18.7 Miles
West Side, West 7th (West End), Highland Park
July 6, 2024 and September 30, 2023
This post is a hybrid of sorts, blending two West Side rides I took about nine months apart. I met and interviewed Cheryl, who you’ll meet later in this post, on September 30, 2023. Naturally, I took photos of various sights throughout the ride. Unfortunately, a computer crash wiped out the 80 or so images from that September ride. Luckily I didn’t lose the interview with Cheryl, nor the route of that ride recorded by my bike GPS.
The plan for July 6, 2024 was to re-ride the September 30 route. The GPS I have does a fantastic job of tracking where I bike, but the one inch square screen makes it is frustratingly difficult to follow a pre-planned route. Therefore, I quickly scrapped the idea duplicating the September 2023 trek, while still making sure I got to Cheryl’s.
The routes of both rides are below. The first map is the route of the July 6, 2024 ride, followed by the map of the September 30, 2023 ride.
The West Side
It’s impossible to avoid hills on Saint Paul’s West Side. I’ve mentioned this frequently, probably in every post about the sojourns to this lovely part of Saint Paul. The trip up the Smith Avenue High Bridge, snaking along Ohio Street or climbing any of the abundant lesser-traveled roads, is worth the labor.
The steep slopes so common on the West Side are visible in respects beyond the obviously arduous roads. Take the 20 foot tall retaining wall along the 300 block of West Robie Street.
The precipitous rise of the West Side bluffs shows in other ways. Oddly shaped lots of varied sizes dot the streets at or near the bluff tops along Isabel Street West.
At 231 Isabel Street West, not only is the property irregularly shaped, but at a whopping 1.2 acres it is far larger than most residential lots in Saint Paul. The home has overlooked the Mississippi River since 1878, a mere four years after the West Side became part of Saint Paul.
This is one of a surprising number of beautiful and historic homes scattered throughout the West Side.
Two blocks east, I spotted a magnificent 1894 Queen Anne that commands attention. 123 Isabel Avenue West, the Eugene and Christina Villaume House, is the grandest of several nearby homes built for members of the Villaume family. The Villaumes started a box company on the West Side Flats in 1882 that grew into a major employer that is still in business, though it moved to Eagan in 1970.
One door over, at 115 Isabel, is the home that Eugene Villaume’s brother and business partner, Victor had built. This wonderfully restored home was constructed in 1879.
Story continues after The Villaume Box and Lumber Company story.
The Villaume Box and Lumber Company
Victor Villaume, and several years later, brothers Eugene and Joseph, immigrated from France to Saint Paul’s West Side. Eugene, reportedly a talented and creative woodworker, worked at a couple of Saint Paul box and trunk manufacturers, according to a piece titled “If It Can Be Manufactured From Wood, We Can Make It” A History of the Villaume Family and the Company They Built by Steven C. Trimble in the winter 2007 Ramsey County History magazine.
After nine years, Eugene and Victor started their own box company, Villaume Brothers, in 1882, below the bluffs on the West Side Flats. Villaume Box grew steadily over the next couple of decades, both in size and products it manufactured. The company name was changed to Villaume Box and Lumber Company to reflect its foray into molding, lath, doors and other wood-based materials. Growth of the business continued, thanks largely to Eugene’s insistence on producing the highest quality boxes, containers and custom millwork for Villaume customers.
Henry A. Castle, author of the three volume History of St. Paul and Vicinity, wrote the following of Eugene Villaume: “Of the type of energetic men who have come to this country without means or friends and have risen to significant places in business life, no better example can be found than Eugene Villaume, president of the Villaume Box and Lumber Company of St. Paul.” Coming to the United States a youthful French immigrant with no capital other than a staunch heart, willing hands and a determination to win success, he has studied opportunities and made the most of them until he has reached an eminent position in St. Paul’s industrial life.”
Among the most illustrious and prominent projects by Villaume Box and Lumber was as the supplier and contractor for all the finishing wood in the Saint Paul City Hall/Ramsey County Courthouse. According to the Ramsey County History article, between 150 and 175 craftsmen—woodworkers and cabinetmakers—worked for more than six months during the depths of the depression hand-making and installing cabinets, paneling and trim throughout the 18 story Art Deco building. All in all, 26 different woods (including a couple that are now illegal to harvest) were used in city hall/county courthouse. Oak, walnut, maple, birch and other woods came from the lower 48 states. Woods including African mahogany, Indian teak, and koa from Hawaii were imported.
The second World War meant many companies switched to manufacturing products in support of the U.S. military. Villaume Box and Lumber joined the war effort, first by producing thousands of K-ration cartons. Later, Villaume landed a contract to build ammunition crates for Federal Cartridge in New Brighton. By late 1943, Villaume had been subcontracted to manufacture wooden wings, floors and control surfaces for Waco CG-4A gliders for the U.S. Army Air Force.
Villaume Box and Lumber continued production at its West Side Flats factory until Fall of 1970, when it opened a larger Eagan facility under a new name, Villaume Industries. The move became necessary after the City of Saint Paul condemned much of the West Side Flats because of frequent flooding. Today, Villaume is still in business and still in Eagan, although it is now part of Lyman Companies, a supplier of building materials.
Continued from before The Villaume Box and Lumber Company.
East a couple of blocks, a lighthouse lamp and mailbox flag stood in the front yard of 44 Robie Street.
The Church of St. Matthew at Hall Avenue and Robie Street has been a West Side institution since its 1886 founding as a house of worship to serve German Catholic immigrants. The church building standing at Hall Avenue and Robie Street today was built in 1970 to replace the traditionally-spired structure that basically burned to the ground two years earlier.
Across a parking lot to the east is the building that is commonly believed to be the second oldest school in Saint Paul.
Constructed in 1901-02, the long-time St. Matthew’s School is described in the National Register of Historic Places nomination as an “eclectic Victorian design with a French Second Empire-inspired Mansard roof.” Designed by Saint Paul architect John F. Fischer, it was built for an estimated cost of $23,000.
The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis closed St. Matthew’s after 125 years at the end of the 2011-12 school year
Quantum STEAM Academy, a charter school, opened in the building in fall 2020.
Riding along Robie Street It is impossible to miss the multitude of colorful metal decorations at 173 West Robie. First, the dozens carefully attached to the front fence—birds, butterflies, flowers, trees and bees—grab you.
Looking around at the front of the house and fences on both sides of the yard reveals myriad more vibrant metal fixtures. This was my third visit here. I first laid eyes on 173 Robie on a July 15, 2023 ride. Later that year there was the September 30 drop in and then, this stop.
All the decorating began during and because of COVID. Like everyone, Cheryl was bored, lonely and fed up with being stuck in her home. She desperately missed her daily interactions with residents and coworkers at Cerenity Humboldt Senior Care (where she’s been a nursing assistant for 45 years.) “… looking through books and being bored, I thought that would look pretty outside. ‘That would look pretty. What the hell? I’m gonna do it. I don’t care what people say.’ So that’s what I did and I just kept doing it.” The splashes of color on the metal do bring a cheerfulness to the neighborhood. During the drab grey, brown and white months of late fall into spring, the art adds some welcome visual energy.
Cheryl pointed out that her decorating extends beyond the house, fences and garage. “If you look all over, there’s something in every place. Old things in the trees, hanging monkeys, squirrels…” Why squirrels? “…because I used to have a squirrel, a real squirrel I took care of. I had it for six years.”
It didn’t take long to realize that Cheryl is energized by helping others, both in the neighborhood and through her work at Cerenity Senior Care. “It ain’t just for a paycheck. You have to have emotion and care for people genuinely and their feelings. Everybody here (at Cerenty) is different and you’re gonna have to deal with each personality on a different level and that’s what I do. I get to know them for them and I go into their world and try to see what they did and the people they are. Everybody had a purpose in life.”
Cheryl added, “I’ve been blessed to be able to do it that many years and not having injuries and it’s like my family there. I’m their age now, and I’m taking care of them. I get how they feel. I get what they need.”
Cheryl and her family endured greater misfortune than months of isolation and the demanding working conditions at Cerenity brought on by COVID. Both her father and sister died during the pandemic. Among the decorations is a memorial to her sister, Dawn. “She was always into sunshine and she’s the one that died. She was 55. So I always put Dawn’s sunshine right there, and my little cross and stuff.”
Despite her heartbreaking losses, Cheryl’s sympathies lean toward others. “I’m so sorry for everybody else out there, too, who had endured all that crap and the families that died; my patients that died.”
Adorning her yard, house and garage with artwork helped Cheryl cope, and also brought hope, happiness and life to her piece of the West Side during the pandemic and afterward. “ I want people to see that there’s still real life. You can have fun, you can make your home your own haven, take some time in it.”
Passersby, said Cheryl, love the ornaments. “They’ll walk their kids and their kids will say, ‘I wanna see! I wanna see!’ And they’ll look and they’ll say It’s a big playground.”
173 West Robie has been a gathering place for her sons’ friends since they moved there about 2002. “They always like to come over here and play basketball. They feel comfortable. They say they like it here. They feel safe. And it’s not boring. They just sit here and do anything. Or they go in the pool and hang out.”
Other times, Jake, his brothers and their friends will watch movies in the garage on a large screen.
Cheryl goes beyond just hanging decorations. She customizes many of the pieces of the wall art. “I just paint ’em right out here. Spray paint ‘em. These were totally just iron, metal. They didn’t have no clothes or nothing. They were all black And then I made the clothes on them.”
Many fade from the elements so she repaints them yearly.
Two large deer stand in the front yard, a testament to her husband’s love of the animals. “We lived up north too, and he had a cabin and he loves deer, so I bought him these deer sets, so he could enjoy his little deer because he’s up in age now and he used to be a vivid deer hunter.“
Cheryl bought most of the decorations herself. As for how many she’s got, she’s never counted. “I don’t know. Over a thousand or something maybe.” With plenty of places to hang more metal art works, she expects to continue to add to her display.
The decorative display of metal figures has moved beyond 173 Robie. According to Cheryl, one of her cousins is enhancing his property with them, as is the neighbor just to the west at 506 Bellows Street.
Elsewhere On the West Side
My exploration the West Side continued to the south on Bellows Street, followed by Baker, Winslow, Elizabeth, Bellows and then Morton Street.
Nearby, a bit of an Independence Day hangover on the boulevard.
West 7th
Between a dog and an accordion player, caution is required in the area around one house in the 300 block of Webster Street.
Highland Park
The intersection of Lexington Parkway and Montreal Avenue has become the first roundabout in Saint Paul. Officially a “mini-roundabout” because the center island is paved, it works the same way as standard roundabout. It has improved the flow of traffic and increased safety for pedestrians, bikers and drivers. The upgrades completed in 2023 include the extension of Lexington south of West 7th Street.
I prefer not riding a route more than once, but it is far superior to losing photos or interviews which could be irreplaceable. I’ve taken precautions to reduce the chance of another data loss.
In a case of making lemonade from lemons, I got to talk with Cheryl again and enjoy her 2024 additions to the artistic display,
Discover more from Saint Paul By Bike
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I am always so happy to read your new posts.
For some reason the “like” link is not working atm:
Like this:
Loading…
Teleophonema, thank you for your nice comment. I’m sorry the “like” isn’t working. I’ll check into it. And thanks for that, too.
-Wolfie
Who knew? Thanks again for a fascinating peek into our great city!
Always fascinating…..