Page 10 - St. Paul, MN Central Station Design Guidelines

2.1 Historic Context

Since its founding in 1854, Saint Paul, and especially warehouses until the arrival of the railroad in 1862
its downtown Central Station block, have been marked and subsequent manufacturing growth.
by several phases of development. Many traces of
the city’s historic character are still obvious in the Third Street, on the bluff above the Mississippi River,
features of the block and its surrounding context. For developed as the city’s commercial thoroughfare with
instance, the current street pattern dates from 1849, residential settlement to the north. In 1860, a fire
part of the city’s pioneer period, but the surrounding destroyed over thirty wood-frame buildings on Third
Street between Robert and Jackson streets. By the
streetscape is a result of later development periods. 1870s, Third Street was lined with Italianate style
The Saint Paul Athletic Club (1918) remains the buildings of buff brick and local Platteville limestone.
oldest building in the study area and shares the block At the same time, gas streetlights (1867), city water
with the Central Station. First National Bank (1931) (1869), sewers (1873), street paving (1873), a
and the Minnesota Building (1929) face the Central street horsecar line (1872) and telephones (1877)
Figure 2.2 View of 5th and Cedar corner, Central Station block at Station Block and are significant examples of Art provided needed infrastructure and elevated the city’s
rear. ca. 1900 Deco architecture. The majority of the infrastructure commercial status.
around the Central Station block is the result of
Saint Paul’s urban renewal program beginning in The early infrastructure has not survived in the Central
the 1950s and continuing into the 1970s, and the Station area, but the historic street alignment of the
station itself is centered in the NRHP-eligible Saint 1849 plats remains, as does the layout of Washington,
Paul Urban Renewal Historic District. Market, St. Peter, Wabasha, Cedar, Minnesota,
Robert, Jackson, Sibley and Wacouta as well as Fourth
and Fifth streets. Third (Kellogg) and Bench (Second)
Pioneer Settlement, 1840-1880 streets were redesigned in the late 1920s.
Saint Paul’s pioneer settlement focused along the
Mississippi River between the Trout Brook and
Chestnut Street ravines. The plats of the Town of Development of Central Business
Figure 2.3 4th Street, ca. 1857 Saint Paul Proper and Rice and Irvine’s Addition District, 1880 - 1930
were recorded in 1849, and created grid-plan blocks By the late 1870s, a new generation of buildings and
aligned to the river. The riverfront featured the Upper structures replaced those of the Pioneer Period. The
and Lower Landing steamboat ports and commission St. Paul Bridge (1854) was replaced with the Wabasha

6 central station block development and existing conditions