"Hamline University, in
the northwestern portion of the city, about four miles
from the business center, on the line of the St. Paul,
Minneapolis and Manitoba and the Northern Pacific
Railway...
They are located on an
elevated plat, formerly open prairie, and are
surrounded by the neat and tasteful residences,
forming what was properly and is still occasionally
called the village of Hamline.
-- A History of St. Paul,
Minn., edited by General C.C. Andrews,
1890
"In what is called the
inter-urban tract, Hamline has become a social centre
on the one side, while on the other lies Macalester,
with the bright and growing village of Merriam Park
near by."
-- The Dual City Blue
Book, 1885
"HAMLINE a post office,
1880-91, at a site now within St. Paul city limits,
near Hamline University and the state fairgrounds; it
was also known as Johanna Crossing before 1873, the
College Centre, the College Place."
-- Minnesota Place
Names by Warren Upham, 1920 (revised 2001)
"'Tread reverently upon
this ground,' Ireland advised in 1890. 'It is the
Midway, the very heart of the coming great city. Look
at it! Admire it! Has not providence been generous to
it. It is the precious gift by which St. Paul will woo
and win fair Minneapolis.'"
-- John Ireland and the
American Catholic Church by Marvin Richard
O'Connell, 1988
"Symbolic of this
conception is the Midway district sandwiched between
the two cities and within the boundaries of each. When
the four railroads to the Pacific coast were
completed, all freight from the west was routed
through what was called the Minnesota Transfer in the
Midway district. Around this transfer developed an
industrial and commercial center and blocks of
residences for the workers. Through it were carried
the goods of the Orient, the lumber and fruit from the
Pacific States. The double centers became a unit, and
promised to become the nucleus of a railroad empire.
Before 1915 this Midway
was the scene of extraordinary railroad and shipping
activity. Then the Panama Canal was opened and the
activities languished. But today the Midway is a
flourishing industrial and business center and has
practically wiped out the cities' official dividing
line."
-- The WPA Guide to
Minnesota, 1938 (reissued in 1985)
"Glacial Lake Hamline - A
map and description of a glacial lake, lying mostly
within the area of St. Paul, are presented by the
present writer in the 'Bulletin of the Geological
Society of America' (vol. 8, 1897, pp. 183-96). Its
deposits form nearly level sand and gravel plains and
plateaus, 260 to 225 feet above the river, extending
from near the St. Paul campus of the University of
Minnesota eastward to the northwest end of Lake Como,
thence southward past Hamline University, with a
narrow connection southeast to another wide expanse in
the Hill District or plateau crossed by Summit Avenue.
The length of the Glacial Lake Hamline was thus about
six miles, with maximum widths exceeding one
mile."
-- Minnesota Place
Names by Warren Upham, 1920 (revised 2001)
"In 1885, after almost
twenty years of being an itinerant pumpkin show held
wherever local boosters could offer the most
attractive inducements, the state fair settled into
permanent quarters on the border between Minneapolis
and St. Paul in what was then known as Hamline,
Minnesota."
-- Blue Ribbon: A Social
and Pictorial History of the Minnesota State Fair
by Karal Ann Marling, 1990
"Speculation was rife. One
journal reported that 'In Hamline, in the district
east of Snelling and north of Minnehaha, acre lots
were offered for $1,400. A young man bought one of
these and rearranged the acre into five lots about 45
x 160 feet, aggregating $2,100, giving him a profit of
50 percent on his original
investment.'"
-- The Bungalows of the
Twin Cites by Brian McMahon, Ramsey County
History, Winter 1996
