West Side, Saint Paul, Minnesota

Edit with form
West Side, Saint Paul, Minnesota
City/locality- State/province	Saint Paul, Minnesota
County- State/province:	Ramsey County, Minnesota
State/province:	Minnesota
Country:	United States

Saint Paul Ramsey County

Mural off of State and Concord Streets

The contours of the earth define and set apart Saint Paul’s West Side. On the north, the great swoop of the Mississippi forms the point and two sides of a rounded triangle; a line of limestone cliffs – the shore long ago of the glacial River Warren – forms the base. The low plains inside the triangle, the flats, has invited immigrants, industry, and floods for more than a century and a half. The immigrants and those who followed them eventually expanded the West Side south to the city limit at Annapolis Street.

The heart of St. Paul's Latino neighborhood has been the scene of demonstrations in support of the United Farm Workers and other labor causes. The area along Concord St. also is filled with colorful murals illustrating Indian and Mexican history.

Chronology

Thus named because it is the area within the city limits that is on the west side of the Mississippi River, the West Side neighborhood is essentially south of downtown. Until the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, the West Side belonged to the Dakota people, and hence unavailable for settlement. After the 1851 treaty, it was available, but due to frequent flooding, prior to 1880, few people lived on the "flats." French-Canadians, Irish, and especially Germans lived on the banks and bluffs out of the flood zone; in 1874, the West Side was annexed by the city of Saint Paul. In 1882 a trainload of 200 Eastern European Jews arrived, having fled genocide in their homelands. Having no money, they initially set up tents on the lowlands on the West Side, Saint Paul. The tents gradually gave way to small houses and over the subsequent three decades, more refugees joined them, coming from Russia, Lithuania, Poland, Syria, and Lebanon. Synagogues and a Hebrew school were built. The neighborhood was bound by geography, with the river forming the west, north, and east boundaries and the bluffs demarking the southern one. Elevation divided the area economically and ethnically. After World War I, the flats began to be populated by Mexican-Americans who came to Minnesota to work in meat packing plants and the sugar beet fields, and settled there permanently. The Neighborhood House, a community support resource for social services was founded by the eastern European Jews, and became a haven for the Mexican immigrants in the 1920s and 1930s. The organization provided services such as English, sewing, and cooking classes, and employment referrals. As the Jewish residents built wealth and moved to higher ground, they rented their modest houses on the lowlands to the Mexican immigrants. The African-American architect, Clarence W. Wigington (1883–1967) designed several structures in the city, including the Harriet Island Pavilion. Little is left of the historical lowlands, as in the early 1960s, the entire neighborhood was bulldozed for urban renewal, destroying most of the historic structures on the lower West Side; but many of the homes of the wealthier residents on the high bluffs survive, including the Heimbach House and the Anthony Yoerg House.

Links

http://www.historicsaintpaul.org/newsroom/publications/west_side

Badges

This place is part of the Saint Paul Labor History Tour

Buildings in West Side, Saint Paul, Minnesota

	#	Street
123 Wabasha Street South, Saint Paul, Minnesota	123	Wabasha	Street	S
35 Isabel Street West, Saint Paul, Minnesota (Razed)	35	Isabel	Street	W
Anthony Yoerg House, 215 West Isabel Street, Saint Paul, Minnesota	215	Isabel	Street	W
Castle Royal, 215 Wabasha Street South, Saint Paul, Minnesota	215	Wabasha	Street	S
Dr. Octavius Beal House, 23 West Isabel Street, Saint Paul, Minnesota	23	Isabel	Street	W
Durkee House, 58 Prospect Boulevard, Saint Paul, Minnesota	58	Prospect	Boulevard
Edward J. Heimbach House, 64 Delos Street West, Saint Paul, Minnesota	64	Delos	Street	W
Eugene Villaume Home, 123 West Isabel Street, Saint Paul, Minnesota	123	Isabel	Street	W
Grady Flats, 46-52 West Delos Street, Saint Paul, Minnesota	46	Delos	Street	W
Henry Heinsch House, 390 Stryker Avenue South, Saint Paul, Minnesota	390	Stryker	Avenue	S
James Melady House, 361 Stryker Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota	361	Stryker	Avenue
John Minea House, 382-384 Winslow Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota	382	Winslow	Avenue
Rau-Strong House, 2 East George Street, Saint Paul, Minnesota	2	George	Street	E
Riverview Library, 1 East George Street, Saint Paul, Minnesota	1	George	Street	E
St. Matthew’s School, 1 West Robie Street, Saint Paul, Minnesota	1	George	Street	E
Wigington Pavilion, Harriet Island, Saint Paul, Minnesota

Structures in West Side, Saint Paul, Minnesota

	#	Street
Wabasha Street Bridge, Saint Paul, Minnesota		Wabasha	Street

Sites in West Side, Saint Paul, Minnesota

American Hoist & Derrick Company, Saint Paul, Minnesota (1885-1985)
Harriet Island, Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul Downtown Airport, Saint Paul, Minnesota

Tours in West Side, Saint Paul, Minnesota

Bridge Trail Walking Tour