Saint Paul By Bike – Every Block of Every Street ©

July 4, 2014 (Independence Day)

Macalester-Groveland, Rondo (Summi-University), Downtown, Lowertown, Crocus Hill

19.9 miles

The non-profit Express Bike Shop on Selby Avenue is an excellent example of a business doing good. Staff has been teaching young people how to fix bikes since 1995. Youth interns work with the trained bike mechanics to rehab donated bikes, which are then sold. Interns also learn most aspects of operating a bicycle repair and sales business. Express Bike repairs bikes and carries accessories. Express Bike Shop’s website is http://www.exbike.com/home/.

Most folks are aware that the cavernous valley that is Interstate 94 was for decades the flourishing Rondo neighborhood, home of the majority of Saint Paul’s African American community. From ‘street level’, a look down at the freeway channel makes it blatantly obvious how this large, deep and wide road ruined a neighborhood. A great dealhas been written about how the decision to push I-94 through the heart of Rondo devastated it. Among the books that provide excellent first-hand accounts and the sociological results of uprooting the neighborhood are “Voices of Rondo: Oral Histories of Saint Paul’s Historic Black Community” and “The Days of Rondo.”

Pilgrim Baptist Church is the first of two houses of worship I visited on this ride that are intimately connected with the settlement of African-Americans in Saint Paul. Pilgrim Baptist, Saint Paul’s first congregation formed by African-Americans, has roots dating to 1863(1) when a group of about 50 escaped slaves, including the Rev. Robert Hickman, came north from Missouri. The former slaves officially formed Pilgrim Baptist Church in November 1866. Although the congregation was black, it would be 12 years and two white ministers before Rev. Hickman finally became the minister at the church he helped start.(2)

St. James A.M.E. (African Methodist Episcopal) Church, on Central Avenue at Dale, is just two blocks east of Pilgrim Baptist. The churches share similarities besides being in the same neighborhood. St. James was formed by a small group of African-American settlers who met in a one room house in the mid-to-late 1800s, although there is disagreement about exactly when.

And like Pilgrim, the St. James congregation remains active in Rondo and beyond. Designed by notable architect Cap Wigington, the foundation of the current church was completed and dedicated in 1924. Money woes and World War II prevented construction of the superstructure of St. James until 1948-24 years after the basement.(3)

There is a considerable amount of subsidized housing in this small section of Rondo. These housing complexes were built in the name of ‘urban renewal’ during or shortly after the destruction of hundreds of single family homes in Rondo. There remains a great need for affordable housing in Saint Paul, but many studies have shown it is beneficial to mix housing for lower-income residents in all parts of the city.

It is not an understatement to say I intensely dislike much of the 1960s and ‘70s architecture. I’m not sure why that style, used on many government and educational buildings, known as Brutalism, is so stark and impersonal, but perhaps it’s an expression of societal turmoil of the era. The Central Hi-Rise apartment building is a rare exception to the architectural despair, especially in public housing. First, it’s hexagonal shape-apparently a one-of-a-kind in St. Paul-is much more stylish than the usual cement rectangles of most of the buildings built during this period. Secondly, the variety of geometric play of the Central Hi-Rise is easy to spot and it changes depending upon angle from which the building his viewed.

The Central Hi-Rise Apartment building is just east of the Malcolm Shabbaz Apartments on Central Avenue. Like the Shabbaz complex, Central Hi-Rise apartments offers affordable rentals.

Continuing east on Central, I spotted a nice playground and behind it, a good-sized patch of green. An interesting footnote about the playground is that the sign crediting Saturn auto dealers of St. Paul for supporting it remains while not a single Saturn dealer does.

Central Avenue ends two blocks to the east, so from there, I wound my way along Western to Fuller and over to Virginia Street. All three streets are primarily lined with single family homes, until the Hanover Townhomes appear on the east side of Virginia. The grounds, small patches of bright green grass interspersed with attractive flower gardens, were well-kept, yet I was pretty certain these townhomes were another low-income complex. The reason is the liberal use of cement and the repetitive design of the complex.

The Fuller Apartments not surprisingly sit on Fuller Street. Built in 1962 primarily of brick, a nice touch is that cement blocks above the entry of each building are painted a different color.

The Sears store on Rice Street, just north of I-94, can, and likely has been described by terms such as isolated, bleak, dreary and uninviting, among others. The clouds that gradually rolled over as I rode didn’t improve the look of the building and the 14 acres of land surrounding it.

Before the Interstate and urban renewal in the early 60s, this portion of Rice Street hummed with shoppers going in and out of small businesses.(4)

In early 2013 there were rumblings of redevelopment of this property featuring an apartments, a modern Sears and other stores but the precarious health of the Sears-Kmart parent company has snuffed out those conversations.

Today it’s the Colonnade Apartments, one of at least five monikers the building has had since being opening in 1889. It was the Renaissance Revival Hotel originally, when several hotels lined St. Peter Street. Other names included the Alexandria Apartments, Rex Am Apartments and the Willard Hotel-twice.(5)

A tragic fire just before Christmas in 1955 killed a hotel chamber maid and so extensively damaged the building that the top two floors had to be removed. Vestiges of one of those floors remains plainly visible just below the roof.

Minnesota’s oldest hospital is across St. Peter Street from the Colonnade. Construction of St. Joseph’s Hospital began in 1852 as cholera descended upon Saint Paul. Three men provided the necessary resources for the hospital: Henry Rice donated the land, Bishop Joseph Cretin gave his 10,000 franc inheritance and Anishinabe (Ojibwe) Chief White Cloud supplied the lumber.(6) The cholera outbreak became an epidemic in 1853 but the hospital wasn’t finished so four Catholic sisters/teachers quickly converted the log cabin school-house into an improvised hospital.

St. Joseph’s Hospital, a three and a-half story stone building, opened September 20, 1854, with a blessing by Bishop Joseph Cretin, on the same grounds upon which the hospital still stands.(7)

In the mid-1990s Saint Paul’s older hospitals, including St. Joseph’s, faced threats from declining patient counts, health care reform and greater competition. St. Joseph’s corporate owner announced on August 8, 1996 plans to close the hospital in 2000 and open a new St. Joseph’s Hospital in Woodbury. In a surprising reversal, HealthEast Corporation declared in early 1998 that the hospital would remain open after all, to the great delight of the staff and patients of St. Joe’s and Saint Paul supporters.

Homeward bound along Grand Avenue at Victoria, I heard a flawlessly played ragtime tune. At first the music seemed to come from one of the businesses inside Victoria Crossing, but as I moved closer, I saw a young man playing a colorful piano on the sidewalk.

Fifteen-year-old Parker Zachman and his family came to Saint Paul to try Pianos On Parade at the behest of his piano teacher. The piece Parker played as I rode up is a Boogie-woogie tune called ‘Boogie Duet’.

Parker told me he’s played piano for about eight years, “I learned classical when I was young-second and third grade-and it was just boring. I didn’t like practicing classical because classical wasn’t any good until you’re actually able to play the piece after a month of practicing.”

Now, said Parker, he plays almost all his music from memory, “Everything has the same kind of pattern. You just got to know the chords and then after you know what it sounds like, you can kinda play it. So for me, after reading the music and after hearing it, and then I read it again and play it, and after that, if I keep playing it everyday I don’t have to look at the music ever again. So two or three times and I’m good.”

Parker publicly performs a couple of times a year, almost always with his piano teacher. This year (2014), at the behest of his teacher, Parker auditioned and was selected to play at the State Fair, “I’m playing, it’s called ‘St. Sam’s March,’ which is a medley of two songs, one being ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’ and the other ‘When the Saints Go Marching In,’ so I said ‘St. Sam’ like Uncle Sam and ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’ and that’s what I’m playing. I’m going to wear a Stars and Stripes polo and a giant top hat. My piano teacher was saying the State Fair is more about novelty so the more interesting you can make it the better it is.”

Parker treated me to one more Boogie-woogie selection before he and his family had to leave, which was my cue to resume the trip home.

Here is a link to today’s ride.

Footnotes:

1. Pilgrim Baptist Church website – http://pilgrimbaptistchurch.org/about/history/
2.  Pilgrim Baptist Church website – http://pilgrimbaptistchurch.org/about/history/
3. St. James A.M.E. Church website – http://stjamesstpaul.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=2
4. Historic St. Paul
5. Ramsey County Historical Society website
6. HealthEast-St. Joseph’s Hospital website – https://www.healtheast.org/st-josephs-hospital/about/history.html
7. HealthEast-St. Joseph’s Hospital website – https://www.healtheast.org/st-josephs-hospital/about/history.html