joseph Wheelock, who the then hired architect Clarence Johnston to redesign it for him. The home…

The house at 323 Summit Avenue was built in 1893 for Edward and Mary Saunders. Designed by Clarence Johnston in the Renaissance Revival style, the original construction cost came to about $35,000.…

Edward Devitt (1911-1992) was born into an Irish working class family in Saint Paul. He attended Van Buren Elementary School where he was a younger schoolmate of Warren Burger and Harry Blackmun.…

Previously on the site where 366 Summit Avenue stands today, stood a large mansion built for Daniel and Helen Noyes. Daniel Noyes was involved in the wholesale drug firm of “Noyes Brothers and…

- 141 East Fourth Street - (between Robert and Jackson) and - 350 North Robert Street - (between Fourth and Fifth) - 1891, Cass Gilbert - Cass Gilbert, architect of the State Capitol, designed…

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…

Before swift fire trucks, every neighborhood – especially those of wood frame construction, like most of St. Paul – needed a fire station. Making a fire call was slower and more complicated then. You…

The Euclid View Flat Apartment building was designed by Hermann Kretz and built in 1895. Kretz, a German-born architect who immigrated to America in 1880, was responsible for other local buildings…

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,…

It was -12 degrees F. at 8:20 A.M. on February 8, 1951, when an explosion rocked the six-story Minerals Building (Building 12). It destroyed two floors, plunging them into darkness, damaged the…

This is one of three F. Scott Fitzgerald landmarks in this part of St. Paul. The building itself is merely a solid representative of late Victorian apartment buildings. Its sole claim to fame is that…

Find this intersection (just south and one block west of the Robert Street bridge), and what do you see? Not much? Well, only because you came several decades too late. Had you had the foresight to…

Faith Lutheran Church at 499 Charles Avenue is a 1932 Gothic brick structure that is largely unchanged, except for the closing of its once-large basement-level windows. Otherwise the church retains…

This building at 312-316 University Av., with apartments above and main floor retail and office space below, is one of University Avenue’s remaining and largely intact Victorian retail buildings. It…

Built in 1911 at the southwest corner of University Avenue and Dale Street, the Faust was the neighborhood theater for generations of Frogtown and Rondo residents. The once-beautiful building had…