August 25, 2021
20.8 Miles
St. Anthony Park
I’d never thought of St. Anthony Park as being unusually hilly. That is, until this ride. About halfway through it dawned on me that I was getting a nice workout thanks to the elevation changes.
The 1920 edition of the Minnesota Historical Society’s Minnesota Geographic Names – Their Origin and Historical Significance echoed my observation in a much more poetic way. Author Warren Upham opined that St. Anthony Park “is noteworthy for its streets deviating from straight and rectangular courses, on account of the diversities of the contour, which is formed by numerous irregular hillocks, ridges and hollows…”
The first place I explored was Langford Park, a prominent and, ironically, flat street that surrounds the seven-plus acre city park of the same name. This small section of St. Anthony Park is brimming with captivating history, including the tale of a direct link to the first national park in the U.S.
Langford Park – the road and park – according to The Street Where You Live by Don Empson, were named in 1885 for Nathaniel Pitt Langford and his wife, Clara, who moved to Saint Paul just a year earlier.
Nathaniel Langford organized and joined nine others on the 1870 Washburn Expedition to western Montana. This expedition led directly to Congress in 1872 designating Yellowstone as the country’s first national park. Later that year Langford was appointed its first superintendent, a position he held – without pay – for nearly five inauspicious years.
“…amid the cañon and falls, the boiling springs and sulphur mountain, and, above all, the mud volcano and the geysers of the Yellowstone, your memory becomes filled and clogged with objects new in experience, wonderful in extent, and possessing unlimited grandeur and beauty.”
Nathaniel P. Langford in 1870 describing the Yellowstone area in his Diary of the Washburn Expedition to the Yellowstone
and Firehole Rivers
(Diverse Indian tribes lived, hunted and gathered in this area from as many as 15,000 years before and remained after the trip by the Washburn Expedition, according to the National Park Service.)
Lawn signs suspended upon wire supports are about as common as snowflakes in winter. However, a couple dozen of them along the east side of Langford Park brought a smile to my face and a stop to my ride. The Saint Paul Public Library and the Department of Parks and Recreation created Story Strolls in four parks, including Langford Park, in the summer of 2021. The brilliantly simple idea of printing pictures books on plastic signs got parents and children out walking and reading. The Digger and the Flower by Joseph Kuefler was the August Story Stroll at Langford Park.
A short distance to the northeast is Langford Park’s historic bandstand, constructed in 1912 for the reasonable sum of $768.58. The bandstand has been a popular place for music, plays and informal gatherings for more than 100 years.
Langford Park has had an important role in the annual St. Anthony Park Independence Day festivities, hosting a post-parade program for decades.
In spite of its long history, the 4th In the Park Committee has floated the idea of replacing the bandstand with a larger one to accommodate more uses.
It’s not just the ups and downs of the streets of St. Anthony that caught my attention. I spotted some unusual customization to compensate for the topography.
The rise and fall of the streets levels out somewhat where Doswell and Como Avenues meet. Just northwest, at 2323 Como at Luther Place, sits the lovely St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church, built of cream colored stone.
Not coincidentally, an entrance to Luther Seminary is immediately north, on the other side of Luther Place. The Zvago, a senior living co-op, was built in 2019 on property that Luther Seminary sold.
I rode to the end of the parking lot where I came to Gullixson Hall. The library, offices, classrooms and computer lab are inside. The Old Muskego Church marker touched my instinct to explore for a couple of reasons. First, the arrow, pointing toward a tree and brush-shrouded hill grabbed me much like a headline pulls one into a news story.
Second, the sign itself was unlike any other near or on the Luther campus.
Lastly, many years ago I had a college roommate from Muskego, WI, a Milwaukee suburb, and I wondered if this church had a connection to that place. Turns out it does. The church (sometimes simply called Muskego Church) was built in the Muskego Settlement in southeastern Wisconsin beginning in either 1843 and was dedicated in March of 1845. Old Muskego Church was constructed on “Indian Hill,” a site that was sacred to the Potawatomi Indian Tribe prior to displacement by Europeans.
Old Muskego Church served a congregation of about 270 people until 1869 when it outgrew the building. The church was moved pretty much intact to a nearby farm and used for storage and a larger church was built in its place on on “Indian Hill.”
The Muskego Church was purchased, dismantled and moved to its current spot on the Luther Seminary campus in 1904. There it was reassembled and covered with light colored wood siding that was removed about 1970. While not original to Saint Paul, Old Muskego Church is almost certainly the oldest building in the city.
The church, according to the 1975 National Register of Historic Places nomination form, “represents a beautiful example of pioneer log construction with old world craftsmanship in addition to being an historic site of national significance.”
The Hendon Triangles Park is but a block away from the Muskego Church as the crow flies, but several blocks by bike. The unusual park is two small triangular tracts of land that together are less than an acre. The Hendon Triangles are each bounded on two sides by Branston Street, and bisected on the third side by Hendon Avenue.
My last photo stop on the trip was at a home with a contemporary take on the retaining wall. The owners of 2141 Knapp Street used steel plates as low-maintenance retaining walls and planters.
This was a pleasant and educational ride around St. Anthony where I unexpectedly came upon what is almost certainly the oldest man-made structure in Saint Paul. Delving into the history of the Old Muskego Church and Langford Park added to that intrigue.
Another excellent adventure, Wolfie! I’ve walked in this neighborhood in the past and enjoyed some of the funky architecture, but you found a real gem! Good job, and thanks!
Gary, thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed this one. I had never heard of the Old Muskego Church so “discovering” it was one of several high points of the trip. St. Anthony Park is, as you said, a wonderful neighborhood. However I wouldn’t trade it for the experiences you had at and around Williams Hill!
Always interesting…..
I spent grades 7-12 at Murray High School located in St. Anthony Park. While some of what pictured was very familiar, much was new. Thank you!
Anne, when is the last time you were back in the neighborhood? Thank you for reading and commenting.
I have organized a pie social on the Luther lawn for years and always parked near the historical marker. I must not have read the marker closely because I did not realize, until reading this blog, that there is an actual church building tucked away back there to discover. Thank you for bringing this to my attention!
Hi Family. thanks for reading and commenting. Like you, I had no idea the church existed until I rode to the end of the lot and saw the sign. So many interesting things are around if we look hard enough.