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NEIGHBORHOOD HISTORY THROUGH MAPS

 

Check out this growing collection of neighborhood maps featuring the Hamline Midway area through the years.

Do you have a map we could scan and add to this collection?
See a factual error or have information concerning any of these maps?

Let us know: visit the Contact page

 

Browse by Decade

1860s | 1870s | 1880s | 1890s | 1900s | 1910s | 1920s | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s+

 

Browse by Name/Date

START HERE: Growth of the City of St. Paul, Minn. (1914)

This map, courtesy of History Corps member Mary Bakeman, maps the growth of our fair city over the decades. Interestingly enough, she found this page -- most likely from a City Annual Report -- loose in a book.Do you know where it may orginally have come from or have a copy? Contact Mary via Park Genealogical Books at http://www.parkbooks.com

 

Rose Township Map (1867)
Though the roads are not labeled, one can see Territorial Road (see 1886 map below) and what appears to be University Avenue. The area around today's University & Snelling intersection is marked "Roseville". This also shows up in some of the later maps below.

 

Rice's Map of Saint Paul (1874)
Rice's Map of Saint Paul - detail of Hamline Midway (1874)

A number of interesting things are visible in this map of the city and neighborhood:
- College Place, the under-construction Hamline University campus
- The Hamline train depot, just the north of campus
- Further north, the "Alms House", at the site of the current Minnesota State Fairgrounds, labeled "Ramsey County Poor Farm in the 1867 map
- One of several sites for the State Fair (and Driving Park), just south of present-day University Avenue

But perhaps most striking is the obvious lack of development in the neighborhood. Just a decade later, as seen in the next map, nearly all the land in the area has been divided and subdivided.

 

E.S. Norton Real Estate Map of Saint Paul - Title (1886)
E.S. Norton Real Estate Map of Saint Paul - Hamline Midway detail (1886)

Several interesting features of this map include the Hamline train depot (just north of campus) and the angled Territorial Road, once the "main drag" between Saint Paul and the village of Saint Anthony, what would eventually grow into Minneapolis. Territorial Road is gone now, except for one remaining block-long stretch -- the angled alley on the block bordered by Aldine & Wheeler, Blair & Van Buren.

 

Plat Map of Hamline Midway (1886)
(Map courtesy of Donald Empson)

A more detailed and, presumably, more precise map than the 1886 Norton Real Estate Map above, this shows the Hamline train depot, building footprints, and a well-defined Tatum Park neighborhood (far left of map).

 

 

Hand-drawn Map by J.S. Hasslen, Sr. (1890-1900)

This amazing map, created by Hamline, Minnesota resident John S. Hasslen, tells many stories. Hasslen, apparently, was quite a character -- check out photos of him from the Minnesota Historical Society's Visual Resources Database here.

See online images:

Large jpeg file, 8.7 MB or
small jpeg file, .2 MB

or Download very large PDF (14.5 MB)

J.S. Hasslen map

 

 

Page from U.S. Atlas Showing Saint Paul (circa 1905-10)
Page from U.S. Atlas Showing Saint Paul - Hamline Midway detail (circa 1905-10)
(Map courtesy of Mark Thieroff)

This map shows the Hamline Midway area in transition:
- The last days of the diagonal
Territorial Road just west of Snelling Avenue; most of it was to disappear as the surrounding blocks were developed in the early 1910s
- The former
Union Stock Yards and Union Park (including a train depot on the south end of the park)
- The early days of development north and east of the
State Fair Grounds
- Various buildings of the
Northern Pacific Railroad yards

 

Map of the Great Midway Manufacturing-Industrial-Educational-Residential Center (1923)
Map of the Great Midway - Title
Map of the Great Midway - detail

This map, sponsored by the Twin City Business University, includes some interesting neighborhood statistics in the Title image.

 

New Map of Saint Paul and Suburbs, Hudson Map Company (1956)
(Map courtesy of Triesta Brown)
New Map of Saint Paul and Suburbs - Midway Corridor Detail
New Map of Saint Paul and Suburbs - Hamline Midway Detail
New Map of Saint Paul and Suburbs - Front Cover
New Map of Saint Paul and Suburbs - Back Cover
New Map of Saint Paul and Suburbs - Title & Legend

A number of interesting details can be found in the Hamline Midway detail:
- St. Paul Bible School (just North of Horton Park), now a high rise and former home of the Norwegian Lutheran Seminary
- Twin City Rapid Transit Co. car barns, SE corner of University & Snelling
- Northern Pacific Hospital on Charles Avenue, 2 blocks East of Snelling
- Branch Post Offices: SW corner of University & Snelling, NE corner of University at Prior
- The former Tatum School, just South of Newell Park, destroyed by fire in 1962 (see images via Minnesota Historical Society)
- Lexington Baseball Park, at the SW corner of Lexington Parkway & University

 

Hamline Midway neighborhood TODAY via Google Maps

Have some fun playing around with this -- zoom in or out and view a map or satellite version.

Stay tuned for more soon!

 


30 JAN 2007

Hamline Midway History Corps
www.HamlineMidwayHistory.org
Saint Paul, Minnesota