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r RAMSEY COUNTY r A p i A The Prince and H 1Si ch The Pearl of Great Price A Publication o f the Ramsey County Historical Society Page 17 Fall, 2004 Volume 39, Number 3 Another Lost Neighborhood The Life and Death of Central Park- A Small Part of the Past Illuminated View of C apitol B u ild in g . F rom C entral P ark S t. Pa u l. Min n . RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Executive Director Priscilla Famham Editor Virginia Brainard Kunz RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Volume 39, Number 3 Fall, 2004 BOARD OF DIRECTORS James A. Russell THE MISSION STATEMENT OF THE RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Chair ADOPTED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS IN JULY 2 0 0 3 : 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 responsibility is its stewardship over this history. Judith Frost Lewis Secretary J. Scott Hutton Treasurer CONTENTS Duke Addicks, Charles L. Bathke, W. An 3 Letters drew Boss, Norlin Boyum, Joseph Camp 4 Another Lost Neighborhood bell, Norbert Conzemius, Anne Cowie, Charlton Dietz, Charlotte H. Drake, Joanne The Life and Death of Central Park— A. Englund, Robert F. Garland, Howard A Small Part of the Past Illuminated Guthmann, Joan Higinbotham, Scott Hut ton, Judith Frost Lewis, John M. Lindley, Paul D. Nelson George A. Mairs, Marlene Marschall, Laurie Murphy, Richard Nicholson, Marla Ordway, 17 Hamline University and Its Royal Refugee Marvin J. Pertzik, John Pfaender, Penny The Prince and the Pearl of Great Price Harris Reynen, David Thune, Glenn Wiess- John W. Larson ner; Richard Wilhoit, Laurie Zenner, Ronald J. Zweber. 19 The Prince and the Fascists Richard T. Murphy, Sr. 21 The Rondo Oral History Project—Second in a Series Director Emeritus Kathryn Coram Gagnon: Operettas, Dances, EDITORIAL BOARD Parties, and a Growing Love of Music John M. Lindley, chair, James B. Bell, Thomas H. Boyd, Mark Eisenschenk, Tom Kelley, Laurie A Hand in Hand interview with Kate Cavett Murphy, Richard H. Nicholson, Paul D. Nelson, David Riehle, C. Richard Slade, Steve Trimble, Publication of Ramsey County History is supported in part by a gift from Mary Lethert Wingerd. Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen in memory of Henry H. Cowie, Jr. HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD and by a contribution from the late Reuel D. Harmon Elmer L. Andersen, Olivia I. Dodge, Charlton Dietz, William Finney, William A Message from the Editorial Board Fallon, Robert S. Hess, D. W. “Don” Larson, George Latimer, Joseph S. Micallef, Robert om in the 1880s and died in the 1970s, Central Park in St. Paul has today passed into urban legend. Mirick, Marvin J. Pertzik, James Reagan, BFortunately, Paul Nelson has carefully researched the park’s history and his account opens our Rosalie E. Wahl, Donald D. Wozniak. Fall issue. In 1884 four wealthy and powerful St. Paul families donated the land that became Central Park, a rather small space that was laid out formally with walkways, trees, and shrubs and included an RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ornate fountain. Unlike Como Park, whose city-led development later in the decade was intended as a Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt, chairman naturalistic refugee, the practical donors of the land for Central Park conceived it as a neat buffer for Commissioner Susan Haigh their homes against haphazard urban sprawl nearby. Today, or course, all that remains of Central Park Commissioner Tony Bennett is a parking ramp for state government workers. Commissioner Rafael Ortega In celebration of Hamline University’s sesquicentennial in 2004, we have John Larson’s elegant Commissioner Janice Rettman Commissioner Jan Wiessner account of the all-to-brief time that Prince Hubertus zu Loewenstein spent at the liberal-arts school in Commissioner Jim McDonough the fall of 1942. Prince Hubertus had a profound impact on students such as Larson through his coura geous opposition to the forces of Nazism. Scion of an old and noble German family, Prince Hubertus David Twa, manager, Ramsey County had fled to the United States in the early 1930s and subsequently worked tirelessly to persuade Ameri Ramsey County History is published quarterly cans of the dangers of Hitlerism. Hamline proved to be a generous and supportive host to the prince at by the Ramsey County Historical Society, a time when the United States was just entering the fight against fascism. 323 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, St. Our Fall issue concludes with the second in a series of Rondo oral histories. Thanks once more to Paul, Minn. 55102 (651-222-0701). Printed in the interviewing skills of Kate Cavett, we learn of the youth, educational, and employment experiences U.S.A. Copyright, 2004, Ramsey County His of Kathryn Coram Gagnon, a graduate of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., who spent torical Society. ISSN Number 0485-9758. A ll much of her adult life as a social worker in the Rondo community. rights reserved. No part of this publication $ sfc sjc 4= may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without written permission from the pub As a service to the Society’s members and friends, we want all of our readers to know that there is now lish e r. The Society assumes no responsibility a complete listing of articles that have appeared in Ramsey County History over the past forty years on for statements made by contributors. Fax 651- the Society’s web site at www.rchs.com. We hope you’ll make use of this tool when you want to see if 223-8539; e-mail address [email protected].; a past issue of our magazine has information bearing on a question about St. Paul or Ramsey County. web site address www.rchs.com John Lindley, Chair, Editorial Board 2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Lost Neighborhood The Life and Death of Central Park- A Small Part of the Past Illuminated Paul D. Nelson A pedestrian wandering today east of the they do so walking to or from their cars; tion (so far as the Census Bureau could Minnesota state Capitol would sooner or this Central Park is a thousand-stall State make it out) grew from 31,000 to 133,000. later come upon a surprising chunk of of Minnesota parking ramp. Development rushed up from the down real estate: two and a third acres jutting Nothing remains of the original Cen town basin in all directions: south across up from Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and tral Park, once the lovely, postcard-wor the Mississippi, east across Trout Brook, molded into four terraces sloping smartly thy center of an affluent neighborhood. west toward Minneapolis, and north. By to the south, adorned by trees, grass, Nothing remains either of the neighbor 1884 most of the land between downtown shrubs, tables and benches, and offering hood that surrounded it, except photo and Washburn (now Capitol) Hill on the a fine view of downtown. A bronze graphs and memories. northern skyline had been platted, and plaque on the site bears just these words: The Central Park story begins in 1884. much of it built. Central Park. St. Paul then was just forty-three years old, But, is this really a park? The terraces a steamboat burg soon to be transformed are concrete, resting on concrete pillars. by the railroad into one of the boomtowns Above, Central Park at Minnesota Street in The grass, trees, and shrubs are adorn of the continent. Lured by the promise of 1909. Unless otherwise indicated, all photo ments only, pleasant but unconvincing work or gain, immigrants crammed the graphs with this article are from the Minne add-ons. If people stop to enjoy the view, city; between 1880 and 1890 the popula sota Historical Society’s collections. 4 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY On Bluff, an east-west street just growth and creating a pleasing, protected erhouse group. Dawson was president below University Avenue, where Min environment. And while they would have of the First National Bank and had been nesota Street reached its northern end, to donate the land, the cost of park de mayor of St. Paul. His son, also a banker, stood the enormous houses and grounds of velopment and maintenance would fall to was married to the daughter of another the Lamprey, Lindeke, and Dawson fami the city. Perhaps it occurred to them too former mayor, Edmund Rice. Jeanne nes. From their perch above downtown that a park might raise the value of the Lamprey had come to St. Paul in 1845 (at they surely watched the city grow and real estate they retained three weeks of age), when the town was computed the rising values of their real In the fall of 1884 Uri and Jeanne a muddy hamlet. She came to join her estate holdings. Immediately below them Lamprey, William and Mary Dawson, father, one of the most successful of first lay the last several acres of unplatted land and William and Rose Lindeke, joined settlers, Louis Robert, for whom Robert between them and the river. The Lampreys with William Dawson Jr., and wife Maria, Street is named. Husband Uri Locke and Dawsons owned most of it. Theodore and Caroline Schurmeier, and Lamprey had made a pile in the practice In this pre-zoning era of free-for-all Gustave Schurmeier to plat a portion of of law and by 1883 had quit law for real growth and speculation, buildings flew their lands as “Central Park” and dedicate estate.

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