History of St. Paul Park, MN.
Minnesota became a state on May 11, 1858, and shortly thereafter, Newport Township was organized. Before 1887, much of what became St. Paul Park was just farm fields and pastures in Newport. In just two years, 1887 through 1888, the fields became a platted community. In 1888 the Village of St. Paul Park was incorporated with about 1300 acres.
Joseph Huganin, R. S. Snow, and William and Giles Fowler were among the earliest settlers. Other prominent people in this area were the Seamer, Willoughby, and Charles Parker families.
Creating an industrial town
William Fowler settled in the area in 1852 and soon became a prominent farmer and a successful stockman. His farm, which cost around $2,500 in 1852, was sold in 1887 to the St. Paul Park Improvement Company for about $80,000 for a townsite. A promotional piece, published by the St. Paul Park Improvement Company ca. 1888 stated:
“On the east bank of the Mississippi River and about the same distance east of St. Paul as Minneapolis is west of it, is located the new and promising City of St. Paul Park. It consists of 3,000 acres of land fronting on the river (a bit of an overestimate: the area today is about 1,800 acres), and is owned by the St. Paul Park Improvement Co., having a capital of $2,000,000. The first house was erected and the first sale was made in June of 1887, and today, one year in its history, it has a population of some 1,200, with its churches and schools.
“Its streets are graded and sidewalks laid and it has over 200 beautiful residences, a large and well kept hotel and numerous stores, besides having located on its private railroad tracks twelve flourishing manufactories in successful operation. . . .“ The village got a post office in 1888.
Many more factories joined the community. In short order St. Paul Park could boast the St. Paul Knitting Works, Dewey Harvester Works, Globe Engine & Boiler Works, the Black Hawk Mills, a terracotta factory, a baby carriage and rattan factory, a silk works, three sleigh and carriage factories, car shops, a sash and door factory, broom factory, mattress factory, excelsior works, lumberyard, and a host of other companies employing more than 1,000 workers.
Railroads made commuting practical
The village was served by two railroads: the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul and the Chicago, Burlington & Northern (renamed the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy in 1900). The latter road had a spur that served the factories, running along the north end of the community. There were two depots in the community, at Broadway and Pullman Avenue.
With so many factories in town, a shortage of local workers existed and workers were heavily recruited from St. Paul. Free land on the railroad was offered to potential companies and $100 cash incentives were given employees who would relocate. To facilitate commuters, the Chicago, Burlington & Northern, ran a special commuter train, from St. Paul to St. Paul Park, called “The Burlington Motor.” Trains ran on the hour with extra cars put on the morning and evening trains for commuters. If you wanted to shop in St. Paul, you would catch the Burlington Motor. The ride took only 25 minutes and cost just 6 cents fare. The Motor ran through the 1920s.
The village rises, falls and rises again
Said an early resident, Barbara Schnebelen, who moved to the community in 1888, “At noon, after the whistles from more than a dozen factories blew, there were crowds on the Park streets that cannot be imagined.”
In its heyday of the 1890s the town had many boarding and rooming houses. The best hotel in town was the Parker House, located on the northwest corner of Fourth Street and Broadway, near the Broadway Depot. It was built and managed by Charles Parker. Some of the other boarding houses and hotels were: the Bell House, the Union House, the Johnson House, the Arlington Hotel and the Central House. All of these were eventually destroyed by fire, including the Parker House, which was moved to Newport where fire later razed it.
There were three churches in the early days – Baptist, Methodist Episcopalian (United Church of Christ) and Presbyterian. In 1900 a Catholic church came to town – literally. St. Thomas Catholic was a mission church in Langdon (Cottage Grove) called the Little Mission that was rolled overland into the Park to its Summit and Broadway location.
The first 2-room school was built in 1887, and by 1889 had to be remodeled to accommodate 300 students. A high school, the St. Paul Methodist College, ran from 1890 until 1918 when it closed because of dwindling enrolment due to young men being drafted for World War I. A combined grade and high school was built in 1937, and new elementary schools in 1952 and 1961.
St. Paul Park was a boom town for a decade, but soon the money ran out. The panic of 1893 put an end to many ambitions. The city lost industries: many idle factories burned, and the work went elsewhere. In fall 1908 the sheriff was obliged to sell over 4,000 lots at auction to satisfy debts. By 1930 most of the factories were shuttered or gone
When the village started to grow again, several small businesses located on Broadway and Second Streets, including a blacksmith, livery stable, confectionery, three grocery stores, a doctor’s office, and bakery. The community acquired a large opera house and new post office as well. The Northwestern Refining Company (Marathon Ashland Petroleum) came into the village about 1926 as a very small organization, building the first refinery in 1939. In the 1930s a sausage company was opened in one of the old factory buildings.
The swing bridge
The early ferry that had carried folks across the Mississippi River from the foot of Broadway was replaced by the Rock Island (JAR) Swing Bridge in 1895 connecting Inver Grove and St. Paul Park . It was built for the South St. Paul Beltline Railroad to connect the South St. Paul stockyards to the main lines that ran through the Park and was later purchased by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad. The bridge carried rail traffic on the upper deck and highway traffic on the lower. Railroad officials operated the bridge as a toll bridge until 1938, when the state began renting the lower deck and tolls were dropped. In 1963 the wider span Wakota freeway bridge between Newport and South St. Paul was completed and old span became too costly to operate. After a brief closure and several fires, the old bridge was repaired and reopened as a toll bridge for several years, but was eventually closed to cars.
The Village of St. Paul Park became a city in 1974. Today the City of St. Paul Park is a pleasant residential community with somewhat more than 5,000 inhabitants. St. Paul Park has grown slowly but steadily. In the 1980s 175 affordable homes were built in the Stevens Ridge Housing project in the southwest part of the city.