Irvine Park in 1854: Its Homes and the People Who Once Lived There See article on page 20 Spring, 2004 Volume 39, Number 1 ‘High and Dry on a Sandstone Cliff’ St. Paul and the Year of the and

Rock Island’s Great Railroad }Excursion —Page 4

This postcard dated 1909 shows St. Paul’s Lower Landing where the Great Railroad Excursion came ashore 150 years ago. From historian Robert J. Stumm’s collection and used with his permission. See articles beginning on page 4 and page 20. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Executive Director Priscilla Farnham Editor Virginia Brainard Kunz

RAMSEY COUNTY Volume 39, Number 1 Spring, 2004 HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS James A. Russell THE MISSION STATEMENT OF THE RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Chair ADOPTED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS IN JULY 2OO3: Marlene Marschall The Ramsey County Historical Society shall discover, collect, President George A. Mairs preserve and interpret the history of the county for the general public, First Vice President recreate the historical context in which we live and work, and make W. Andrew Boss available the historical resources of the county. The Society’s major Second Vice President Judith Frost Lewis responsibility is its stewardship over this history. Secretary J. Scott Hutton Treasurer

Duke Addicks, Charles L. Bathke, W. An­ CONTENTS drew Boss, Norlin Boyum, Joseph Camp­ 3 Letters bell, Norbert Conzemius, Anne Cowie, Charlton Dietz, Charlotte H. Drake, Joanne 4 ‘High and Dry on a Sandstone Cliff’ A. Englund, Robert F. Garland, Howard St. Paul and the Year of the Great Railroad Excursion Guthmann, Joan Higinbotham, Scott Hut­ ton, Judith Frost Lewis, John M. Lindley, Steve Trimble George A. Mairs, Marlene Marschall, Laurie Murphy, Richard Nicholson, Marla Ordway, 20 Irvine Park in 1854: Its Homes and the Marvin J. Pertzik, Penny Harris Reynen, People Who Lived There 150 Years Ago David Thune, Glenn Wiessner, Richard Wil- hoit, Laurie Zenner, Ronald J. Zweber. Robert J. Stumm

Richard T. Murphy, Sr. 24 A Quilt and a Diary: The Story of the Little Girl Director Emeritus Who Rode an Orphan Train to a New Home EDITORIAL BOARD Ann Zemke John M. Lindley, chair, James B. Bell, Thomas 27 Growing Up in St. Paul H. Boyd, Mark Eisenschenk, Tom Kelley, Laurie Murphy, Richard H. Nicholson, Paul D. Nelson, Mechanic Arts—An Imposing ‘Melting Pot’ David Riehle, C. Richard Slade, Steve Trimble, High School that Drew Minorities Together Mary Lethert Wingerd. Bernice Fisher HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD 30 Books Elmer L. Andersen, Olivia I. Dodge, Charlton Dietz, William Finney, William Fallon, Robert S. Hess, D. W. “Don” Larson, Publication of Ramsey County History is supported in part by a gift from George Latimer, Joseph S. Micallef, Robert Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen in memory of Henry H. Cowie, Jr. Mirick, Marvin J. Pertzik, James Reagan, and by a contribution from the late Reuel D. Harmon Rosalie E. Wahl, Donald D. Wozniak. RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS A Message from the Editorial Board Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt, chairman Commissioner Susan Haigh amsey Country Historical Society is celebrating two major events this spring. The first Commissioner Tony Bennett Ris the sesquicentennial of the Great Railroad Excursion in June of 1854 that heralded the Commissioner Rafael Ortega completion of the railroad to the at Rock Island, , and the opening up of Commissioner Janice Rettman the trans-Mississippi west to settlement. In the lead article in this issue, historian Steve Trimble Commissioner Jan Wiessner deftly reports what the historical record tells us about St. Paul in 1854. Then Robert Stumm, an David Twa, manager, Ramsey County avid collector of historic postcards, takes us on a tour of present-day homes in Irvine Park that Ramsey County History is published quarterly have their origins in the era of the Grand Excursion and explains what those buildings tell us by the Ramsey County Historical Society, about the people who lived in them. 323 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, St. This issue of Ramsey County History completes forty years of unbroken publication. Begun Paul, Minn. 55102 (651-222-0701). Printed in in 1964 under the editorship of its founder, Virginia Brainard Kunz, our magazine has won two U.S.A. Copyright, 2004, Ramsey County His­ awards for excellence from the American Association for State and Local History. Ramsey torical Society. ISSN Number 0485-9758. A ll County History has also demonstrated that local history, especially when it concerns the history rights reserved. No part of this publication of Ramsey County and St. Paul, can be a rich source of materials for authors, historians, and read­ may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced ers. Given the pleasure and enlightenment that this magazine has provided to all who have read without written permission from the pub­ it over the years, we thank the many authors who have contributed the fruits of their research and lish e r. The Society assumes no responsibility for statements made by contributors. Fax 651- writing to RCHS. In addition Virginia Kunz deserves special thanks for her sterling editorship of 223-8539; e-mail address [email protected].; this history magazine for the past forty years. web site address www.rchs.com John Lindley, Chair, Editorial Board

2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Irvine Park in 1854: Its Homes and the People Who Once Lived There 150 Years Ago

Robert J. Stumm

The Grand Excursion of 2004 com­ viving structure, the memorates one of the seminal events in the Symonds house. Situated history of St. Paul. Like any important an­ at the eastern edge of niversary, it evokes an ingrained longing to the park, this deceptively reconnect with the past. This longing is not large frame structure was surprising in a city that takes great pride in built in 1850 by Charles its historic architecture. The most tangible Symonds on a site on link remaining that we have to that long- Ryan, between Chestnut ago odyssey, (known in its time and Eagle streets, and fac­ as the Great Railroad Excursion), is the ing the Mississippi River. remarkable collection of pioneer homes An enterprising Scottish that in 1854 clustered around Irvine Park immigrant skilled in Shown on its original setting in this photo from an 1860s pan­ and are still standing. Others might exist, the art of scale-making, orama, Charles Symond’s house (center) then faced the river. but the houses in the Irvine Park district Symonds was St. Paul’s A ll images with this article are from the Historical are representative of a part of St. Paul first ice dealer. He sold Society collections. that might well have been seen by those this house in 1883 and excursionists who set foot at the Lower three decades later it was Steamboat Landing a century-and-a-half moved to its present site. ago. Carefully preserved, they exist today Its style is vernacular with elements of the a uniquely hybrid structure that has re­ as the core of the Irvine Park National His­ Federal style. Resting on a stone founda­ tained much of its architectural integrity. toric District, the city’s first such historic tion, this two-story house has a three-bay district, which was created in 1973. façade, a gabled roof, an end-wall porch, Stilwell-Hankey House The Irvine Park neighborhood actu­ and an entrance flanked by sidelights. As 310 Sherman Street ally dates from 1849, the year Minnesota part of the renaissance of the Irvine Park Next is the Stilwell-Hankey House with became a territory when pioneers John district, the house was meticulously re­ a decidedly different story. Located at the Irvine and Henry Rice donated land for stored and modernized in the mid-1970s west end of the neighborhood and now parks now named for them. At the time, the and, like many of the larger houses in this the only home on its block, this house fledgling community had two steamboat district, recast as a duplex. was built in 1853 by Hiram Stilwell, landings, one at the foot of Jackson Street a master carpenter. It was originally a in what is now Lowertown in downtown The Wright-Pendergast petite Italianate residence, but its ap­ St. Paul and known variously as the Lower House pearance was drastically altered in 1885 Landing or Lambert’s Landing. The other 223 Walnut Street by its second owner, Frank Hankey, who steamboat landing, upriver at the foot of Next on a tour of Irvine Park is the installed a front bay and built a large rear Chestnut Street near present-day Seven Wright-Pendergast House sitting majesti­ addition. After a succession of owners, Comers, was known as the Upper Landing. cally on the bluff overlooking the river. it was enlarged again in 1915 and it be­ The neighborhood was then called Upper The original version of the house was built came, over the passage of time, a rental Town and was clustered around its own in 1851 by Isaac P. Wright, a carpenter who property. Restored in the 1980s to its business and residential district. dabbled in local politics. It was at the time present pristine condition, the Stilwell- This article, arranged as a tour of the an ordinary box-like structure devoid of Hankey house features a beautifully Irvine Park neighborhood, describes its ornamentation, and Wright’s descendants crafted enclosed porch, a low pitched hip early homes, their owners, and their pas­ lived there until 1906 when James Joseph roof, and an interior distinguished by its sage through the past 100 years. Pendergast purchased it. He added a large handmade hardwood flooring. front with fluted columns that transformed The Symonds House the small house into a modestly-scaled, The Matheis House 234 Ryan Avenue southern-style mansion. Still owned today 307 Walnut Street The tour begins at the city’s oldest sur­ by a Pendergast descendant, the house is One block to the east is a pioneer house

20 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY The Wright-Prendergast house, a family home for most of its life.

that has been transformed into a grand by another one of those skilled craftsmen build a sizeable addition to the rear of the Victorian lady. Like other 1854 houses who settled in the growing community. house. Gradually losing its middle-class still standing in St. Paul, this structure Alonzo Eaton, a highly re-garded carpen­ status but still scrupulously maintained, originally was a plain Greek Revival ter, built this house in 1853 and it always the house finally was converted to rental house built in 1853 by Charles Fillmore, has been a single family dwelling. From property in the 1920s. the brother of President Millard Fillmore. 1882 to 1922, it was owned by James Rescued, thanks to an infusion of gov­ Its fourth owner, John Matheis, apparently Myler, proprietor of a nearby hotel. ernment money in 1976, the house was wanting a more contemporary look for his In 1881, local preservationists lobbyed transplanted to its present location and home, added in 1874 an ornate three-story intensely to save this landmark. The house faithfully restored. The house has floor- tower and an Italianate-style porch. was placed on skids and moved half-a- to-ceiling windows on the first floor, a By the 1930s the house had fallen prey mile to its current location. Remarkably three-bay façade, crown molding, and an to the malaise of the surrounding neigh­ intact and exuding a great deal of charm, interior chimney. borhood and became a distressed prop­ the Eaton-Mylar house is a compact, two- erty in the guise of an apartment build­ story brick structure with a low pitched Rodney Parker House ing. Rescued from the abyss in 1980, roof surmounted by an unusually tall set 30 Irvine Park the house was painstakingly restored as of chimneys, lintel window heads and a Next door, the Rodney Parker House is a a six-unit condominium, indicating the period-style end porch. beautifully crafted example of Greek Re­ intrinsic merit of historic preservation. vival architecture. A native of New Hamp­ The Simpson-Wood House shire and manager of the American House Eaton-Myler House 32 Irvine Park Hotel at Seven Comers, Parker built this 53 Irvine Park Down the street the Simpson-Wood home in 1852 and lived there as a renter. Three 1850s houses now are part of house with its brick façade presents a However, the house is often associated in­ the square surrounding Irvine Park. The similar architectural style. It once stood stead with William R. Marshall who lived Eaton-Myler House, a handsome house one block north on Sherman Street and there in the late 1870s. Marshall was a pio­ built in the Federal, style once stood on the was built in 1853 by James Hervey neer newspaper publisher, a dairy farmer, comer of Forbes and West Seventh Street. Simpson, a prominent civil engineer. a banker, and the governor of Minnesota Like so many of St. Paul’s handsome, pre- Eleven years later, it was purchased by from 1866 to 1870. Civil War structures, this house was built Charles Wood, a railroad agent, who At the end of the nineteenth century,

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 21 The Eaton-Myler house on the move. the house was owned by another well- house, the Humphrey-Willis house is Abigail Langford Marshall, whose husband, William R. Marshall, was governor of Min­ known pioneer, Joseph L. Forepaugh, a something of an oddity. The original por­ nesota from 1866 to 1870. wealthy and influential businessman. As tion of this clapboard frame structure was the neighborhood slipped into decline, built in 1851 by James K. Humphrey, a this house became a decaying rental prop­ lawyer and first clerk of court for Ramsey erty that eventually was subdivided into a County. In 1853 Charles L. Willis bought attached to the north façade of the house four-plex. After a long period of neglect, the house and in 1886 built a rather incon­ to make it more liveable. Long relegated in the 1970s it was structurally restored gruous two-story addition to Humphrey’s to an anonymous existence, it was redis­ piece-by-piece to its original mint condi­ diminuative one-story house. The house covered by an architectural historian who tion. Richly detailed, the Parker House is was vacated and sold by the Willis family restored the interior and is the present a two-story white frame structure with in 1903 and, rather predictably, it became owner. The house is simple and unspoiled, a pediment roof, an entrance flanked by a ragged-looking rental property. Luck­ a one-and-a-half story Greek Revival sidelights, a two-story porch, and a mag­ ily, it managed to defy the odds, and after composition with a gabled hip roof, stone nificent walnut staircase. years of bandaid repairs, it was restored lintels, and two-bay façade. in the 1970s, a process that included the Humphrey-Willis House addition of a new porch. Sitting on a 282 Harrison Street 240 Ryan limestone foundation, the house is an un­ This is a mammoth Greek Revival house On a comer lot next to the Symonds pretentious pioneer landmark featuring a hipped roof, two interior chimneys, and a rectangular transom over the door.

Avery Adams House 454 North Smith Avenue Lying outside the Irvine Park neighbor­ hood but still within the National Historic District are two small houses that date from 1854. A tiny brick cottage stands just down the street from a modem archi­ tectural marvel, the Smith Avenue High Bridge. Designed to serve as the kitchen wing of a house that never was completed, this house was built in 1854 by Avery Ward Adams, a great nephew of President John Quincy Adams. It was occupied by a succession of renters from an early date until 1874 when a one-story addition was James Hervey Simpson in 1857. Charles L. Willis

22 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY built in 1853 by an unidentified Upper rival, the Lowertown neighborhood, to County; St. Paul: Ramsey County Historical Soci­ Town resident. An elongated composi­ extinction. Just as important is that, while ety and the St. Paul Heritage Preservation Commis­ sion, 1983, Susan W. Granger and Patricia Murphy. tion, the house is the end product of sev­ initially a fashionable address, it never eral late nineteenth additions that accom­ attracted the showplace mansions which Interview with Jim Sazevich. modated more renters. There are gaps in would have eliminated, by their sheer size, UJ the historic record, but we do know that the neighborhood’s pioneer homes. COCHRAN & W ALSH, in the 1880s the upstairs wing was home CO to an artist’s loft. Benefiting from the Robert J. Stumm is a 1970 graduate of Real Estate Agents o rebirth of the surrounding neighborhood, the University of Minnesota where he X NEGOTIATORS OF MORTGAGE LOANS, this structure was restored and modern­ majored in history. A postcard collector, n ir.i h a s h a srni:i:r. ized in the 1990s and is now an apartment he is the author of A Postcard Journey C 3 - s rr . i »a i i* - - >n>>. < building featuring a three-bay façade, an along the Upper Mississippi and A Post­ JOHN MATHEIS. entrance flanked by sidelights, and dis­ card Journey back to Old St. Louis at the 5 5 - tinctive end gables. 1904 World’s Fair. CARPET HOUSE, WHOLESALE AND RETAIL. * É * f§ Sources 11 East Third Street. C 9 | The OLDEST CARPET HOUSE in the State. Novelties in Wall Papers. Pecsrativo Upk:ls:c:crs. A Brief History o f the Irvine Park District: The Peo­ U £ ’f A tour of the historic Irvine Park ple and Architecture o f an Extraordinary Neighbor­ o * i m ? ™ v -if * hood: The Historic Irvine Park Association, 1906. district would beg an obvious question: N orth-W estern Fuel Co. CCI How did these pioneer structures that are Historic Homes of Saint Paul’s Uppertown & OuE COAL, COKE & PIG- IR O N , Irvine Park: The Preservation Alliance & the His­ concentrated in this one district manage to .Vo. // » /•;. Third Street. St. Taut. Minn. escape the unstoppable advance of urban toric Irvine Park Association. UJ 2 j DISTRIBUTING DOCKS at MILWAUKEE 4 DULUTH. progress? Central to this issue is that in the A History o f the City o f Saint Paul Paul to1875: O ï E. N. SAUNDERS, Supt. and Cen’l Salesman. nineteenth century, Irvine Park was spared J. Fletcher Williams, reprint edition, Minnesota the intrusion of the large-scale commer­ Historical Society, 1983. An ad for John Matheis’ “Carpet House.” cial development that doomed its one-time Historic Sites Survey of St. Paul and Ramsey

1 ' »W aWJ ä V. » S S lJ s m r fK ISlliliPiitPii1 ìBHBB!

The Stilwell-Hankey house as It looked about 1905 before remodeling.

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 23 ss p

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Tkis ìs io Certifct/uit__ entitled-i o ¿*es s~ ^Shares o f $ IÛO each in the Capitals Stock o f me Chicaóo amliioel^fr bid RailBoad Company. The sa id Stock is trans finable only on the H ooh\ *'sazd Company a t the ^office o f th eir Treasurer in the CituofA/ewIbrfr, or \ any D uns/elLpen/v established fa the Company, a l the pleasure o fthe hula r hp>lhe said ¿ds.:. hi in person , or bp 'fdd>4ttorney on the s u r r e n d e r o f this Chrtificate Irv W itness Wlj j’eo f th e s a id Company have caused th is Certi/icate. to be sipned òvih\P/rsi£fa \ and Treasure/'. dD aleilatf^l Vtejer office in the Cfa o f S d lW im itK , this, <

T ltK A X U R K K

Stock certificate for five shares at $100 par value, each issued in 1853 by the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad Co., organizer of the 1854 Great Railroad Excursion. The certificate is signed by John B. Jervis, the railroad’s president, and its treasurer, A. C. Flagg. Both Jervis and Flagg were New York investors. The $100 that a share cost in 1853 would be equal to $2,244 in 2004. Also from Robert J. Stumm’s collection.

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