Another building owned by the St. Paul Hebrew Institute was at 133 E. Fillmore. There were four apartments in the building, but there is no information about the tenants. They may have been used for the people who came to use the large bath…

In 1888 Rabbi Herman Simon became rabbi of the West Side Congregations and proceeded to lead the effort to establish a Hebrew Institute on the West Side. The St. Paul Hebrew Institute and Sheltering Home was completed and dedicated in 1911 at…

Beth Midrash Ha Godol Synagogue was organized some time in the late 1880s with Rabbi Isaac Lichtenberg serving as the congregation's rabbi. It is believed that the congregation worshiped at 165 State Street beginning some time later than…

The Sons of Israel Synagogue was located at 110 Robertson Street, this street no longer exists and ran between and parallel to State and Eva Streets. The building is shown on the Hopkins 1916 map, but no other information has been located about…

The Congregation of the Sons of Zion, or B'nai Zion, was organized in 1883 by newer Russian Jewish immigrants who were said to not want to affiliate with the already established Orthodox Sons of Jacob , a synagogue generally known as a…

The Agudas Achim Synagogue was founded by members of the Congregation of the Russian Brotherhood, though the locations and date of closure are not certain. It seems, however, that this building was in use by 1909. There were two addresses…

The histories of the church, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and of Sister Giovanni (“Sister G” as she was known) are intertwined. In 1931. the Guild of Catholic women rented space in a grocery store at 123 S. Wabasha on the West Side to found a “Mexican…

Torre San Miguel, the only remaining portion of the Irish-Catholic Church of St. Michael, is located on a slight rise of land at the far north end of the Torre San Miguel Homes on Wood St. Originally the bell tower for the 1882 church, it was left…

The West Side of St. Paul originally got it's name not from the fact that it sits west of St. Paul, but because at this point of the river, the Mississippi bends from its north-south bearing, to an east-west, placing the West Side on the left…

A short distance west of Engine House #21 and turning north on Smith Avenue, you will eventually cross the Mississippi River on the Smith High Bridge. Of the first three bridges in the area, the High Bridge was the last to be constructed, connecting…

At the corner of Baker Street and Ohio is Engine House #21, a great example of early adaptive reuse. Built in 1910 for horse-drawn equipment, it is a pleasing example of fire station design with a hose tower. After its retirement from the fire…

Located just a couple of hundred feet west from the Haas House at 241 West George is the Samuel Dearing House. Augustus Gauger, German-born and prolific St. Paul architect, designed this one, and was built in 1886, with both Italianate and queen…

Half a mile west of the Rau-Strong House is the Charles Haas House at 214 West George. Note the wonderful front porch and attic windows above. Built in 1889. Charles Haas was born in Indiana County, in Western Pennsylvania, in 1849, and came to…

Continuing west on George Street, there are three residences worth admiring. Just south of the Riverview Library is the Rau-Strong House at 2 East George. Adam Rau was a stonecutter and contractor, born in Germany. He quarried the limestone for…

A short distance south of St. Matthew's School, at the corner of Humboldt and George, you will find Riverview Library. The industrialist (founder of US Steel) and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie gave money for the building of 1579 public…

On your way up Humboldt, take a left on Winifred Street and stop at Jerabek’s New Bohemian Coffeehouse and Bakery. There is nothing historic about the building, but the family has been operating a bakery since Ed Jerabek, a Czech immigrant, opened…

Built in 1902, St. Matthew’s is probably the second-oldest school building in the city, after St. Joseph’s Academy/Christ’s Household of Faith (1863). The school itself, originally housed in the first St. Matthew’s Church (long gone), began in 1892.…

Directly below the Yoerg residences, nestled into the bluff at Ohio Street, was his brewery, which was lost to a fire in 1958. Follow Isabel Street west to Ohio; there you will see an outcropping of the limestone upon which much of St. Paul is…

A few houses down on West Isabel is another French Second Empire home Yoerg Sr. built for his son, Anthony Junior, who followed him in the beer business. The other sons, Louis and Frank, did so too. The young Anthony turned out to be the most…

After the Yoergs built their new brewery in 1870, It did not take long for competitors to show up: Brueggeman, Banholzer, Stahlman, Schmidt, and Hamm. The last two grew giant, with Schmidt's castle-like complex southwest of city center, along…