Deja Vu

A different day, a different location, but surprisingly I had the same idea in mind for the same subject. I was looking through my archive of photos for some that I've overlooked in the past. To my surprise, the last two days were of the same subject, same location and nearly the same cropping. Personally, I like today's better than yesterday's because of the added green from the trees.

Steve's Newport Drive-In

Though it has been closed for quite some time now, at least three years. It was known for it's great burgers and rootbeer floats. I believe it was once an A&W Rootbeer stand before it turned into Steve's Newport Drive-In. The drive-in became a casualty of the Highway 61 road construction that eliminated the stop light and nearly all of it's passer by traffic.

  

Looking Up

Down along the Mississippi River, an abandon grain house.

The Basilica Of Saint Mary

Built in 1914, the Basilica Of Saint Mary was the first Basilica built in America. It was honored Pope Pius XI in 1926 and has been named to the National Register of Historic Places. There is an extensive history on this Catholic based parish dating back to 1655, which can be found on their website.

Missing Smoke Stack

I've posted a very similar shot from this location over a year ago. The difference being the smoke stack in the background. The reason for this post is, the smoke stack is no longer standing and this is one of my few night shots with the tower. Last summer, Xcel Energy Power Plant converted their coal operation into a different form of energy production. See a photo of the falling smoke stack here.

Schmidt Brewery Catwalk

Before Minnesota Brewing Company purchased the Schmidt Brewery, along the catwalk between the castle like tower and the silo's, one could see the word 'SCHMIDT'. The letters were lit up in bright red neon letters. At night, it could be seen for miles, the letter were large, larger the letters L and K from the landmark sign.

I spent a good hour or so looking for an old photo of the Schmidt neon letters but could not find one. Perhaps someone has one in their old photo albums that they could scan and send in to be posted? My email is listed under my About Me page.

The letters would light up, one at a time to spell the brewery's name in the exact same pattern, S C H M I D T, then all lights off, then all lights on, then all lights off, and all lights on once again. Finally the lights would all turn off again, after a brief pause, the letters would once again light up one at a time in sequence. As a child, I could envision this pattern in my head and time it to the exact second when the letters would turn on and off when ever the neon letters would be out of site. Or you could close your eyes, walk the pattern in your head a couple of times and see how close you were to the sequence. Tell me I'm not the only one who did this when you were young? Someone else has to have done this silly game too....right? Hahaha!

Just Like A Castle

I've always thought the main tower of the Schmidt Brewery looks like a castle.

Jacob Schmidt

Born in Bavarian in 1845, Jacob Schmidt arrived in America at the age of 20. After working in New York and Milwaukee breweries for almost five years, he came to St. Paul to assist his friend, Theodore Hamm, as the brewmaster at Hamm's brewery. Three years later, he travelled to New Ulm to work for August Schell of Schell's Brewery, and from there worked in various breweries around the Midwest.

In 1884, Jacob moved back to St. Paul and purchased a half interest in the North Star Brewery located at Commercial St. & Hudson Rd. (The place had been in operation under various owners since its inception by Edward Drewry and a Mr. Scotten, in 1855.)

SOURCE: Minnesota History of Brewing

Schmidt Brewery History

Originally the Stahlmann Brewery, but built as the Cave Brewery in 1855 was sold the the Jacob Schmidt and family in 1900. They purchased the old Stahlmann Brewery because the North Star Brewery which Jacob Schmidt had half interest in burned to the ground and a new location was needed. In 1901 it became the Jacob Schmidt Brewing Company. They built a new facility and malt house along side the existing structures. In 1955, the plant was sold to the Pfeiffer Brewing Company of Detroit, but continued to use the very popular Schmidt name and logo. In 1972, G. Heilemann Brewing Company of LaCrosse, Wisconsin brought the brewery. I believe the plant closed briefly in 1987 when Heilemann's was purchased by an Australian company. The plant did reopen in 1991 when the Minnesota Brewing Company moved in and produced the strangely named beer labeled 'Pig's Eye'. If however you are a local, Pig's Eye is a very familiar name as it has quite a history in the early days of St Paul. [I believe they wanted to name St Paul 'Pig's Eye' at one point]

The plant struggled in the late 1990's financially. To help keep the plant alive, it sold part of the plant to Gopher State Ethanol and it became the nations first urban ethanol processing plant. Those of you in the Ethanol business are familiar with the foul oder it can produce. As you can image, the neighborhood was full of complaints. In reality, having an ethanol process plant in a neighborhood turn into a very bad idea. In 2002, beer production unfortunately ended at the Schmidt Brewery. The bitter smell continued to stink up the neighborhood. In May of 2004, the ethanol side of things closed for good, not due to the complaints and many court battles that lasted for years. It was closed do to financial reasoning.

Now the plant sits vacant. Though in doing some research tonight, I'm reading the plant may have been sold for 7.5 million and parts of the plant will be reconstructed in to art studio's and perhaps more. It would be nice to see the castle like structure that has stood in St Paul for 150 years to live on versus being torn down.

Pure Spring Water At The Well House

If you look closely, the two blue squares offer free water to anyone who brings bottles or jugs to fill up. Growing up, we often stopped here every couple of weeks to get the good drinking water. Waiting in line some days for others taking their turn. I'm not sure if they still offer the free water as the plant has been closed since 2004 or 2005.

UPDATE 12/12/08: Entrepreneur.com 4.02.1990 - Schmidt Brewery will cease dispensing free spring water.

Taps at the Schmidt Brewery that have dispensed free spring water to the public since 1983 will be turned off sometime after the planned July 3 plant closing.

Each month, thousands of people wait in line to fill their glass jugs or plastic bottles. They take away a combined average of 79,000 gallons each month. The brewery estimates it gives away 955,000 gallons of spring water each year.

From the time the faucets were installed, the water was a hit. Regulars say there really is no season or time of day when there isn't a line.

The regulars were hit hard by the news that they would be cut off from the spring.

END UPDATE

The words are a bit hard to read so I've transcribed them below.

Over 1100 feet beneath this well building flows a stream of sparkling pure spring water. We have drilled deeper than any other brewer in the United States to tap this water because no other single ingredient is more important to the qualtiy and character of our beer than the purity of our perfect brewing water.

This water fell as rain over a century ago and has been viltered pure by nature through natural rock and limestone. There is no finer or purer brewing water anywhere in the world.

We don't aim to make the most beer, Only The Best!

Minnesota Brewing Co. [originally the Jacob Schmidt Brewing Company]

Self Service Car Wash

Another photo from the 7th Avenue car wash.

Four Stall Car Wash

This car wash location has been here on 7th Street in St Paul on the West End neighborhood for a very long time. Their unique shape sets them apart from anything being built today in car wash land. I guess you could say they are a historical landmark for the city of St Paul. I can tell you this, anyone who has driven by them knows exactly where these are. It may have been a while since you drove past them, they are still there cleaning cars on a daily basis. When the day comes and they are no longer standing, their oddly shaped points will be missed by those who remember.

Westside's Fire Station 21

Growing up in the West Side neighborhood of St Paul and living rather close to this fire station, I knew very little about it's history. Built in 1920, Engine House #21 resides on the southwest corner of Ohio Street and Baker Street. The fire station at 643 Ohio Street was modeled after Station 18 on University Avenue and was used until 1943. It has since housed a VFW, a German gymnasium [the Turnverein's] and presently residential for a shipwright and a photographer. What stands out to me is, until recently, I never knew this was originally a fire station.

One thing of note, the size of the garage doors were built for a horse drawn wagon. This explains why it was abandon after 23 years of service. The size of this fire station was one of the smallest in the city, when engine drawn firetrucks became the norm, the larger fire stations had their garage doors widened to accommodate the size of the trucks. This station was left intact as it was easier to build a brand new building.

Rau - Strong House

This home on the West Side Neighborhood of St Paul has been under construction for as long as I can remember in one form or another. It's slowly come around to what you see today. I recall in the past, perhaps 20-25 years ago, on Halloween night the house was open to the public as a haunted house of some sort. The home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (added 1975 - Building - #75001015).

2 George Street East: Rau-Stronge House/Strong House/Ossian R. Strong House; Built in 1884; Italianate/Stick/Eastlake/Second Empire in style. The structure is a two story, 3351 square foot, eight room, one bathroom, stucco house, with a detached garage. The 1885 city directory indicates that Mr. and Mrs. G. Adam Rau resided at this address. The 1887 city directory indicates that Mr. and Mrs. Adam Rau and Mr. and Mrs. O. R. Strong resided at this address. The 1890, 1892, 1894, 1896 and 1898 city directories indicate that Mr. and Mrs. O. R. Strong resided at this address. Oakland Cemetery Association records indicate that Ossian R. Strong and Elizabeth S. Strong (1861-1894,) of German extraction who died of consumption, husband and wife, resided at this address in 1894. Oakland Cemetery Association records indicate that Johanna Sophia Rau (1823-1906,) the widowed mother-in-law of Ossian R. Strong, who was born in Germany to parents who were also born in Germany and who died of a cerebral hemorrhage, resided at this address in 1906. Oakland Cemetery Association records indicate that Julius A. Strong (1827-1913,) the husband of Caroline M. Strong, who was born in New York to parents who were born in the United States and who died of pleurisy-bronchopneumonia, resided at this address in 1913. The 1930 city directory indicates that Ruth G. Strong resided at this address. The property was purchased by stone cutter Adam Rau in 1867. In 1884, Rau began constructing the limestone Second Empire house and the neighboring barn, which was completed in 1886. In 1888, Rau sold the property to Ossian Strong for $8,000. Adam Rau ( -1939) died in Ramsey County. Adam Rau was a stone cutter and dealer in 1880-1881. Five members of the Rau family worked in the stone business, all living on the West Side, including Nicholas Rau, who was the foreman in Adam Rau's stoneyard. Sauter & Rau was another stone cutting firm in 1880-1881. Osslian R. Strong ( -1922) died in Ramsey County. The property was last sold in 1991 with a sale price of $55,500. The current owners of record of the property are Steven E. Peterson and Collette L. Peterson. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places (1975) and has been designated a local heritage preservation site.

SOURCE: Kevin D. Hendricks

Different View Of The Saint Paul Hotel

From St Peter Street, a slightly different view of the Saint Paul Hotel in St Paul.

Beechwood Aged, Saint Louis, Missouri

Anheuser-Busch has a 50% market share in the United States of all beers sold. Their headquarters is located in St Louis, Missouri. Our last stop before we left Saint Louis was the beer king headquarters. We toured the plant and learned a great deal about the process they use for making their product. Plus we got to sample a couple of their brews at the end of the tour.

Saint Louis, Missouri - Old Court House

From my St Louis, Missouri trip, a few captures of the Historic Old Court House. It sits directly to the west of the Gateway Arch. What I found fascinating about the build was, it was build completely over the original court house, which has become one of the wings of the front entrance. They had a scaled down, plexiglas model of the original court house with the old court house and how it was built into one building. The insides of the building are amazing. The entire dome ceiling has murals, all the way up to the top! The woodworking, the columns, the colors, it was a sight to see for this out of towner.

  

Castle Like Structure

The immense, castle-like structure with two massive towers and a fanciful array of small towers, windows, and dormers became an immediate landmark. It had taken ten years to complete, covered an entire city block, cost more than $2.5 million dollars, and at the time of its completion was the largest building in the city. The exterior design incorporated two contemporary styles, Richardsonian Romanesque and Chatequesque, executed in St. Cloud pink granite.

Federal Building, Built In 1902

Continuing on from yesterday's photo. I mentioned congress approved funding for a new Federal Building in 1891. Actually there were 33 Federal Buildings that were approved funding throughout the country. All 33 buildings authorized were designed in the office of the Supervisory Architect of the Treasury Department. Although the Supervisory Architect signed all plans, the designs were actually collaborations among the more than 500 employees in his office; architects, engineers, draftsmen, specification writers, and cost estimators. Architects in private practice caled the office a "plan factory," referring to its practice of cranking out the design piecmeal and only a step ahead of the construction process. Others criticized the office for the standardized appearance and floor plans of the 33 buildings. Judging by the photos I've seen of some of the Federal Buildings, many of you have a building similar to the St Paul building, which is now known as 'Landmark Center'.

Inside The Landmark Center

The last couple of days, I've been teasing you with ceiling photos of the Landmark Center in downtown St Paul. It has been 20 years since I had last set foot inside the building, but I do recall learning that the building originally was built without electricity and used natural light for the occupants to see what they were doing.

By the late 1880's Minnesota's capital, St Paul and it's sister town across the river, Minneapolis had grown into thriving young cities. Only 40 years earlier, when St Paul was little more than a small collection of houses and muddy streets, Henry Jackson had dispensed the city's mail from a shelf in his dry goods store. Now St Paul was receiving more than 50 million pieces of mail annually, and the post office and federal courts had outgrown their space in the city's original federal building at Fifth and Wabasha streets. Civic leaders and elected officials began lobbying Congress for a much larger federal building. After several uncuccessful attempts, the St Paul contingent succeeded in 1891 when Congress approved a grand new building, one that would confirm St Paul's rapid rise and promising future.

Signal Car Wash

Those of you familiar with West St Paul, may recall the Signal Car Wash during it's prime just off of Robert Street, behind the old Signal Hills Shopping Center. I believe it is closed now as it was a Sunday around 2:00 at the time of this photo. It would have been open during it's business hours. I do recall visiting the car wash when I was much younger. It's the automated type of wash. Drive your car in and watch it travel down the track in various stages of wash and rinse. The customer would stand behind glass windows and watch as the vehicle progressed to the finish line.

High Bridge Smoke Stack

This morning at 7:30 am, St Paul will lose another piece of it's skyline. The old NSP plant, now the Xcel Energy Plant, which is no longer a coal burning power plant will demolish it's 570 foot smoke stack. This will wake the neighborhood. I know the plant is being converted to a different type of energy plant, but I cannot recall exactly what type at the moment. Whatever is to become of the energy plant, the smokestack is useless for the future. Down it will go with 200 pounds of explosives. I unfortunately will not be able to attend the demolishion. This is my busy season at work and I must pass up this event. Though, I do have several photos of the smokestack, I will take some photos after the event has taken place with the new void in the skyline.

Seven Corners Hardware

Seven Corners Hardware, since 1933. Oddly enough, it's on the corner of Seventh Street and Chestnut Street in St Paul. Just on the fringe of downtown. To be fair, the landscape has changed quite a bit since it's opening, plus I do believe the intersection it gets it's name from is just out of frame to the left. That end of the block is home to many intersections coming together.

From what I hear, the floors creek when you walk on them, the aisles are very narrow. If you're looking for something uncommon, it's probably 10 feet high on a shelf, so it's best to ask for help. They pretty much will have everything you need, plus they are an authorized service center for many tool manufacturers.

Attack Of The 50 Foot Mermaid

For as long as I can remember, this very large mermaid has yet to put her arms down. It sits atop a restaurant on Highway 10 in Mounds View. The name of the restaurant shouldn't be of surprise, it is called 'The Mermaid'. Since I've started this photo blog, there are a few things around the Twin Cities that I've had on my list to photograph someday, this was one of them.

Dismantling The Historic Green Stairs

The 92 year old, 191 stairs and a historic piece of the lower West Side neighborhood in St Paul, has closed and is in the process of being dismantled. A steel beam was damaged earlier in May when a huge chuck of the limestone cliff damaged the structure and cracked a gusset plate. Sadly, this small icon of St Paul will be lost. Growing up very close to these stairs and playing on them quite often, it is sad to see this happening. My friends and I would have a stop watch, race to the bottom and back up to see who was the fastest. It was a grueling workout and I often saw people using the stairs for exercise.

So far, about a third of the structure is gone, plus the walkway from the bluffs to the main stairwell. If time permits, I will return tomorrow to photo graph the progress. There is talk of raising funds for a replacement stairwell by the two US senators of Minnesota, Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar.

The green stairs have been a favorite location to shoot photos from. The view is a classic downtown St Paul view.

Night time shot from the top of the green stairs
Day time shot from the top of the green stairs

   

Downtown St Paul Icon

I've featured the 1st National Bank building in a few shots during the past couple of years of the Twin Cities Daily Photo blog. For the city of St Paul, it is one of a few major, visual landmarks it offers.

I'm Gonna Break My Rusty Cage And Run

Found this very rusty tow truck located in Eagan, just off the beaten path of Highway 13. Makes me wonder if Mark's Towing is still in business.

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Electrocardiogram

This odd looking contraption, also from the Bakken Museum, is an early 1900s, historic EKG machine used to track the electrical energy from a heart. Today's EKG machine uses disposable patches attached to wires to read the electrical pulses, the EKG machine in the photo, the hands and feet were placed in sodium chloride baths as a means of conduction. We've come a long way in medicine.

Minnesota Wild vs Colorado Avalanche Update
Series: Wild lead in the series 2-1
Game 4: Tuesday, April 15 @ 9:00 [CT]
Game 5: Thursday, April 17 @ 8:00 [CT]

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Bakken Museum

One of the more interesting places to visit in the Twin Cities is the Bakken Museum, located on just off of Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis. Earl Bakken is credited for creating the first wearable, batter powered, cardiac pacemaker and is a co-founder of Medtronics. The pacemaker is one of several medical devices and other important electronic equipment that is housed in the museum. If you visit the Twin Cities some day in the future, schedule the museum on your list of places to see.

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Hamm Building

The Hamm Building, originally owned by the Hamm Brewing family, was built in 1919 [though I've researched 1915 and 1920 as the built date]. The building rests on the original site of the St Paul Cathedral where there is a natural spring well, perfect for hand crafted beer. The Hamm Building is now on the National Register of Historic Places. From the documents I've read, the building housed one of the city's biggest illeagal gambling operations in the late 1920's to early 1930's. Today, the Hamm Building's main function is office space.

Not Your Typical View

I've seen countless photos of the Landmark Center located in downtown St Paul, including a few seen on this photo blog. I've never seen a photo of the back side of the landmark center. Here it is in all it's glory.

My Daily Photo Favorites: returning soon....

I Took Me Four Attempts

Looking at yesterday's photo again, I must tell a quick story. The night I shot both today's and yesterday's photo, it took me four attempts before I timed the big "1" to be lit up as it is today. It's a three sided neon lighted sign and each bank is lit up one at a time to save energy and the cost to run all three sides at once. Getting the timing down to take a photo of it proved to be a challenge in the cold temperatures. In the end, I actually preferred the unlit photo better. It's a capture of this tower at night that I had never seen before. Plus the neon lights were very bright in the photo, but being as it was very cold out, I didn't want to tweak my camera settings any longer.

Which do you prefer?

My Daily Photo Favorites: returning soon

Night Shot Of The First National Bank

Nighttime capture of the First National Bank Building in downtown St Paul. I am at the corner of Kellogg Avenue and Wabasha Street.

My Daily Photo Favorites: returning soon....

Close Up Of The Facade

Zoomed in on the entrance to the Old Pioneer Press building. I've noticed the plaque in the corner of the building since taking this photo. I'm going to have to make a return trip to this building and get a close up of the dialog on the plaque. If I want some history of this building, I would bet I can find it there.

Sunlight Stripe

This one was sort of tough to photograph. I really wanted to capture the sunlight on the old Pioneer Press building, but had to stand back far to capture it all. However, if I went too far back, I would lose the stripe into the white building. I do like the building design. It's a fairly common look on the older buildings. I'm not sure when they left this building, but they are now located about three miles from here. "Here" is downtown St Paul. I believe it's the corner of Robert Street and 4th Street if I'm not mistaken.

One More From The Historic Library

This is from the same location as yesterday's photo of the downtown St Paul Public Library. I wanted to show the front area of the entry way into the library and all of the work that went into the design.

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James J Hill Library

Named after successful business man, James J Hill, the downtown St Paul library has been around since 1921. An early settler in St Paul, James J Hill is well known for his success in the railroad industry. The library is located at 80 West 4th Street.

The view of the library is on the north east corner of the building.

The Saint Paul Hotel

Night time view of the Saint Paul Hotel building. It is the building with the lights around the edge of the roof line and all of the lights on in the penthouse level.
 

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