Tour Saint Paul: Frogtown and West End
Historic Saint Paul produced Tour Saint Paul guides for the city’s West End and Frogtown neighborhoods.
The Frogtown neighborhood has been the home of many immigrant groups people who have formed the backbone of the city with their hard work and activism. Along with the adjacent Rondo neighborhood, Frogtown has been home to many local and national leaders during the Civil Rights movement. The neighborhood is home to a large and intact collection of late 19th century working housing and a few of the most noted churches in Saint Paul. Frogtown is bounded by Lexington Avenue on the west, the Burlington Northern Railroad (proximate to Maryland Avenue) on the north, Rice Street on the east, and University Avenue on the south.
The West End contains most of the oldest structures in town, including several preCivil War buildings. It was among the first areas settled by Europeans in the state. Within this neighborhood are “subneighborhoods,” including Irvine Park, Uppertown, and Brewerytown. It is also the site of Fountain Cave, sometimes referred to as the “birthplace” of Saint Paul. For more than 150 years, the neighborhood has attracted a broad spectrum of social classes, reflected in everything from the grand mansions of Irvine Park, to the largely vanished Upper Levee neighborhood that housed the city’s poorest 19th century immigrants. Even today, new immigrants continue to settle in the West End. The West End is bounded by the Mississippi River on the east, I35E on the west and south, and Kellogg Boulevard/Downtown to the north.
The Tour Saint Paul series of neighborhood guides provide lasting and fun documentation of the city’s history. At their most basic level, they preserve what we know to be true of ourselves and our neighborhoods. Historic Saint Paul is making these stories available as printed material and through the Historic Saint Paul website.
(b) Statewide Historic and Cultural Grants. (i) $2,250,000 in 2010 and $4,500,000 in 2011 are appropriated for history programs and projects operated or conducted by or through local, county, regional or other historical or cultural organizations; or for activities to preserve significant historic and cultural resources. Funds are to be distributed through a competitive grants process. The Minnesota Historical Society shall administer these funds using established grants mechanisms, and with assistance from the advisory committee created herein.