Historic Saint Paul

The Minnesota Milk Company: Art Deco on the Avenue

by Michael Koop

In 2006, St. Paul-based Old Home Foods closed its production plant located on the southeast corner of University and Western Avenues. The 46,000 square foot building is currently for sale.

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Vacant Housing in Saint Paul: An Opportunity for Historic Preservation

by Paul Singh

The number of vacant residential properties in Saint Paul has more than doubled over the past year. There are currently more than 1,200 vacant single-family homes and duplexes in the city. This trend is fueled by foreclosures and the recent decline in the housing market. These vacant homes are overwhelmingly concentrated in Saint Paul’s core neighborhoods: West Seventh, Summit-University, Frogtown, the North End, Payne-Phalen and Dayton’s Bluff.

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Preservation & Transit on Saint Paul’s Central Corridor

by Carol Swenson

By the year 2014, the Twin Cities will have undergone a major transformation—the construction of a light rail line linking downtown Saint Paul and downtown Minneapolis. Following a historic alignment, the $1 billion “Central Corridor LRT Line” represents both a challenge and an opportunity for historic preservation.

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Saving the Swedish Bank Building: A Payne Avenue Landmark is Making a Comeback

by Bob Roscoe

Perhaps no other commercial street in Saint Paul contributed to the city’s immigrant history as much as Payne Avenue. The Payne Avenue State Bank Building (historically known as the Swedish Bank Building), at the corner of Payne and Case Avenues, was critical in that role. The bank was the financial backbone of the early Scandinavians, Germans, Italians, and other European settlers who established work, home, and cultural life in close-by neighborhoods. Today, Payne Avenue and the Swedish Bank are renewing those collaborative roles.

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Old Buildings and the New Mayor

by Brian Horrigan

Some of us on the Board of Historic Saint Paul thought it might be a good idea to ask the new Mayor about his views on historic preservation. Chris Coleman grew up in the West 7th Street neighborhood, so we decided to meet at a prominent landmark in the same vicinity-the now-shuttered Schmidt Brewery.

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Extreme Makeover on the East Side: The Historic Leithauser Lofts Condominiums

by Robert Roscoe & Lisa Lyons

Once vacant and threatened by demolition, a 118-year-old brick storefront building on Saint Paul’s East Side has been given new life. The Leithauser Building, at East Third Street and Maple, has been transformed, as its conversion into six loft-style condominium units has just been completed.

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What’s Brewing at Schmidt?

by Doug Mack

The Schmidt Brewery is the castle of Saint Paul’s West End neighborhood. It was once a major employer and the focal point of a community, but now, like so many real castles, its glory days are over, its status diminished. The structure still looms over West Seventh Street, the main artery feeding from the airport and points beyond to downtown Saint Paul, but its doors are shut and its facilities no longer operate.

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Union Depot Redevelopment is on the Way

by Doug Mack

In the development puzzle of downtown Saint Paul, pieces are starting to come together to form a dynamic whole. Riverfront redevelopment efforts have already begun, with plans for more. Each week seems to bring new lofts to Lowertown, in historic buildings or new structures. But an important piece, one that could be the key to the future of the city and even the region, is still not quite in place: Union Depot and the adjacent 12 acre Post Office Process and Distribution Center.

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Rebirth at University and Raymond

by Robert Roscoe

A cutting-edge art gallery, a gourmet truffle shop, industrial buildings holding artist’s studios and galleries, recently-opened restaurants, a 50s era furnishing store, dozens of specialty shops, and a new age spiritual center have been redefining the urban environment around the intersection of University Avenue and Raymond Avenue, near the western edge of Saint Paul, for the past several years.

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Payne Avenue: East Side’s Main Street Once More Gains Growth by Immigrants

Just as Payne Avenue provided Swedish immigrants in the 1880’s with their first business locale in America, the lively street today forms an inviting commercial environment for Asian and Latino entrepreneurs. It was the Scandinavian influx that created Payne Avenue as the East Side’s prime business district with its own sense of identity, the street’s revitalization is now being propelled by this new class of immigrants.

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