The land between the railroad tracks was one of the earliest areas settled in St. Anthony Park, with a community hall, homes, a park, a church, stores, and stations. Very little of it remains today. Take a tour back in time to visit Lost St. Anthony Park.

Unable to attend in person? View the presentation live online, with a recording available for one week following. Use the SAPLC YouTube channel at bit.ly/Sap-history. One can also get to the church’s YouTube channel by clicking through from saplc.org to the worship tab, and then to the livestream link for services and other events.

Presentations are still free, but we’ll be trying a tip jar to help support program expenses. Please invite friends and neighbors.

Within sight of downtown and only a block off West Seventh Street, Irvine Park is one of St. Paul’s oldest neighborhoods. Located near the Alexander Ramsey House and built around a lovely park, its old houses tell an interesting story of settlement, development, change, and historic preservation.

Reservations are required. Please call 651.328.2258 or send an email to alilja@sholom.com.

Known for their fascinating appearance and remarkable survival, the stave churches of Norway form an interesting connection to early medieval architecture and imagery, blending church design with elements of pre-Christian Scandinavian structures. Learn about these distinctive buildings, their decoration, and their history in this illustrated talk.

For more information and registration, visit Learning Is ForEver.

The powerful stories of Holy Week--the Entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, and Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection--have inspired artists over the centuries to create many beautiful and meaningful images. This presentation explores a range of scenes from a variety of times and places in the Christian tradition.

Note update: TUESDAY, February 17, not Thursday, February 19

Based on architectural features from the late medieval and Renaissance eras in Great Britain and on the European continent, the Tudor style we know today was re-imagined and popularized by British designers in the late 19th century. It didn’t take long for this style to spread to the United States—and to find a home in St. Paul. From churches and mansions to cottages and bungalows, you can see numerous examples of the popular and enduring Tudor style along Summit and neighboring streets, and we will explore that amazing variety in this presentation.

Registration required: Information here.

Sponsored by SARPA and the Ramsey Hill Association.

The St. Anthony Park neighborhood has been home to sports activities for over a century. From youth park and rec activities—in which many SAP residents played as children, or sponsored and supported as parents, grandparents, and community members—to professional and semi-pro events, players and fans have built and used many spaces over the years. The February SAP architecture and history program will consider these spaces, familiar or forgotten, as well as several surprising proposals for other sports spaces in the SAP vicinity.

Please invite friends and neighbors.

Unable to attend in person? View the presentation live online, with a recording available for one week following. Use the SAPLC YouTube channel at bit.ly/Sap-history.

Presentations are still free, but please contribute to the tip jar to help support program expenses.

This class uncovers the history of some of the most interesting neighborhoods in the Twin Cities: the garden suburbs of the late 19th century. Attendees will learn about national models for this type of community development, and they will see the specific design principles used in the creation of garden suburbs. Twin Cities examples will be studied, and the class will conclude with a case study of a well-known example, the St. Anthony Park neighborhood in St. Paul.

Everyone in the Twin Cities knows about Summit Avenue, with its grand homes, its colleges, and the Cathedral of St. Paul. In this fully illustrated presentation, we will learn a bit more about these familiar places, and we will also dig into the avenue's history to understand more about this community treasure.

Reservations are required. Please call 651.328.2258 or send an email to alilja@sholom.com.

Just as the St. Anthony Park Company built its first houses, stores, and factories in 1885, the Minnesota State Fair settled on their permanent grounds just to the east. The neighborhood and the fairgrounds—and their intervening neighbor, the University’s St. Paul campus—have grown up together over the past 140 years.

We’ll explore the historic fairgrounds and understand their evolution from a handful of buildings to the complex space we see today.

Unable to attend in person? View the presentation live online, with a recording available for one week following. Use the SAPLC YouTube channel at bit.ly/Sap-history. One can also get to the church’s YouTube channel by clicking through from saplc.org to the worship tab, and then to the livestream link for services and other events.

Presentations are still free, but we’ll be trying a tip jar to help support program expenses. Please invite friends and neighbors.

A history of downtown dwellings in Minneapolis and St. Paul over the past 175 years. Rethos Policy Institute Director Erin Hanafin Berg will conclude the talk with an update on the Catalyzing Underutilized Buildings (CUB) Credit.

Tickets are $10 with registration, $15 at the door. Snacks will be provided and beverages are available for purchase. Visit the Drinking in History site for registration and more information.

The art of Christmas includes a wonderful range of beautiful images, and none are more spectacular than the scenes showing the three kings. With gorgeous clothes, sparkling crowns, and lavish gifts, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar present a striking contrast to the humble shepherds at the manger. In this illustrated lecture, we will see the various ways that artists throughout the centuries have depicted the Magi.

In the early 1870s, brothers-in-law William Marshall and Nathaniel Langford—both prominent St. Paulites—had the idea for a grand garden suburb set between Minneapolis and St. Paul. Big ideas require big money, and the project received financial backing from wealthy lumbermen in Menomonie, Wisconsin. This small group included John H. Knapp, who remained involved in the revised St. Anthony Park of the 1880s, and whose family still owned large areas of land on the neighborhood’s edges well into the 20th century. Knapp’s legacy is honored in a discontinuous street spanning the St. Anthony Park and North St. Anthony Park additions, and an intersecting block-long street next to the Methodist Church. Learn more about Knapp and his partners in this presentation.

Unable to attend in person? View the presentation live online, with a recording available for one week following. Use the SAPLC YouTube channel at bit.ly/Sap-history. One can also get to the church’s YouTube channel by clicking through from saplc.org to the worship tab, and then to the livestream link for services and other events.

Presentations are still free, but we’ll be trying a tip jar to help support program expenses. Please invite friends and neighbors.

Enrich the holiday season with this detailed look at Christmas stories from the Annunciation through the Flight into Egypt. Meet angels, shepherds, kings, and the holy family as we explore a sampling of Christmas art from across the Christian tradition.

In late ancient/early medieval Europe, the Italian city of Ravenna was an important connection point between the Roman and Byzantine worlds, and it had prestigious relationships with the imperial courts. Ravenna became home to a group of important buildings—churches, baptisteries, and mausolea—and many of them are still standing, decorated with stunning mosaics. In this presentation, we will learn about the city’s rich artistic heritage, especially its surviving mosaics.

For more information and registration, visit Learning Is ForEver.

Over nearly 140 years, the massive Blair Flats complex has dominated the Selby-Western intersection. With a handful of names and multiple owners (especially in the past few decades), the buildings have seen many ups and downs, from the early years as the stylish home to many of the area's elite to a less-desirable role as "a bleak monument to urban decay" in the 1960s and 1970s. Efforts to restore the complex and welcome back residents and businesses have returned the Frank Blair buildings to much of their former glory. We'll look into the architect, origins, owners, and famous residents as we trace the story of the complex to its beginnings in the 1880s.

To register, visit the Ramsey Hill Association events page.

Sponsored by SARPA and the Ramsey Hill Association.

Textiles were among the most highly-valued art forms in medieval Europe. England was an important center for making these textiles, and it is likely that teams of English women created the Bayeux Tapestry, which ranks among the most famous medieval art works. Measuring over 220 feet long, this massive textile depicts the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. We’ll learn about the embroidery’s roots in similar medieval objects, and we will investigate the questions and controversies related to its origins.

For more information and registration, visit Learning Is ForEver.

In this presentation, we’ll examine two famous sixteenth-century altarpieces by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Located in their original settings in Wittenberg and Weimar, these richly detailed paintings used the old tradition of decorated altars as a vehicle to show new ideas developed by Martin Luther during the Reformation.

How did the Protestant Reformation affect art and artists, and how did art help to shape the Reformation? In books, posters, pamphlets, and paintings, we will see new types of art and new uses for old forms. From portraits of the Reformers to propaganda pieces, this presentation includes many images from the lively visual arts of Martin Luther’s time.

This summer, Tim & Tom’s Speedy Market celebrated thirty years as an independent grocery store. The first store in their building, Blomberg’s Grocery, was one of many grocery stores in the neighborhood in the early 20th century. In this presentation, we’ll investigate the many options for buying food in St. Anthony Park during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Unable to attend in person? View the presentation live online, with a recording available for one week following. Use the SAPLC YouTube channel at bit.ly/Sap-history. One can also get to the church’s YouTube channel by clicking through from saplc.org to the worship tab, and then to the livestream link for services and other events.

Presentations are still free, but we’ll be trying a tip jar to help support program expenses. Please invite friends and neighbors.

Franklin Ellerbe seems an unlikely founder for a multinational, world-famous architecture firm. He started his architecture studio at age 39, and he died just over a decade later. Yet in that time, he and his son established a practice with deep connections to the Mayo Clinic and the Rochester community, building a reputation for medical facilities and more. Through mergers that created Ellerbe Becket, and later AECOM, Franklin Ellerbe’s heritage endures in over a century’s worth of building in Rochester and around the world.

For more information and registration, visit Learning Is ForEver.

For over a century, University Baptist Church has occupied its lovely building at the corner of University Avenue and 13th Avenue SE. In light of this stability, it’s amazing to consider the dynamic pattern of building and moving seen in the congregation’s earlier history, when they used at least six different spaces in a period of seventy years or so. 

Not only did UBC have many different worship places, but the church also preceded and succeeded other religious communities in particular buildings: nearly all these groups were on the move in those early years. Such intertwining stories and relationships were part of the fascinating saga of the “triplet” cities of St. Anthony, St. Paul, and Minneapolis, where allegiances and connections along neighborhood, geographical, and denominational lines formed the bedrock of the UBC building stories.

Sponsored by SARPA and the Ramsey Hill Association.

The state fair was held in many places over the years—until 1885, at least, when they settled on the current fairgrounds. Over the decades, many buildings have come and gone—including three different grandstands at the current location. In this presentation, we’ll explore fairgrounds and facilities, past and present, going back to the days of the Territorial fairs and tracing our way to the present places and spaces of the Great Minnesota Get-Together.

For more information and registration, visit Learning Is ForEver.

Early in the summer, Luther Seminary announced plans to sell its campus, concluding over 120 years of operation in St. Anthony Park. Even with its long tenure, Luther was not the first seminary in the neighborhood. That honor belongs to Stryker Seminary, established here in the late 19th century. It was located on Doswell, west of Como Avenue. Come on September 9 to learn about seminaries once located in SAP.

Unable to attend in person? View the presentation live online, with a recording available for one week following. Use the SAPLC YouTube channel at bit.ly/Sap-history. One can also get to the church’s YouTube channel by clicking through from saplc.org to the worship tab, and then to the livestream link for services and other events.

Presentations are still free, but we’ll be trying a tip jar to help support program expenses. Please invite friends and neighbors.

Wonders abound in the alleys of St. Anthony Park! We get glimpses of backyards, walk past gardens (intentional or otherwise), and see an array of interesting buildings, some of them quite old. This summer, we will explore alleys in the far northeastern section of the neighborhood. In addition to some fun alley sights, we will be walking on and near the old Dakota Trail.

For more tour details and information on required reservations, visit the Alleys tour page.

Part of the St. Anthony Park 2025 Summer Walking Tours series.

Wonders abound in the alleys of St. Anthony Park! We get glimpses of backyards, walk past gardens (intentional or otherwise), and see an array of interesting buildings, some of them quite old. This summer, we will explore alleys in the far northeastern section of the neighborhood. In addition to some fun alley sights, we will be walking on and near the old Dakota Trail.

For more tour details and information on required reservations, visit the Alleys tour page.

Part of the St. Anthony Park 2025 Summer Walking Tours series.

Wonders abound in the alleys of St. Anthony Park! We get glimpses of backyards, walk past gardens (intentional or otherwise), and see an array of interesting buildings, some of them quite old. This summer, we will explore alleys in the far northeastern section of the neighborhood. In addition to some fun alley sights, we will be walking on and near the old Dakota Trail.

For more tour details and information on required reservations, visit the Alleys tour page.

Part of the St. Anthony Park 2025 Summer Walking Tours series.

As the St. Anthony Park Company got started in the mid-1880s, they scattered their first homes around their neighborhood. Even though the railroad tracks cut through this new suburban community, the company made use of all areas in their development. We’ll be looking at the section just north of the tracks, spread on either side of Raymond Avenue. This is where the oldest homes still stand, now mixed with houses, townhomes, and apartment buildings from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

For more tour details and information on required reservations, visit the Scudder/Raymond streets tour page.

Part of the St. Anthony Park 2025 Summer Walking Tours series.

As the St. Anthony Park Company got started in the mid-1880s, they scattered their first homes around their neighborhood. Even though the railroad tracks cut through this new suburban community, the company made use of all areas in their development. We’ll be looking at the section just north of the tracks, spread on either side of Raymond Avenue. This is where the oldest homes still stand, now mixed with houses, townhomes, and apartment buildings from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

For more tour details and information on required reservations, visit the Scudder/Raymond streets tour page.

Part of the St. Anthony Park 2025 Summer Walking Tours series.

As the St. Anthony Park Company got started in the mid-1880s, they scattered their first homes around their neighborhood. Even though the railroad tracks cut through this new suburban community, the company made use of all areas in their development. We’ll be looking at the section just north of the tracks, spread on either side of Raymond Avenue. This is where the oldest homes still stand, now mixed with houses, townhomes, and apartment buildings from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

For more tour details and information on required reservations, visit the Scudder/Raymond streets tour page.

Part of the St. Anthony Park 2025 Summer Walking Tours series.