Page 11 - St. Paul, MN Central Station Design Guidelines

Street Bridge in 1874 and strengthened Wabasha’s Insurance firms, newspaper companies and banks
presence as a major thoroughfare. The block bounded not only required more office space but also desired
by Wabasha and Cedar streets between Fourth and monumental buildings that would relay the importance
Fifth streets was cleared to make way for the St. Paul and financial strength of the company.
City Hall-Ramsey County Courthouse (1889). Single-
family dwellings disappeared in the downtown core, Romanesque and Renaissance Revival Style
and were replaced with retail buildings and multiple buildings—characterized by heavily rusticated stone
tenant housing. By 1893, horsecar lines were replaced and dark brick that often concealed at least a partial
by electric streetcars. Beginning in the 1880s, new iron or steel structural system—dominated much of
office buildings developed along Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Saint Paul’s late 19th-century office construction.
streets, creating the heart of the business district that The six-story Union Block (1885, razed) at Fourth and
remains today. Third Street and Lowertown to the east Cedar and its neighbor on the opposite corner, the
remained the warehouse wholesale district, while the ten-story Globe Building (1887, razed), were typical
retail corridor developed to the north along Seventh Romanesque Revival buildings of this period. The year
Street and along other streets (including Robert and 1889 was marked with the arrival of four tall office
Wabasha). buildings in the central core: Germania Bank Building
(1889, extant) at Fifth and Wabasha streets, New
The period between 1880 and 1920 saw the York Life Insurance Building (1889, razed 1967) at
introduction of many new building types in downtown Sixth and Minnesota streets, Germania Life Insurance
Saint Paul, including the department store, Building (1889, razed 1970, replaced by Kellogg
automobile showroom, parking garage and large Square apartments) at Fourth and Minnesota streets,
railroad stations. The most significant building type and the Pioneer Building (1889, extant) at Fourth and
to affect the downtown landscape, however, was the Robert streets. At twelve stories and with a complete
tall office building. While a few multi-story hotels were structural steel frame, the Pioneer Building is
constructed in the downtown core, the tallest buildings considered Saint Paul’s first skyscraper. The building Figure 2.4 Saint Paul City Hall-Ramsey County
constructed between 1880 and 1920 were for office provided its tenants with technological advances, Courthouse, ca. 1887
use. The office building expressed the increasing including the nation’s first glass-walled elevators and
segregation between production, manufacturing, the first commercial telephone answering service.
warehousing and distribution functions, and record In 1910, four additional stories completed in the
keeping, real estate sales, and legal transactions. Renaissance Revival style were added to the steel

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