RAMSEY COUNTY Fall, 1990 Volume 25, Number 3 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Executive Director Daniel J. Hoisington E d ito r Virginia Brainard Kunz History •/ RAMSEY COUNTY Volume 25, Number 3 Fall, 1990 HISTORICAL SOCIETY

B O A R D O F D IR E C T O R S Gregory K. Page CONTENTS Chairman o f the Board William S. Fallon P re sid e n t 3 L etters Joanne Englund 4 The Saint Paul Foundation and Its Past Fifty Years First Vice President Anne Cowie Wilson Virginia Brainard Kunz Second Vice President 18-19 A Half-Century of Change Robert Hess S e c r e ta ry 2 0 No Cash, No Credit, No Jobs James P. Wicker St. Paul and the Financial Panic of 1857 T re a su re r Ronald M. Hubbs John Costello, Deborah Gelbach, Joan Grzywinski, Lorraine Hammerly, Craig Jilk, 2 3 West Against East in the Land of Oz John M. Lindley, Frank Marzitelli, Dr. Daniel John Hoisington Thomas B. Mega, Richard T. Murphy, Sr., Marvin Pertzik, Douglas Skor, Robert O. 3 0 Reshaping the River: The Man-Made Mississippi Straughn, Gary Woeltge, Laurie Zenner.

EDITORIAL BOARD 31 Book Reviews John M. Lindley, chairman; Thomas H. 3 2 A Matter of Time Boyd, Thomas C. Buckley, Charlton Dietz, Thomas J. Kelley, Arthur McWatt, Dr. 3 5 What’s Historic About This Site? Thomas B. Mega. Macalester College’s Old Main RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS And Its First Century Commissioner Hal Norgard, chairman Commissioner Diane Ahrens Publication of Ramsey County History is supported Commissioner John Finley in part by a grant from the Grotto Foundation Commissioner Ruby Hunt Commissioner Duane McCarty and a gift from Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen Commissioner Don Salverda in memory of Henry H. Cowie, Jr. Commissioner Warren Schaber Terry Schütten, executive director, Ramsey County Ramsey County History is published quarterly by the Ramsey County Historical Society, A Message from the Editorial Board 323 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, St. Paul, Minn. 55102. Printed in U.S.A. Copyright, 1990, Ramsey County Historical W^amsey County History welcomes the submission of manuscripts Society. ISSN Number 0485-9758. All rights ■ ■dealing with the history of St. Paul, Ramsey County, and their reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without environs. In particular, the Editorial Board encourages writers to written permission from the publisher. contact the editor with proposals for neighborhood histories, stories On the cover: Children at the Thomas-Dale about local leaders and their families, accounts of prominent Child Care Center attend one of the many needed child care centers operated by the institutions, businesses or organizations and articles on the racial and Amherst H. Wilder Foundation in the East ethnic diversity of Ramsey County. Metro area of St. Paul and Ramsey County. The intent of the Editorial Board is to encourage and support Acknowledgements: The photographs on writing about urban and local history relating to St. Paul and Ramsey pages 4-19, page 28 and on the front cover are from the archives of The Saint Paul County. Our quarterly magazine needs a continuing flow of well Foundation and used with the Foundation’s researched and thoughtfully written articles that reflect the richness of permission. All other photographs in this issue o f Ramsey County History are from the the people, places, and institutions of the county. The members of our audio-visual collections of the Minnesota society are enthusiastic about history. They deserve the best historical Historical Society. writing we can provide to them. —John L. Lindley, chairman, Editorial Board

2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY A Blur of Change The Saint Paul Foundation and Its Past

Virginia Brainard Kunz

ifty years ago, in October of 1940, a group of St. Paul business leaders set in motion a plan to create a new foundation that over Ftime would take its place within the community foundation move­ ment as one of the ten largest in the country and a major resource for the St. Paul area. The Saint Paul Foundation had its be­ A model for the plan they were drafting ginnings within the St. Paul Association was at hand in The Cleveland Foundation, (now Chamber) of Commerce when attor­ the first community foundation in the na­ ney and Association president R. J. Faricy tion. Established in 1914, The Cleveland formed a committee to examine the city’s Foundation was a creative response to the welfare needs. Those he appointed repre­ concerns of Frederick Goff and other sented St. Paul’s leadership: attorneys Cleveland bankers who were dismayed by William H. Oppenheimer and George W. the erosion of charitable trusts resulting Morgan; Louis S. Headley of First Trust from community changes that often made Company; C. E. Johnson from Empire the original purpose of those endowments National Bank and Trust Company and H. obsolete. By 1940, Boston, New York, B. Humason from American National Philadelphia and a number of other cities, Bank and Trust Company. including Minneapolis, already had fol­ Annie Paper, the Foundation’s first donor. Scarred by memories of the jobless, the lowed Cleveland’s lead. homeless, and the families on welfare dur­ The Saint Paul Foundation became a le­ ing the Depression years, committee gal entity on October 11, 1940, when its members were seeking a way to use private Plan was filed with the Clerk of District funds to charitable organizations follow­ philanthropy to supplement the public Court in Ramsey County. Under the Plan, ing the wishes of the donors. funds that had been poured into govern­ two committees were created. One com­ The list of the first members of the ment welfare programs in the 1930s and mittee, known as the Trustees Committee, Trustees and Distribution Committees now were diminishing. At that time, St. consisted of representatives of St. Paul’s once again included representatives of St. Paul had several private foundations based trustee banks: First Trust Company of St. Paul’s leadership. At a time when it was on great fortunes. Among them were the Paul, American National Bank and Trust badly needed, and when it required some Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, estab­ Company and Empire National Bank and courage for donors to entrust their estates lished before World War I, and Louis W. Trust Company (now Norwest Bank of St. to a little known and scarcely tried organi­ Hill’s Lexington Foundation, created in Paul). zation, these men stamped the new Foun­ 1934. Later it was called the Louis W. and Members of the second committee, the dation with their imprimatur. Maud Hill Family Foundation and today, Distribution Committee, were to be ap­ Distribution Committee members were it is known as the Northwest Area Founda­ pointed by public officials: the mayor of F. R. Bigelow of St. Paul Fire and Marine tion. St. Paul, the president of the University of Insurance Company; Homer P. Clark of Faricy’s committee found in the com­ Minnesota, the senior judge of the United West Publishing Company; Rabbi H. S. munity foundation concept a way to draw States District Court for Minnesota, the Margolis of Mount Zion Temple; attorney together many donors who could contrib­ presidents of the Ramsey County Medical Wilfred E. Rumble; oilman I. A. ute money, often in their own names, to es­ Society and the Ramsey County Bar As­ O’Shaughnessy; lumberman F. K. tablish funds that would support a variety sociation and the chairman of the St. Paul Weyerhaeuser; investment counselor of community projects. Flexibility, com­ Association of Commerce. Together, the Harold E. Wood; Professor W. S. mittee members felt, was important since two committees were to receive, manage, Moscrip, Professor E. A. Roberts, Profes­ experience had taught that over the years administer and distribute Foundation sor E. R. Reiff and Dr. H. E. Binger. Fred community needs change.

4 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Rumble, her family’s personal and legal vices. advisor. Years later, other family mem­ The Papers had six children and Annie bers also would become donors. Paper’s interests centered chiefly around Born in Russia in 1868, Annie Shapira them. She was, a daughter-in-law once had strong ties to St. Paul where she grew recalled, “a woman of the old school” who Fifty Years up and where she married Lewis Paper in dressed simply and honored old world 1890.Two years later her father, who had values. Yet her interests were varied; she established a jewelry store in downtown was active in St. Paul’s Jewish organiza­ St. Paul, loaned Paper the money to found, tions, she instilled in her children a love of with two other men, the firm that became music, she liked to travel, and she was Paper Calmenson, a major steel supply known for her personal generosity. company in the Northwest. Her gift to the Foundation, as Louis P. Fellows, secretary of the Association of The company’s origins were modest. Headley noted in a letter to Rumble, had Commerce, was committee secretary. Hu- According to family tradition, one of the “done far more than supply income, for it mason, Headley and Alex Highland, Em­ partners provided the horse, another the has given us a beginning and a sense of be­ pire Bank’s president, were appointed to wagon and the third the scale for weighing ing on the way.” Still, the Foundation sim­ the Trustees Committee. the scrap iron-the product in which they mered along during the 1940s with no Not much happened during the next few originally dealt. Operating first from a more money coming in, no grants being years. In 1941, the nation marched off to small building near St. Paul’s Lower Land­ made, no real organization to manage it World War II and the struggle drained ing, the firm later occupied a site on East and few knowing of its existence. Help community energy. The war-driven Seventh Street before moving to its present was needed, and it came from within St. prosperity, with virtually full employ­ location on Highway 280. Paul’s own foundation community. ment, wiped out the last vestiges of the Both Lewis and Annie Paper were in­ In July, 1952, A. A. Heckman, execu­ Depression of the 1930s and somewhat ob­ tensely religious orthodox Jews and mem­ tive director of the Louis W. and Maud scured philanthropic issues. Almost unno­ bers of one of St. Paul’s early Hebrew con­ Hill Family Foundation, was temporary ticed at the time was the event that marked gregations, the Sons of Jacob (B’nai chairman of a joint meeting of The Saint the stepping-off point for the Foundation. Jacob), organized in 1875. They lived on Paul Foundation’s Trustees Committee In 1944, Annie Paper died and, with the Capitol Boulevard on the hill a few blocks and the Distribution Committee. The Hill $5,000 trust she established through her north and east of the present state capitel Foundation, Heckman announced, be­ will, she became the first donor to the and close enough to the synagogue, on lieved that there was a place and a need for Foundation. It was a gift that was due in College Avenue between Wabasha and St. a community trust type of foundation in St. good part to the sage counsel of Wilfred E. Peter Streets, that they could walk to ser­ Paul but realized that The Saint Paul Foun-

■ f f f J í a , i j g j j l j mmi S I f i gg

St. Paul as it looked in the 1940s, The Saint Paul Foundation’s first decade. This is a view from the West Side bluff looking north toward the loop from South Wabasha and the Wabasha Street bridge. St. Paul Dispatch-Pioneer Press photo.

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 5 dation wasn’t growing because it had no the National Council on Community one to promote it. Therefore, he told his Foundations. That year, The Saint Foun­ rather startled audience, the Hill Founda­ dation invited the National Council to hold tion would commit $6,000 a year, for three its annual conference in St. Paul in the years, to hire a part-time executive to de­ spring of 1961 and also co-sponsored the velop the Foundation and to pay for second Conference of Minnesota Founda­ promotional expenses. tions. “They had to have someone in charge,” By 1960, Headley was able to report to Heckman recalled recently. “The Founda­ the Trustees Committee and to the Distri­ tion couldn’t afford to pay much but we bution Committee that he was aware of knew Lou Headley, who was an attorney several wills that included bequests to the and who had retired from the First Trust Foundation, totaling $6 million. More to Company, would take on the job, so he was the point was that, by its annual meeting on hired.” July 27, 1962, the Foundation had eight A new era was about to begin. Six active funds with a total book value of months later, Headley reported on his pro­ $243,067, and $4,003 was paid out in gram to publicize the Foundation, through grants. speeches to luncheon clubs, civic groups The active funds came from a number and the public, and letters to lawyers and of sources. Some were funds turned over trust officers handling estates. At the same Louis Headley to the Foundation by charities that had time, Bernard Ridder, publisher of the St. fulfilled their purpose or whose work had Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch, offered Service for blacktopping a play area at the been taken over by other agencies. The to contribute $2,500 in advertising space Bremer House. The Marshall Day Nurs­ handling of these various funds demon­ each year for three years. ery received $153 to buy a jungle gym. strated the need for the flexibility the Foun­ The Foundation’s efforts during its first Reuel Harmon, who was appointed to dation had been set up to provide. twenty years or so were directed for the the Distribution Committee in 1962 by the “The Foundation had to have the ability most part toward accumulating assets in University of Minnesota president, to move with the times, to see public needs the form of trusts and bequests. As these remembers the meetings of the Trustees as they emerged,” J. Neil Morton, former bequests were received, the Distribution Committee and the Distribution Commit­ Distribution Committee chairman and sen­ Committee began making a few grants. tee as informal luncheons held twice a year ior partner in the Briggs and Morgan law The first, in 1952, was a $400 grant to the at the Minnesota Club. firm, observed recently. “The Foundation International Institute to buy materials for “Headley would arrive with a list of retains the right to rechannel an endow­ use in teaching English to prospective grants to be made,” Harmon recalled re­ ment, in keeping, always, with the donor’s citizens, and acquire speech records, a cently. “We never saw the actual requests, original intent. This balances continuity playing machine and practice books. It- but we’d usually approve them without with flexibility.” came, appropriately enough, from Annie many questions. He’d investigated and In 1961, the Society for the Relief of the Paper’s trust. separated the ’real need’ from the ’nice to Poor, its work paralleled by other agen­ A year later, Children’s Hospital have’. Headley was great on advocating cies, decided to disband. Organized on received $240 to buy modern metal wheel­ the kinds of grants that were very helpful March 16, 1876, as the Society for Im­ chairs and $200 went to the Hallie Q. and at the same time would be visible in the proving the Condition of the Poor, it was Brown Community House “for tools, etc., community and attract the attention of pos­ the first private charitable relief agency in after a fire.” There was little pattern to the sible donors.” St. Paul and one of the oldest of all of the Foundation’s grants during its early years, Under Headley’s direction, the Founda­ city’s charitable institutions. other than that they were small and aimed tion maintained a growing file of St. Paul Its officers included Henry A. Rice as mainly at supplying agencies with equip­ charities for use by Distribution Commit­ president; Alexander Ramsey, Henry H. ment. tee members, lawyers and others interest­ Sibley, William Marshall, Cushman K. A check for $200 went to the Saint Paul ed in advising people on charitable contri­ Davis, Daniel R. Noyes and E. W. Chase. Rehabilitation Center to buy a slide, a butions. In a lively discussion during a It was, according to historian Henry A. sandbox with toys for children and a rec­ 1953 meeting, Committee members also Castle, “undenominational in character ord player for music “of therapeutic val­ decided to offer the Foundation’s services and catholic in purposes” and it gave “time­ ue.” Booth Memorial Hospital received to other foundations to screen grant appli­ ly aid as seems most imperative, whether $250 to air condition the children’s nurs­ cations and to private charities to advise food, fuel. . . clothing and temporary ery; the St. Paul Cooperative Camp As­ them on the use of their funds. financial assistance.” sociation received $95 to buy two new By 1959, the Foundation had moved With the general aim of “aiding self- tents; Children’s Hospital received $485 into the nationwide network of community help, which we think is the truest charity,” for a cast cart and $500 went to Children’s foundations, as Headley became active in the Society’s aid ranged from recovering

6 RAMSEY COU NTY HISTORY new bank, one of the largest in St. Paul. In 1915, the bank built a new sixteen- story building on the site of the old German bank. Following a merger with First Na­ tional Bank of St. Paul in 1929, the original building became the bank’s east wing, but Culver’s legacy lives on in the doorknobs in the eastern wing that still bear the en­ graved “MNB.” Bertha C. M. Culver was a descendant of a pioneer Minnesota family. Her father was William Constans whose business in­ terests included transportation, wholesale grocering and brewing. A Constans block once stood on East Seventh Street in Lowertown. Bertha Culver’s first hus­ band, asonofJohnL. Merriam, died with­ in a few years of their marriage. During her second marriage to Donald Culver, they lived in quiet elegance on Summit Av­ Headquarters for the Society for the Relief of the Poor, as it looked in the 1920s. The building at 141 E. Ninth Street was still there as recently as 1980 but since has been enue, traveling widely and entertaining demolished. frequently. Charming and sophisticated people, they both left trust estates to the runaway children to donating an artificial veloped and the tuberculosis rate among Foundation. limb to a Civil War veteran. In 1892, the children dropped precipitously. By the The daughter of one of Minnesota’s Society became part of the newly formed mid-1950s, die Preventorium had closed most distinguished pioneers, Alice E. An­ Associated Charities of St. Paul which, in and its funds had been transferred to The drews, set aside $5,000 from her estate for turn, became United Charities, the Saint Paul Foundation. Today, the Chil­ the Foundation to administer as a memori­ predecessor of Family Service of St. Paul. dren’s Preventorium Fund is a source of al to her father, Christopher C. Andrews. When the Society ceased to function, its funds for grants for the “benefit of children Seeking to make a more substantial gift remaining funds were transferred to the sick in mind or in body.” than her slender resources permitted, she Society for the Relief of the Poor Fund of While funds such as these helped to in­ directed that income from her bequest be The Saint Paul Foundation. Grants from crease the Foundation’s asset base and allowed to accumulate for 200 years after this fund continue to be made to Family demonstrate its flexibility as well as its im­ her death, thereby growing to an estimated Service of St. Paul. portance as a community resource, the amount of $12.8 million by the middle of The Children’s Preventorium found it­ Foundation’s main thrust was toward at­ the twenty-second century. self caught up in changes in health care. tracting trusts and bequests from individu­ Her instructions were similar to two fa­ Organized in 1915, the Preventorium was als. Headley and the members of the Trus­ mous trusts created by Benjamin Franklin an early successful program intended to tee and Distribution Committees actively in 1791, also calling for interest to ac­ cope with “the white plague,” as tuberculo­ sought to encourage as many St. Paul cumulate for the next 200 years. While sis often was called. Its founder, Dr. H. citizens as possible to include the Founda­ Franklin’s bequest survived a number of Langstreet Taylor of St. Paul, was in tion in their wills. legal challenges before being redirected by charge of Minnesota’s anti-tuberculosis Many of the early donors who made the courts, Alice Andrews thoughtfully movement for many years. testamentary gifts to the Foundation had added an escape clause permitting current Taylor created the aptly-named roots extending deep into the city’s past. distribution of income “if literal compli­ Preventorium to house and treat children Donald D. Culver and his wife, Bertha ance was undesirable.” The Foundation whose tubercular parents could not care Constans Merriam Culver, together repre­ decided that it was undesirable and grants for them. He believed that if children al­ sented an important segment of St. Paul soon were being made from the fund’s in­ ready exposed to tuberculosis could be history. Culver was a banker whose career come. moved to a new and healthy environment, spanned the growth and eventual merging Alice Andrews, a St. Paul English they would be spared the disease itself. of three of the city’s major banking institu­ teacher for twenty-two years, was a devot­ The Preventorium, which he built on tions. He arrived in St. Paul in the early ed daughter who never married but made the northeast shore of Lake Owasso, was 1900s and joined the National German her home with her father until his death in designed for about eighty children. How­ American Bank. Vice president when it St. Paul in 1922. A state senator and a Civil ever, over the years antibiotics were in­ merged with the Merchants National Bank War officer, Andrews was United States troduced and new surgical techniques de­ in 1912, Culver became president of the minister to Sweden and Norway. Alice

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 7 was bom in Sweden in 1870. Andrews also was consul-general to Brazil from 1882 to 1885, editor and owner of the St. Paul Daily Dispatch, the author of a history of Minnesota and leader of the movement to create the forest reserves in Minnesota. He served for sixteen years as the state’s fire warden and forest commissioner and he was considered one of the initiators of for­ estry .conservation in the United States. Both Alice Andrews and her father lived long lives. She was 91 when she died in 1961.

THE TURNING POINT As the first twenty-five years of The Saint Paul Foundation drew to a close, a fund established by Laura and Anna E. R. Furness, granddaughters of Alexander Ramsey, Minnesota’s first territorial governor, gave the Foundation a major boost and turned it toward a path of real growth. In a tribute to Anna Furness after her 1964 death in a traffic accident at the age of 88, Theodore C. Blegen, the distinguished Minnesota historian, wrote: “Bred in the best tradition, she did hon­ or to old and cherished ways while adapt­ ing herself with ease, grace and nicety of and Harold Wood, a one-time Distribution tion was beginning to be seen. On January understanding to modern ways. She car­ Committee chairman. When they drew 31, 1969, Headley told the Distribution ried from an older to a newer era the high their wills, the Furness sisters established Committee that the Foundation had ten standards that marked both her mother and funds within the Foundation to benefit, at funds with a book value of $2,218,525 and her grandmother as great ladies of Min­ the discretion of the Distribution Commit­ a market value of more than $3 million. nesota’s past—and she herself, by virtue of tee, the Minnesota Historical Society, Headley’s report also showed that grants character, swift intelligence and vigor of Unity Church, the Saint Paul Neighbor­ authorized in 1968 totaled $81,104. The service, achieved distinction as the great hood House and “other educational, grants had become more substantial— lady of Minnesota’s present, the genera­ charitable and social agencies. . . ” $2,463 to the St. Paul Art Center for ex­ tion of yesterday and today. ” He could well They also willed their home to the Min­ hibits on loan; $2,200 to The Loft for an have written the same words about Laura nesota Historical Society, so strongly did audio-visual set; $2,164 to the Salvation Furness at her death in 1959. they feel that it should remain as a tangible Army for camp equipment; and, over a For both of the Furness sisters, the reminder of a great link in the state’s histo­ two-year period, $17,225 to the Minneso­ world revolved around St. Paul and their ry. They asked that the house be given “the ta Historical Society for repairs to the beloved home, their grandfather’s gray same care and maintained in the same con­ Ramsey House. limestone “mansion house” in the Irvine dition in which an owner having ample Then, early in the spring of 1969, Louis Park neighborhood, where they grew up. means would maintain a home for which Headley died and Charles Birt, who had Here as adults they joined with their moth­ he had affection. It should be open to the just retired after serving for many years as er, Marion Ramsey Furness,in entertain­ public and used for no other purpose,” and executive director of the Greater St. Paul ing frequently and lavishly. True to the tra­ if this could not be done, they stated in sep­ United Fund, was appointed to succeed dition of “the Democratic nobility,” they arate but identical wills, the house was to him. Birt brought all of his considerable took on responsible roles in the charitable be tom down. administrative skills, plus his many com­ and cultural life of their city. The Laura and Anna E. R. Furness munity contacts, to his new task. He con­ Neither Laura nor Anna Furness mar­ Fund was established in 1968, with a book solidated Louis Headley’s achievements ried. As active members of Unity Unitari­ value of about $1.7 million. By the end of and he prepared the Foundation to move an Church, they knew both Louis Headley the 1960s, its importance to the Founda­ toward compliance with new regulations

8 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY stemming from the Tax Act of 1969. By remind the nation that Thanksgiving is “a the late 1970s, the regulations would be­ day set apart for religious and patriotic come a real issue and, with the required consecration.” As a result, by the 1940s Public Support Test, create an increasing­ most state governments were urging that ly complex environment for community the flag be displayed on Thanksgiving foundations throughout the country. Day. During the early 1970s, trusts, funds, Rae Druck had other concerns revolv­ contributions, and bequests flowed into the ing around her eight children. In 1924,she Foundation in increasing numbers and founded the Child Psychology Study Cir­ amounts. In 1970, Joseph A. Duke, a 3M cle which brought in experts in medicine, executive, and his wife, Lillian, estab­ education and religion to discuss child- lished an unrestricted fund, the Joseph C. rearing problems. She also helped or­ and Lillian A. Duke Fund, with an initial ganize the Minnesota Parent-Teacher As­ gift of $38,000. sociation. When she died in 1969, she left Duke, a native of Philadelphia, was a $5,000 to the Foundation for the Thanks­ salesman who arrived in St. Paul in 1940 giving Association, but because the As­ and throughout the next forty-two years sociation is no longer active, the Trust now quickly climbed 3M’s ranks. He served as is used to help other organizations com­ Sales Manager for New Products, Vice Grace Flandrau memorate Thanksgiving. President for Coated Abrasives and Relat­ Mary Lou and Adelaide E. Diether ed Products and Executive Vice President yer Edward Hodgson, was a writer whose were sisters who never married and who and Director for Sales Administration, a fame grew as she published short stories, lived all of their lives in the home in which position he held when he retired in 1959. travel essays, and articles and novels. Her they had grown up. The daughters of The Dukes, who had no children of marriage to William Blair Flandrau, the Samuel and Anna Knauft Diether, they their own, shared an abiding interest in the son of pioneer jurist Charles E. Flandrau were markedly different. Mary Lou was International Foster Parent Program, and a brother of writer Charles M. Flan­ outgoing and known as a strict, demanding visiting children throughout the world and drau, linked two prominent St. Paul fami­ disciplinarian at Summit School where she helping some of them with their college lies. A professional traveler, William taught Latin for seventeen years. Adelaide educations. At the same time, they con­ Blair Flandrau owned a coffee plantation was a quiet, reserved homemaker. Mary tinued to contribute to their Saint Paul in Mexico where he and Grace lived from Lou, who outlived all of her family, creat­ Foundation fund. 1909 until the outbreak of the Mexican ed a trust for the bulk of her estate at First When Joseph Duke died in 1982, his es­ Revolution in 1914. Trust, which distributes its income to the tate provided for distribution of particular After their return to St. Paul, Grace Foundation and other institutions. assets for three purposes: 50 percent was Flandrau published two novels, Cousin Ju­ Among other Foundation donors dur­ allocated to meet general community lia, in 1917 and Being Respectable, a witty ing the 1960s and early 1970s were Wil­ needs; 25 percent supported The J. C. and and perceptive account of Minnesota so­ liam H. Miller and his sister, Elizabeth. L. A. Duke Scholarship Fund for children cial conventions, in 1923.When her hus­ Neither married but lived out their lives to­ of 3M USA employees; and 25 percent band died in 1938, she began to spend less gether in their home at White Bear Lake. supported The J. C. and L. A. Duke Em­ time in St. Paul. Finally, she bought a per­ Their father was St. Paul banker William ployees’ Assistance Fund, a fund to help manent home in Connecticut and lived A. Miller and William H. followed him 3M employees faced with financial prob­ both there and in Arizona until her death in into banking before becoming an agent for lems resulting from catastrophic illness or 1971. At that time, the Grace H. Flandrau Aetna Life Insurance Company. accident beyond the scope of 3M USA’s Trust was one of the largest of the Founda­ William and Elizabeth Miller shared a own special benefits program. tion’s funds. In 1989, its market value was wide range of interests. Elizabeth, who At the end of 1989, the combined Duke $1.5 million. had suffered a hearing loss as a child, funds totaled almost $7 million. Lillian Other bequests represented deeply felt taught lip reading in their home. William Duke died in 1989 and Foundation staff concerns on the part of the donors. Rae was a history buff, a stamp collector and members retain a heart-warming memory Berman Druck, who had emigrated from interested in photography, science and of her delight and pleasure as she personal­ Lithuania as a child, arrived in St. Paul in music. The trusts they set up were restrict­ ly signed each of the certificates for 1904, shortly before her marriage to gar­ ed to help the handicapped. scholarships the Duke Fund had made pos­ ment manufacturer Bernard Druck. In 1972, Richard A. Moore, senior sible. Like many immigrants, she was in­ partner in Moore, Costello & Hart law One of the most colorful women in St. tensely patriotic. In 1916, disturbed by firm, joined the Foundation’s Distribution Paul’s past also remembered The Saint what she saw as over-commercialism of Committee as the St. Paul Chamber of Paul Foundation in her will. Grace Hodg­ the Thanksgiving celebration, she founded Commerce’s appointee. The next year, he- son Flandrau, the daughter of St. Paul law- the National Thanksgiving Association to was named chairman, following in the

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 9 ¿ÊÊà f M

Joseph Duke Harold Bend Ralph Kriesel footsteps of former chairmen Harold fortunately a solution was at hand. The dation had twenty-five funds with a market Wood, Wilfrid Rumble and Neil Morton. Distribution Committee decided to buy ad­ value of $4.2 million and awarded Moore recalls his early years on the ministrative services from Minnesota $200,000 in grants. A year later, more Committee as relatively quiet. “We didn’t Foundation until The Saint Foundation than $2.5 million was distributed in grants. have much to do,” he remembered. “There could decide the type and level of staff it The men whose estates made the Foun­ wasn’t much money to give away. The as­ needed. Both foundations had offices in the dation’s dramatic growth possible were sets weren’t large.” Wilder Building (since tom down to make both self-made millionaires in the best Morton expressed it succinctly: “We way for the Ordway Music Theatre). sense of the word. Ralph Kriesel rose from didn’t have enough money to wad a shot­ Paul A. Verret, who was Associate Ex­ humble beginnings to develop a multi­ gun. On the Distribution Committee, we ecutive Director of Minnesota Founda­ million dollar financial empire involving passed the hat to cover even our minor ex­ tion, became Executive Director of The automobile dealerships, banks and credit penses.” Saint Paul Foundation upon Charles Birt’s companies. St. Paul knew him best as the All that was about to change. Early in retirement in 1975. A.A.Heckman also man who owned Midway Chevrolet. the 1970s, Morton and Charles J. Curley, remembers this turning point in the Foun­ Kriesel was bom in southeast Min­ president of First Trust Company, brought dation’s fortunes. neapolis in 1899, the son of a tool-and-die some exciting news to a Distribution Com­ “I was active in finding a replacement maker. In 1922, he and a partner, Fred mittee that had been accustomed for years for Charlie Birt,” he recalled. “We inter­ Kemper, put up $5,000 to establish the first to approving a list of small grants and dis­ viewed and we read the resumes of several Chevrolet dealership in St. Paul. It was a tributing what money was available among possible candidates and I think I was the gamble. Fords, at that time, were dominat­ the requests on the list. one who was very vocal about the fact that, ing the market but the two men sold 300 Morton, then Distribution Committee of all the candidates we’d heard about, Paul cars during their first year in business and chairman, and Curley, a member of the seemed to be the one who had the best this encouraged Kriesel to buy out his part­ Trustees Committee, knew that major por­ qualifications. So we recommended him.” ner and go into business for himself. In tions of two estates would be coming into Verret was a native of Vermont who 1929, he established his own credit compa­ the Foundation—those of Chevrolet dealer had moved to St. Paul in 1970. A lobbyist ny, A and A Credit. Ten years later, he Ralph Kriesel and sugar broker Harold for several years, he had been employed by bought Downtown Chevrolet in Min­ Bend. At about the same time, Charles the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation in neapolis. Birt, who already had retired once, from 1972 to manage Minnesota Foundation. As it did for many other businessmen at the United Way, announced to the Com­ “The Kriesel and Bend estates made a that time, Kriesel’s greatest expansion mittee that he wanted to retire from the terrific impact on The Saint Paul Founda­ came after World War II when he acquired Foundation as well. tion,” Moore said. “They boosted the three more dealerships, Duluth-Superior “Clearly, a change in staffing and Foundation’s assets by close to $32 mil­ Chevrolet and West Arrow Chevrolet in leadership was needed,” Moore said. With lion. When that happens, you face the fact Duluth and Larson Chevrolet in Superior, a dramatic growth in assets looming, the that you have a completely different or­ Wisconsin. Next he developed and ex­ staffing issue was particularly critical, but ganization.” At the end of 1974, the Foun­ panded four more credit companies, in-

10 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY eluding Midway Loan and Consumer Harold Bend rose from financial meet its latest payroll. He persuaded Bend Credit in St. Paul, and he acquired control­ reverses to financial success. Bom on Stat­ to forget about the car and loan him the ling interest in eight banks, all but one of en Island, New York, in 1870, he was money for 3M instead. them in the Twin Cities and its suburbs. about seven when he moved to St. Paul Bend did so, but when time came for Kriesel was a stocky man with formidi- with his family. His father had lost his repayment, 3M lacked the cash and gave ble energy and an abiding interest in his money in a Wall Street crash and came him stock instead. During the course of his work. He oversaw his array of businesses west to start over. In 1895, Harold Bend long life, Bend’s 3M stock passed through from a modest upstairs office in the Mid­ helped found the St. Paul-based sugar 192 stock splits. At his death, he was one way Chevrolet building on University Av­ brokerage firm of Earle-Bend, later Bend, of the last of 3M’s early stockholders. enue. Southall-Sleepack, and he remained with Bend had many interests, including a “He ran everything from the phone,” an the firm for the next seventy years. passion for golf. This dated back to 1898 associate recalled, and he relayed instruc­ “People think Bend made his money in when he decided to forsake an active ca­ tions in memos, “always in red pencil,” to the sugar business,” Reuel Harmon said. reer as a member of the Minnesota Boat assistants in another room. Generous to his “He didn’t. He made it as an early investor Club, then a fashionable activity for St. associates, he eventually helped his in 3M.” Paul’s young men, in favor of golf. managers buy most of his businesses. His The story behind that seemingly chance With James J. Hill, Lucius P. Ordway, private life was scarcely ostentatious. He investment has embedded itself in the lore M. J. O’Shaughnessy and others, Bend had two children and, while he owned a of St. Paul’s business community. Some­ was a charter member of the Town and condominium in Florida, when in St. Paul time before World War I, Bend had Country Club. In 1904, he won the Trans- he and his wife lived in an apartment with­ amassed $5,000, intending to buy a car. Mississippi Amateur Golf championship. in a building he owned. He was noted for Pursuing this mission, he fell into conver­ In 1902 and 1904, he won the state amateur always driving a white Chevrolet. His only sation with Edgar Ober, freight agent for championships and in 1905 the Town and extravagance may have been his boats and the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Country Open. his cruiser in Florida. Omaha Railroad. Harold and Glen Bend had no children. It was Kriesel’s attorney, Carl Cum­ Ober himself had invested $5,000 in a After bequests to his wife, friends and rela­ mins, Jr., and his close financial advisor, young, straggling 3M, and at that precise tives, his will, drawn in 1964, left the resi­ Charles J. Curley, who encouraged moment he was wondering how 3M would due of his estate, designated the Glen and Kriesel to include the Foundation in his will, which he drew in 1964. Kriesel left part of the residue of his estate to establish a trust benefitting the Foundation, desig­ nating it the “Ralph R. Kriesel Founda­ tion.” Up to the middle 1970s, it was the second largest bequest in the Foundation’s history. In 1989, its book value was almost $12 million. Harold Bend also was a man of enor­ mous energy whose active engagement in community affairs almost to the end of his long life argues against compulsory retire­ ment. He became a director of First Na­ tional Bank in St. Paul when he was 52 and served for the next thirty-two years; he joined the Children’s Hospital board when he was 74. When he was 90, he still walked two-and-a-half miles to work every day and, when he was 96, he and his wife, Glen, then 82, played nine holes of golf daily throughout three-day weekends. Bend was distinctive among the Foun­ dation’s donors for two reasons. He gave the Foundation its largest donation to date, a bequest of more than $32 million, and he lived longer than any other donor to the Foundation. He died in 1974 at the age of Landmark Center, the former Old Federal Courts Building, now restored as a cultural 103. center with the help of The Saint Paul Foundation.

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 11 Harold Bend Foundation, with the First the salary of an executive director); and fortunes gave to the Foundation’s grant­ Trust Company for administration by The through helping to strengthen membership making capacity, and the urgent needs of Saint Paul Foundation. programs ($30,000 to the Citizens League a fast changing St. Paul community where “The Kriesel and Bend money really to enroll more members in St. Paul). agencies were beginning to see diminish­ made the Foundation and pushed it into the As the 1970s drew to a close, federal ing federal, state and local support would public eye,” Moore has said. “After that we regulations for portions of the Tax Act of all come to a head. The result, during the went out and marketed it. Paul Verret 1969 finally were issued and The Saint very crowded decade of the 1980s, would visited everyone who’d given money who Paul Foundation began the process of com­ be a marked growth in programs, assets was still alive. Our marketing plan includ­ pliance. One regulation required each and new community involvements for The ed making grants to meet important com­ community foundation to demonstrate Saint Paul Foundation. munity needs.” public support by raising one-tenth of its One of these grants ($750,000 in 1975) total income from new gifts. This regula­ WATERSHED went toward the restoration of Landmark tion has had a dramatic effect on the whole The growth The Saint Paul Foundation Center, the Old Federal Courts Building in community foundation movement. It set experienced after 1979 was driven by two downtown St. Paul, that was reopened as the stage for a more systematic, profes­ major factors. The first was the cumulative an arts and cultural center in 1978. Anoth­ sional approach to fund raising or develop­ boost of the Kriesel and Bend money er ($750,000 in 1976) helped the William ment. which made funds available almost im­ Mitchell College of Law acquire Our Lady In looking back over a decade or more, mediately to distribute as grants. The sec­ of Peace High School on Summit Avenue Verret sees the new interest in develop­ ond was the Public Support Test which and renovate it as the College’s new ment by community foundations as “the forced the Foundation, along with other quarters. ugly duckling that may become a swan,” as community foundations throughout the Still another ($15,000 in 1976) went to­ he expressed it in an article published by United States, to learn how to raise funds ward the restoration of the historic St. the Council on Foundations. The result of in new ways and to develop new kinds of Peter’s Church in Mendota. Work on the Public Support Test, he wrote, has funds. repairs to the Alexander Ramsey House been to force community foundations, Growth in grantmaking dollars created ($37,500 in 1977) continued. Also, in their staffs and boards, to learn how to the need for a full-time professional grant­ 1975, a grant of $750,000 helped finance raise money in new ways, including both making staff. In turn, the addition of this construction of the new Science Museum bequests and gifts from living donors, and staff gave the Foundation the ability to be­ of Minnesota. how to encourage new attitudes about de­ come actively involved in community is­ The impact of the Kriesel and Bend velopment. sues. Over the decade, the Foundation’s money was apparent not only in the major As The Saint Paul Foundation observed grantmaking program continued to grow grants which were of far greater size but its 40th anniversary in 1980, the need to in­ as additional funds were contributed to the even in the smaller grants which were larg­ itiate new development efforts, the Foundation. er than in earlier years. In 1977, $15,000 tremendous boost the Kriesel and Bend As the decade of the 1980s got under went to the Ramsey County Corrections Department to help finance a nature trail at Boys’ Totem Town; another $10,150 sup­ ported a year-round camping program for delinquent youth. The Jewish Family Ser­ vice of St. Paul received $6,660 to conduct a language training program for Russian immigrants, in cooperation with the Inter­ national Institute. With much more money available, the Foundation was moving away from providing small pieces of equipment to helping to build or renovate entire build­ ings ($25,000 to Jamestown at Stillwater to help with the construction of a boys’ dor­ mitory). It was beginning to help nonprofit agencies help themselves through support­ ing fund raising efforts ($8,350 to the Indi- anhead Council Boy Scouts of America, to finance a development officer position); New Connections, created in 1970 to meet the needs of chemically dependent adoles­ through adding key staff ($13,138 to The cents and their families in the Twin Cities area. The program provides group and fam­ Phoenix Residence, Inc., to help finance ily therapy, seminars, one-to-one counseling and after-care for six months.

12 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY dent, reflecting changes in the profession ing $17 million. Through Minnesota nationally. The Board of Director’s presi­ Foundation, The Saint Paul Foundation dent became its chair and the Foundation offers community foundation services to began to effectively operate in the East interested parties throughout the state of Metro area, including Ramsey, Washing­ Minnesota. ton and Dakota counties and beyond. “This opened another door,” Moore has Staffing of the Foundation evolved dur­ said. “Now The Saint Paul Foundation can ing the 1980s into teams of specialists in go to communities out in the state and talk five separate areas: Grantmaking, ad­ to them about creating community funds ministered by the Foundation’s vice presi­ within Minnesota Foundation.” dent and deputy director, with four pro­ In 1980, The Saint Paul Foundation be­ gram officers, several other positions and gan providing a full range of services to consultants; Financial Services, headed by other foundations and nonprofit corpora­ a controller, with an assistant controller tions. Many of these organizations repre­ and additional staff; a director of office ad­ sent deep and long-standing commitments ministration, with a support staff; a vice on the part of their founders to the St. Paul president of development, with additional community. Foundation clients include A shopping trip, despite icy weather. This full-time and part-time positions; and an the F. R. Bigelow Foundation, established is one of the services provided by Catho­ executive staff consisting of the president as a trust in 1934 by Frederic R. Bigelow, lic Social Services of Saint Paul for older board chairman and president of St. Paul persons living at home. and assistant to the president. In the early 1980s, in a revision of its Fire and Marine Insurance Company and way, The Saint Paul Foundation became, Mission Statement, the Foundation out­ a member of the Foundation’s first Distri­ in effect, its own person. The agreement lined two development goals: one was to bution Committee; the Mardag Founda­ with Minnesota Foundation for the pur­ raise permanent unrestricted and restrict­ tion, known first as the Ober Charitable chase of staffing services ended and The ed funds that will enable the Foundation to Foundation and created by Agnes Elmer Saint Paul Foundation’s own permanent, help the community meet future charitable Ober who died in 1969; the Friends of the full-time staff came on board in January of needs; the other, to raise funds that would Saint Paul Public Library, formed in 1945 1980. benefit other charities more directly. Both to strengthen public support for the li­ Because of the impact of the Bend and goals were to be achieved by helping brary; and the Hamm Foundation, estab­ Kriesel bequests, and those aspects of the donors meet their own individual charita­ lished in 1952 by the descendants of Theo­ 1969 Tax Reform Act affecting communi­ ble needs. dore Hamm, founder of the Hamm Brew­ ty foundations’ compliance with the Public The shift from a “bequests only” to a ing Company. In December, 1989, the Support Test and its mandate that they ac­ “bequests and living donors” program, to Hamm Foundation was merged into The tively raise money, the Foundation’s reli­ help meet the Public Support Test Saint Paul Foundation to become the ance solely on bequests for growth had to produced a marked increase in the Founda­ Hamm Foundation Fund of The Saint Paul change. Other Tax Act regulations re­ tion’s efforts to tell the community about Foundation. quired the Foundation to assume control the usefulness of giving through the Foun­ The Foundation also added three other over the investment performance of funds dation to the community. support organizations, the J. Paper and the held in trust for them by their corporate The community responded favorably. L. and A. F. Paper Foundations, both trustees. The net result of both was an in­ From 1978 to mid-1990, the Foundation created by descendants of Annie Paper crease in the role and function of the Distri­ received contributions of $148 million. who had helped set The Saint Paul Founda­ bution Committee. The law required that The rise in the number of donors to the tion in motion forty years earlier, and the the Committee take a more active role in Foundation is significant. Between 1978 Blomquist Family Foundation. For each of overseeing the Foundation’s investments and mid-1990,12,289 donors contributed its clients and support organizations, The and a more active role in obtaining public to the Foundation, but only 600 of these Saint Paul Foundation provides a range of support for the Foundation. predate 1980. By mid-1990, unrestricted services, from accounting to researching In 1984, the name of the Distribution funds had grown to $76.7 million; restrict­ grant applications to evaluating past grants Committee was changed to Board of ed funds to $16.7 million; designated to preparing minutes of and agendas for Directors to reflect this change. Directors’ funds to $20 million; and donor advisor Board and committee meetings. terms were limited to two consecutive funds to $33.2 million. That a community foundation, with all terms of five years each. A few years later, In 1984, Minnesota Foundation, creat­ its built-in flexibility, is designed to deal steps were taken to phase out appointments ed by the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation with change is vividly illustrated by the to the Board by the Foundation’s corporate in 1949, merged with The Saint Paul Foun­ grantmaking program of the Foundation. trustees. dation. As an affiliated corporation of The The capacity of The Saint Paul Foundation There were other changes. The execu­ Saint Paul Foundation, Minnesota Foun­ to operate such a program in response to tive director’s title was changed to presi­ dation has grown to forty-six funds, total­ the emerging needs of the 1980s is the re-

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 13 suit of continued growth in contributions. forecast the magnitude and impact of adult translated into eight languages and have at­ Gradually, the Foundation began to fo­ illiteracy both nationally and in Minneso­ tracted visitors to the Center from all over cus some of its grantmaking eiforts. ta. These reports coined the term “func­ the world. The philosophy underlying Through a series of special projects, the tionally illiterate” and estimated that one TLC has spread out to the public schools in Foundation was able to interact with the out of every five adults was unable to read, Burnsville, Hastings, South St. Paul and broader community to think out and act on write and/or figure well enough to hold the Robbinsdale and to the Learning Disability critical community issues. These special technical jobs towards which society was Association Clinic and the Loring projects were based on the early vision of turning. Nicollet-Bethlehem Community Center. the Board or other community representa­ The Foundation initiated the first col­ In addition, the United Way of the Saint tives which clearly identified an issue of laborative response to the issue of adult Paul Area has recently adopted the TLC importance. Each project was a proactive literacy in the region by seeking out ven­ model and is helping to expand literacy effort in which Foundation money and staff dors of literacy programs and inviting services to five of its agencies with the as­ time, often together with contributions them to a recognition breakfast to talk sistance of the United Way of America, from other donors, were applied, over about the importance of their work. From United Parcel Service, The Saint Paul time, to specific issues. this beginning, Literacy ’85 went on to de­ Foundation and other local funding Early projects assessed the needs of velop a comprehensive program to help sources. Southeast Asian emigrants to St. Paul; improve literacy services and to provide The Minority Student Needs Assess­ minority students; functionally illiterate assistance and support to literacy pro­ ment led to a $1.2 million Minority Stu­ adults; the Saint Paul Public Library; and grams established by both public and pri­ dent Education Program (MSEP). Com­ private secondary schools. In addition, a vate sectors. Fortunately, at precisely this pleted in 1986, MSEP was designed to hard look was taken at Pacific Rim eco­ point in time, the Dayton Hudson Founda­ help minority students improve their aca­ nomics and its relationship to the Upper tion and B. Dalton Bookseller began to demic skills and stay in school long enough Midwest. promote adult literacy and joined with the to complete a degree program. In the The study of the needs of Southeast Foundation as a strong working force. changing East Metro demographics, Asian refugees in the St. Paul area resulted Growing out of the work of Literacy projections indicate that by the end of the in the publication of several editions of ’85, a three-county program, were two century, more than one-third of the People in Flight, an analysis of refugee new ventures, Literacy Resources, Inc., a region’s residents will be people-of-color. numbers, their needs and the services Twin City-wide program, and the Min­ The K-12 enrollment of students-of-color available, which has been issued by the nesota Adult Literacy Campaign is now more than 40 percent in the St. Paul Foundation. This information provided (MALC), a statewide program aimed at Public Schools-and growing. background for the Foundation’s own reducing illiteracy by helping to develop Several programs initiated by MSEP grantmaking and is a resource for 200,000 “new” readers in ten years. continue to operate almost a decade after policymakers, researchers and other fun­ Again, in collaboration with the F. R. initial support. These include recruitment ders, including the refugee groups them­ Bigelow Foundation, an experimental pro­ and retention efforts at Inver Hills Com­ selves. gram, the Technology for Literacy Center munity College and Metropolitan State During the past ten years, the Founda­ (TLC), was established. It was designed to University; educational counseling at Lao tion has provided $810,332 in grants for find a new and better way to teach literacy Family Community of Minnesota; aca­ programs for Southeast Asian refugees, skills to adults by using computers and oth­ demic and cultural instruction of young who make up 95 percent of the refugees in er forms of technology as part of the in­ women through Un Primer Paso, in the East Metro region. Another $31,682 structional process. TLC was a four-year, cooperation with the College of St. Cather­ has gone to programs serving Cuban and $1.6 million program with a constellation ine and the St. Paul Public Schools; and Russian refugees. Hispanos en Minnesota of funders joining with the Foundation. use of a computer assisted curriculum at received Foundation support to develop TLC has since been turned over to the St. the Red School House. moderately priced housing for families Paul Public School system and continues Following completion of MSEP and who are being helped by the agency to to operate successfully in a shopping mall two years of continued evaluation and resettle in the St. Paul area. The issue of which allows easy and anonymous access study about the needs of people-of-color, emigres will continue to be a focus of the for its adult learners. including both the newcomers and those Foundation which is currently developing Ronald M. Hubbs, a former Founda­ who were born here, the Foundation in­ a plan to help improve the capacities of the tion Board member who helped initiate the itiated a program focused on cultural self-help groups organized within these program, remembered a visit to the diversity in the schools. Supporting Diver­ communities and the Southeast Asian Center: sity in Schools Through Family and Com­ leadership. “I asked a young man there what he was munity Involvement (SDS) is a five-year, The Literacy ’85 program was launched doing. He said, Tm learning to run a com­ $1.7 million program that focuses on in 1980 with the help of the F. R. Bigelow puter.’ What he really was doing was parental involvement in the child’s early Foundation, after reports from the Univer­ learning to read.” educational experiences which research sity of Minnesota and elsewhere began to Reports on the program have been indicates is the most influential factor in

14 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY school success. In addition, it links elementary schools, community centers and minority parents to help improve the school environment for students-of-color and thereby help them to achieve success. The Citizens Task Force for the Library was appointed by former mayor George Latimer in 1978-79 to study the St. Paul Public Library system, document its needs, estimate its strengths and weak­ nesses and plan for its future. The Founda­ tion staffed the Task Force and provided some of its funding. The result was that, as the library celebrated its 100th anniver­ sary in 1982, $2.25 million was raised by the Friends of the Saint Paul Public Li­ brary, with the assistance of the Founda­ tion, to help the library meet Task Force identified objectives and establish a grow­ ing permanent designated fund within the Foundation. Since that time, the Founda­ tion has maintained a strong interest in library-related matters, particularly through the Friends of the Saint Paul Pub­ lic Library and the Perry Jones Library Fund of Minnesota Foundation. A study of the needs of independent secondary schools in the Twin Cities area, in conjunction with the Northwest Area Foundation, plus a similar study by the Mardag Foundation of independent schools throughout the state, resulted in Students in the Chinese Language and Culture program in Highland Park Junior and the establishment of the Minnesota In­ Senior High Schools, St. Paul. dependent School Fund (MISF). MISF represented a coalition of all independent years of research regarding the trends of language programs in the United States. In secondary schools in Minnesota. Out of independent secondary education which addition, its work in development of cur­ this came two new three-year ventures for has been published and distributed widely. riculum design and workbook materials the Foundation: the Independent Secon­ Both ISSMDCP and CAISS were support­ has been shared with Chinese Language dary School Management and Develop­ ed by the Mardag Foundation and the F. R. Programs and teachers throughout the ment Consultation Project (ISSMDCP) Bigelow Foundation, in addition to The country. and the Continuing Assistance for In­ Saint Paul Foundation. These special projects and others have dependent Secondary Schools (CAISS). The Chinese Language and Culture required time for planning, for research­ The first-ISSMDCP-drew together Project was established by the F. R. ing, for implementation and for evalua­ for the first time the headmasters and key Bigelow Foundation, with the help of The tion. But they have broadened the Founda­ Board members of all independent schools Saint Paul Foundation, as a result of a tion’s perspective and involvement with in the state to discuss common problems study of the impact of Pacific Rim econom­ the community by drawing in outside con­ related to their management and develop­ ics on the educational needs of the St. Paul sultants and creating advisory committees ment capabilities and to find solutions. area which the F. R. Bigelow Foundation of people active in various fields to guide This project was so succcessful that CAISS had commissioned in 1984. Action based and advise Foundation staff. Since their was undertaken to further expand the on the study led to development of a Chi­ early years, the number of advisory com­ schools’ fund raising capacities, particu­ nese language and culture curriculum for mittees has more than tripled, expanding larly in building endowments and develop­ junior and senior high school students to from six committees with seventy-four ing deferred giving programs, and to im­ stimulate interest in China and train Chi­ members in 1980 to twenty-one commit­ prove curriculum design, including the nese language teachers for Minnesota. The tees with 139 members in 1989. role of computer-assisted instruction. In project has become one of the largest pub­ Other factors also helped to influence addition, these two projects resulted in ten lic junior and senior high school Chinese the Foundation’s perspective. As the 1970s

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 15 neared their end, the community and the foundation world in general were worried about impending federal and state cut­ backs in public support for philanthropy. This inaugurated a massive effort through­ out the foundation community to try to help plug the gaps left by the reduction or withdrawal of government funds. There was an increasing emphasis on social ser­ vice needs, minority populations and the disadvantaged. Related.to this was the need the Founda­ tion saw to help nonprofit agencies better manage their operations. The Manage­ ment Improvement Fund (MIF) was estab­ lished in 1985 and makes grants to to allow agencies to hire consultants to help analyze their management problems and to resolve them. Since its inception, MIF has made more than forty-four grants totaling more than $191,692. Money for this regranting purpose is raised from a wide variety of sources. A response by the Foundation to reduc­ tions in federal and state funding was the Community Sharing Fund (CSF). Russell Ewald, then president of the McKnight Foundation, suggested that The Saint Paul Foundation create this fund prior to a meeting of the Minnesota Council oh Foundations, in 1980. Ewald said the McKnight Foundation would give The Saint Paul Foundation $25,000 a year, for three years, to do so. The Community Sharing Fund acts as a “last resort” way to deliver emergency help vocates received $75 to help a woman with $872,158. Like most of the Foundation’s to people and organizations with no other four children whose check has been stolen. special projects, CSF raises a major por­ place to turn. An advisory committee was The American Indian Center was given tion of its operating funds from other formed and agencies throughout the East $160 to buy turkeys for Thanksgiving sources and now has broadened its finan­ Metro area which worked with the desper­ baskets and the American Refugee Com­ cial support to include thirty-eight differ­ ately poor were notified about the Fund. mittee $2,000 for emergency operating ex­ ent corporations, community foundations During its first year, ninety-five grants penses for its local warehouse program. and individuals. totaling $59,958 were made, mainly to Appearing continually on the lists of In 1981, when Ramsey County’s Wel­ Ramsey County residents with low in­ CSF grants were funds paid out to help fare Department was forced to remove comes. Seventy percent were made to with rent deposits, or to pay back rent, or 1,000 people from its General Assistance women with yearly incomes below for emergency living expenses. This un­ roles, it was an indication of deepening $7,000. Grants were small: an average of covered a major problem for the disadvan­ problems in human services. Paul Verret $250 to individuals and $1,350 to agencies taged that emerged early in the Fund’s ex­ has a vivid recollection of a miserably cold which were, for the most part, serving low perience: housing and housing related winter in the early 1980s, a dismaying eco­ income minority people. needs, such as paying utility bills. As a re­ nomic recession, and people, desperate for The University Episcopal Center sult, the Community Sharing Fund also jobs in the face of growing unemployment, received $500 to help a student pay for helped to support the Emergency Rent As­ turning for help to agencies that lacked the child care; $2,000 went to Enablers, Inc., sistance Program of Emergency Fund Ser­ money to help them. Ramsey County to help with emergency operating ex­ vice, Inc. officials asked the Foundation to pay for a penses. The Summit-University Crime Still in existence, the CSF makes grants Blue Ribbon Needs Assessment Commis­ Prevention Council received $500 for its totaling about $100,000 a year. In its first sion to study the problem and what to do Victim Assistance Program; Women’s Ad­ ten years it awarded 2,362 grants totaling about it. Leonard Wilkening, then presi-

16 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY dent of the Amherst H. Wilder Founda­ a three-year, $60,000 grant made by The F. R. Bigelow Foundation had completed tion, chaired the Commission. Saint Paul Foundation through the Wilder a year earlier. Contributions from The Two recommendations emerged. The Foundation helped support the Ramsey Saint Paul Foundation, Cowles Media first, the need for private and public fun­ County Needs Assessment Commission Foundation, First Bank System Founda­ ders to continue to talk to each other, Study. This study initiated a community­ tion, the F. R. Bigelow Foundation and the resulted in the formation of the Human De­ wide discussion of long-term issues affect­ Mardag Foundation helped to support velopment Action Coalition (HuDAC), an ing low income groups. evaluation research undertaken by in­ organization that continues today. The The Community Reinvestment Fund is dividual agencies and researchers. Thir­ second recommendation was that some­ another special project and is linked with teen projects were funded, totaling more thing needed to be done immediately to jolt the Foundation’s involvement in St. Paul’s than $250,000. The projects focused on the system into responding to the critical District Heating program. This program different aspects of family sexual abuse, demands desperate people were making. originated with former mayor George the value of different treatment methodolo­ The Commission took the first step in rais­ Latimer who needed help because he knew gies and the effects of family sexual abuse ing funds to deal with immediate needs. he had to find funds to help downtown on family relationships. Grants were made In 1983, The Saint Paul Foundation buildings owned by nonprofit agencies to Children’s Hospital, the Family Vio­ agreed to administer the program as the hook up with the new system. The Saint lence Intervention Project, Genesis II for Emergency Care Fund. It was modeled af­ Paul Foundation provided the money for a Women and the University of Minnesota ter the Community Sharing Fund, with an study of all the buildings owned by non­ School of Social Work, among others. A Advisory Committee of its own to set profit agencies, to determine their condi­ book will be published in 1990 which will guidelines and make recommendations on tion and whether or not they could be feature the findings of the research under­ grants. As an interim response to the crises retrofitted for greater energy efficiency taken by the project and will discuss other people were facing in their need for shel­ and conversion to District Heating. The trends throughout the country. ter, food and clothing, the Emergency report indicated that the city needed to A Chemical Dependency Adolescent Care Fund was a community-wide effort. have the nonprofit-owned buildings in­ Assessment Project was initiated in the With the help of the Amherst H. Wilder cluded to make the system work but that early 1980s, with funding from the North­ and 3M Foundations, some 1,400 other the costs to the nonprofits would be west Area Foundation, to design and test contributors, including The St. Paul Com­ prohibitive-close to $3.2 million. an instrument to measure the emotional, panies, Inc., First Bank System, the The answer to the problem of cost was intellectual and mental status of young Mardag and Northwest Area Foundations the Community Reinvestment Fund. The people before and after residential chemi­ and the state of Minnesota, donated almost Foundation raised enough money from cal dependency treatment and to determine $1 million to regrant to agencies dealing eight donors to support the loan program. if the treatment was making a difference in with emergencies arising from the perva­ Loans to nonprofits have been going out the youngsters’ lives. The Saint Paul Foun­ sive unemployment. from the Community Reinvestment Fund dation administered the project, with the Emergency support went to the St. Paul since May 1, 1984, and as they are repaid assistance of a nine-member Advisory Y.W.C.A. for its shelter for battered the money goes back to the fund to be Committee of experts in the field. The in­ women; to the St. Paul American Indian loaned out again if or when District Heat­ strument was completed and its use is now Center for its food shelf; and to Catholic ing expands beyond the downtown area. mandatory in three states which base third- Charities of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul Other issues which began to emerge party payments on its results. The Founda­ and Minneapolis for Mary Hall, a tem­ about this time included AIDS, homeless­ tion receives royalties on the sale of the in­ porary shelter for the homeless. By mid- ness, chemical abuse, women’s issues, in- strument and has established a fund res­ 1984, the initial fund was exhausted and, trafamilial sexual abuse, family violence tricted for programs to benefit this field. after an evaluation by outside experts, the and aging, to name just a few. In response In 1988, as concern over the AIDS epi­ United Way of the Saint Paul Area took to these issues and to requests for hinds, demic continued to mount, The Saint Paul over the program, although The Saint Paul the Foundation continued to make grants Foundation made a $100,000 grant to the Foundation continued to contribute money to individual agencies such as the Min­ Minnesota AIDS Funding Consortium to it. nesota Coalition for Battered Women (MAFC), a collaborative program of The Other emergency programs were also ($5,000); Women’s Economic Develop­ Saint Paul and Minneapolis Foundations. in place by that time. A $250,000 gift to ment Corporation ($10,000); Saint Paul The first major joint project of the two The Saint Paul Foundation by the Wilder Intervention Project, Inc., ($10,000); Pro­ foundations, MAFC is devoted to Foundation established the Amherst H. ject for Pride in Living ($20,000); Helping HIV/AIDS prevention, education and Wilder Foundation Loan Fund. Its pur­ Hand Health Center, Inc. ($15,000); and care. It was established in response to a pose was to make loans to health and wel­ Minneapolis/St. Paul Housing Fund challenge grant from The Ford Foundation fare agencies with cash flow problems due ($300,000). The Foundation also initiated which offered to match, on a dollar-for- to public funding cutbacks. some programs related to these issues. dollar basis, $500,000 raised by each of Early in the 1980s, the Foundation In 1985, the Foundation initiated a helped the community take the long view three-year project on Family Sexual in planning for its welfare needs. In 1984, Abuse, based on a study of the problem the The Foundation to page 28

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 17 The Foundation from page 1 7 nine community foundations throughout the country. Together, The Saint Paul and Min­ neapolis Foundations have raised $773,100 locally, making more than $1.27 million available for regranting purposes. Since August, 1989, fifty-four grants, totaling $1.23 million, have been ap­ proved by an Advisory Committee made up of business and community leaders, funders, educators, caregivers, people-of- color and persons with AIDS. The Foun­ dations will continue their collaborative work on this issue, based on a second chal­ lenge grant from The Ford Foundation, and will seek ways to help improve the ca­ pacities of service providers and to involve the business and funding community more deeply in this issue. Traditionally, most of the money for charity has come from private sources. “In the early years of this century,” J. Neil Morton has observed, “charity was Lady Bountiful dispensing Thanksgiving baskets to the worthy poor, but as the government stepped into the business of direct relief after the Depression, commu­ nities like St. Paul were able to rethink how they could best invest their charitable funds.” In fact, the disaster of the Depression turned public policy toward public support for welfare but the joining together of pri­ vate forces to confront the problems of the 1980s indicates a continuing trend toward more public and private partnerships. Despite the new challenges of the past The seventy-five-year-old Como Conservatory, a much-loved Twin Cities landmark, decade, the need to help improve the quali­ now undergoing major restoration with Foundation help. ty of life in the St. Paul region was not neglected. A number of major and highly alone. million from corporations and the visible grants in the humanities were made The Como Conservatory project dealt Metropolitan Council’s Park and Recrea­ during the past ten years and more. Land­ with a city landmark that had fallen upon tion funds, but another $1.6 million was mark Center received $705,408 for its hard times. The Conservatory, built in needed. The Saint Paul Foundation creat­ restoration as a cultural center; in 1983 and 1915 as one of several “catalogue” conser­ ed the Como Conservatory Restoration 1984 more than $12 million in designated vatories erected around the country before Fund, with a goal of $1.7 million. The goal funds was transferred from the Foundation World War I, became, among many other was reached with the contributions of to the Ordway Music Theatre for construc­ things, a “poor man’s Florida,” a place peo­ more than 20,000 people. Currently, the tion and operating money. ple who couldn’t afford a winter trip to Foundation is supporting efforts to deter­ In 1983, $750,000 went to Minnesota Florida could take their ailing children and mine the best way to continue to provide Public Radio as a matching grant for expose them to the humidity, One of the citizen support for the Conservatory. MPR’s capital drive to renovate its new best known and loved among Twin Cities’ The Foundation has always divided its headquarters. In 1985, the Foundation landmarks, it has also been the scene of dollars among welfare, health, education, made major commitments to Saint Paul countless weddings and many flower conservation and humanities programs but Public Library projects. Over the years shows, but the building, which cost around in the past decade there has been a shift in major grants have gone to the Science $58,000 to build, was deteriorating. grantmaking as new charitable needs were Museum of Minnesota-$128,370 in 1980 The city of St. Paul raised around $3 created. In die eleven years between 1978

28 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY and 1989 the total amount distributed in the earliest. In the early 1980s, the Foun­ tion continues the role played by Louis grants tripled (from $2.29 million to $8.95 dation had seven such funds with a market Headley in earlier times when he also was million) and so did the number of grants value of around $700,000. By mid-1990, active in the National Council on Commu­ awarded (from 403 in 1978 to 1,300 in the Foundation had established forty-six nity Foundations. 1989). In 1978, forty-four grants totaling designated funds, worth $19.5 million. With the 1989 market value of The $910,827, almost 40 percent of the grant One of the most recently established Saint Paul Foundation’s funds totaling dollars, went to welfare programs. In designated funds is the Hamm Foundation more than $153.6 million, the Foundation 1989, 747 grants totaling almost $4 mil­ Fund was created in 1989, when the ranks ninth among the 300 community lion, still close to 45 percent, went to wel­ Hamm Foundation was merged into the foundations nationwide. By mid-1990, the fare programs. Saint Paul Foundation and the Hamm Foundation’s funds had increased to $175 Projects in the field of health increased Foundation’s $9.5 million endowment million. to 13 percent of the total grant dollars transferred to the new Hamm Foundation The flexibility built into the community ($84,617 in 1978, compared with Fund of The Saint Paul Foundation. The foundation concept is clearly demonstrat­ $8,954,284 in 1989). In 1978, $204,877 Hamm Foundation has supported three ed by The Saint Paul Foundation’s own his­ (9 percent of the grant dollars) went to edu­ programs: the Communication Center of tory . The money that came from Annie Pa­ cation but by 1989 the percentage had State Services for the Blind; the Friends of per so long ago, from Alice Andrews and more than doubled ($1.89 million, or 21 the Communication Center and the Hamm the Culvers, from Ralph Kriesel and percent). In 1978, the over $1 million Memorial Psychiatric Clinic. Harold Bend more recently is now being awarded to humanities projects was close Collaboration is an important aspect of used to help deal with problems unheard of to half (47.5 percent) of the total grant dol­ the foundation world today. This is clear or unacknowledged in their lifetimes- lars, due in part to major grants to the Ord- from The Saint Paul Foundation’s annual minority education, refugee resettlement, way Music Theatre. In 1989, with $1.24 reports where lists of contributors to its AIDS, battered women. million awarded in humanities grants, it programs are replete with references to In its fiftieth year, the public forums the dropped to 13.9 percent of the total dol­ other foundations, private and corporate, Foundation is conducting reflect these con­ lars, although the number of grants that to thousands of donors and to state, county cerns and some of the priorities on the were approved rose from twenty-two to and city money. Foundation’s agenda for the 1990s-adult 137. Over the span of the past twenty-five literacy, neighborhoods, family sexual The tripling of dollars awarded in years, the grantmaking process has ma­ abuse, independent secondary schools, grants over the past decade was due to far tured. In the early days of the Foundation’s Southeast Asian refugees, cultural diversi­ more than the Kriesel and Bend bequests of history, grants were smaller and the proc­ ty. The Public Support Test will continue the 1970s. The Foundation has been ac­ ess simpler. Often, now, a grant is not a to be a challenge, as will the community tively and creatively seeking additional single contribution for mounting an exhibit problems that will confront the Foundation funds. Both grantmaking and fundraising or buying a computer, but may involve, in­ during the final decade of this century. have helped the Foundation become part of stead, a multi-year project that is exhaus­ Looking back over the years, Frederick a vibrant Twin Cities foundation commu­ tively studied by teams of experts before it T. Weyerhaeuser, who now chairs the nity. moves forward, as was done in launching Foundation’s Board of Directors, says: “To be an average foundation in this the Minority Student Education Program, “We all owe a debt of gratitude to those community is to operate with great pro­ Supporting Diversity in Schools, the two people who have made the Foundation ficiency,” Verret has said. Standards for Independent Secondary Schools projects, what it is today. More than any other of corporate and private philanthropy are and die Family Sexual Abuse and Chinese their many contributions, they have helped high in Minnesota and cutbacks in public Language programs. the Foundation fulfill its mission of serving funding have made it imperative that pri­ A grant program also may be carefully the people of the St. Paul area by ad­ vate dollars be spent better. evaluated by another team of experts to ministering the funds it receives, making The development of donor advisor document the lessons learned. The Foun­ grants that respond to community needs funds represents a major shift in fundrais­ dation’s focus on evaluation of special and providing services that help shape the ing strategies and in services provided for projects, its requirement that all grantees community’s well-being. The pace of the community by community founda­ prepare an evaluation plan and its internal change within the Foundation during the tions. Donor advisor funds give donors the evaluation of grantmaking procedures past fifty years has been astonishing, but of opportunity to recommend, during their have attracted nationwide attention. one thing we can be certain-that pace is lifetimes, where income from their contri­ The Saint Paul Foundation also has par­ likely to continue to accelerate as we move butions will go. Between 1979 and 1990, ticipated in the development of a strong na­ through our next fifty years.” The Saint Paul Foundation established tional leadership program for community ninety-six donor advisor funds, worth $33 foundations. For several years, Paul Ver­ million. ret chaired the Committee on Community Virginia Brainard Kunz, executive direc­ Designated funds are not new to the Foundations and then the Management tor of the Ramsey County Historical Socie­ Foundation. The Society for the Relief of Committee for the National Agenda for ty from 1973 to 1989, is editor o/Ramsey the Poor Fund, created in 1961, was one of Community Foundations. This participa­ County History.

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 29 The Theodore Hamm mansion at 671 Greenbrier Avenue, as it looked around 1900. See page 3.

RAMSEY COUNTY- HISTORICAL-SOCIETY

Published by the Ramsey County Historical Society 323 Landmark Center 75 West Fifth Street Saint Paul, Minnesota 55102