Welcome Arts Alive
participants! (May 2, 2006)
Try our
neighborhood History
Quiz.
[Answers below]
Click on the image to the right for a printable image or download a PDF version here |
 |
(NOTE: Links below open
in a new browser window.)
1. What was the original name
for Englewood Avenue?
Capitol Avenue.
An excellent resource for
this question is Donald Empson's 1975 book, The
Street Where You Live. [Link
to St. Paul Library card
catalog]
Empson says this about
Englewood Avenue: "Previously Capitol Avenue, the
name was changed in 1940. The significance of this new
name, if any, is neither recalled nor
recorded."
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2. What building
once stood at the site of Super
America?
Related to the
last question, the corner of Englewood
(formerly Capitol Avenue) and Snelling was
once home to the Masonic Temple.
See some letterhead
of the Hamline Commercial Club from 1921 with
this address. Click
here
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Courtesy of the Hamline University
Archives
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3. In what year was Snelling
Avenue first paved?
1912. Before that, it
was dirt and gravel. Learn more about the early days
of the neighborhood and Hamline University at the
Hamline
150th Anniversary interactive
timeline.
4. Before it was Mirror of
Korea, what was here?
This building may have
been home to a number of things. These photos from the
Minnesota Historical Society's Visual
Resource Database
show several images from this building's
history:
1913 - These photos
show Ritschel's Pharmacy: Exterior
| Interior
1959 -
This
photo shows the
"Hamline Broiler" (no pun intended) sign and
"Harry's Rexall Drugs" painted on the north
wall, along with a classic Coca-Cola mural. We also
found this interesting fact from a 2002 restaurant
review of the St. Clair Broiler here:
"There used to be
cousins to the St. Clair: the Hamline Broiler and
the Bonfire Broiler on Dale & University.
Unfortunately these two have fallen to urban
renewal and only the St. Clair remains. Their "Big
George" sandwich is truly wonderful!"
[HINT: This 1959 photo
provides a great clue for Question #5!]
5. What happened to Hamline
Hardware in 1959?
In January of 1959,
fire struck the neighborhood, destroying the original
Hamline Hardware building at 753-755 North Snelling
Avenue.
See some excellent photos of
the fire and its aftermath via the Minnesota
Historical Society's Visual
Resource
Database.
6. What once stood at the
site of today's Hancock Rec. Center?
Why, Hancock
School, of course! Though the answer may not be as
simple as you may think...
Before TODAY's Hancock
School, there was another Hancock School. And even
THAT one changed over the years -- take a
look:
These
photos from the
Minnesota Historical Society online Visual Resource
Database shows an early picture Hancock School
building (1900,
1915)
at Snelling and Wesley (today's Hubbard)
Avenues.
Comparing them to the
later pictures (1949),
it looks like the same building, only with a new,
flattened roof.
Ask around and you'll meet
people who remember this old building. It wasn't that
long ago...
7. What was the original name
of Hubbard Avenue?
If you read the answer
to Question #6 carefully, you found the answer to this
one.
This
1923 map of Saint Paul's
Midway shows both
Wesley (now Hubbard) Avenue AND Capitol (now
Englewood) Avenue.
8. What building once stood
here?
We don't have a lot of
information of this one yet, but here are two great
clues:
On our Web site, check out
the article from 1938 about a retiring member of the
community, A.J. Wallace. (Click
here and scroll down
to the picture and article.)
"Wallace
remembers the old Town Hall on Snelling at
Hubbard..."
Read the full article for
more fascinating facts of what our neighborhood used
to look like.
Also, this
1900 picture of the old Hancock
School from the
Minnesota Historical Society shows a building on the
corner -- is it a church or the Town Hall mentioned in
this article?
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9. In what year was
this picture taken?
This photo of
Hamline University, on the northeast corner
of today's Snelling Avenue and Englewood was
taken in 1905.
Click on the photo
to see a larger version.
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Courtesy of the Hamline University
Archives
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COMMENTS? QUESTIONS?
Let
us know.
