The West End Landscape / The Changing West End Landscape

The West End Landscape, also, The Changing West End Landscape. .

The nearness to St. Paul, where a ready market is found for all products, has induced many to engage in gardening, raising early vegetables and berries. In this branch they are successful. The dairy business is also carried on extensively. , History of Ramsey County and the City of St. Paul (1881)

, This corner at the east edge of Crosby Farm Park is perched at the edge of the Mississippi River bluffs and floodplain. It is part of the former Reserve Township, which was annexed by the City of St. Paul in 1887. One of the first parts of the city to have permanent settlement, it was also among the last areas to be developed. Fort Snelling, opposite the west end of the park, was established in 1819. It gathered a community of traders and others who settled briefly in Ramsey County, including Jean Baptiste Faribault. From 1822 to 1826 Faribault lived on 162-acre Pike Island at the junction of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers., Thomas and Emma Crosby, natives of England, were among farmers who acquired acreage along and above the floodplain near present day Fort Road (W. Seventh Street). In addition to market gardening and dairy farming, some of the shoreline was used for a log boom. Old Fort Road roughly followed the path of Stewart Avenue; the route of today's Fort Road and West Seventh streets was linked to Fort Snelling in 1880 with the completion of an iron bridge., Crosby Farm, 1906., The Union Stockyards were established near the east end of the Crosby property on Stewart Street, as was a quarry operated by the St. Paul Crushed Stone Company. Other portions of the bluff, which were suitable for drilling deep vaults for cold storage, were eyed by brewers such as Frederick and William Banholzer and other industrialists seeking building sites. Beginning with the West End Addition above Elway Street in 1881, real estate speculators laid out lots in anticipation of a housing boom, but dairy farms continued to operate in the township for several decades., West End Bakery, 1924., Reserve Township, 1867 (L.G. Bennett) , 1886 (G.M. Hopkins) , 1916 (G.M. Hopkins) , 1. Employees at Banholzer Brewery, 1889. 2. Banholzer Brewery, 1936. 3. William Banholzer House, 689 Stewart Street, 1928. 4. Butternut Street, 1915., In 1880, one writer proposed that the then-new Fort Snelling Bridge would draw a large population in to the area, and there would be a "grand avenue bordered by shade trees and fine suburban residences." The idea of a grand avenue was formally proposed about 30 years later as Reserve Boulevard, and a different vision realized as Shepard Road in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1965, about 500 acres of the former Crosby property, including an extensive floodplain forest, were acquired by the St. Paul Port Authority for the present Crosby Farm Park., Shepard Road was completed in the late 1950s. Interstate I-35, roughly following portions of the former Pleasant Street, was completed in the mid-1980s., Banholzer Brewery. William Banholzer (1829-1897), brewed "Banholzer's North Mississippi Beer" at his West Seventh Street brewery. Following a tradition popular in many American cities, Banholzer created a beer garden and "Banholzer's Park" north of his business. The son of German immigrant and brewer Frederick Banholzer, William expanded the brewery complex to include deep storage caves under present-day Shepard Road. The mouth of the now-sealed cave was near Butternut Street., In 1885, William Banholzer built a red-brick, French Second Empire Style house at 689 Stewart Street, perched over the now-razed brewery. The house is now in institutional use., "St. Paul Bluff," Clement Haupers, 1925., In contrast to Banholzer's mansion, the remaining brick and frame houses on Butternut Street between Sumac and Otto are typical of those occupied by brewery workers. The dramatic bluff landscape and small houses of this area inspired St. Paul artist Clement Haupers (1900-1982), who painted "St. Paul Bluff" in 1925., The Changing West End Landscape. In 1874, a portion of the Crosby Lake area and West End near the Mississippi River was still part of Reserve Township. This township wold be annexed to St. Paul in 1887. Thomas and Emma Crosby were among area farmers who supplied the nearby urban population with dairy, meat, and market crops. Fort Road was a conduit to trade with St. Paul and Fort Snelling (A.T. Andreas, Illustrated Historical Atlas of Minnesota, 1874)., In 1923, residential development on the bluff above the river floodplain followed the ravine below Edgcumbe Road (United States Department of Agriculture, 1923). The area shown in this photograph is outlined in red on the contemporary photograph at right., In 1916, St. Paul was a modern city preparing for the growth that would follow World War I. The breweries, rail yards, and factories of the West End near the Upper Landing (just off the map to the northeast) provided many jobs for nearby workers. Beginning with the West End Addition of 1881, real estate developers laid out hundreds of lots for a new generation of home builders along the bluffs above Stewart and West Seventh streets. Streetcars were still important, but many households owned automobiles. Although a boulevard linking this area with downtown St. Paul was already proposed, it would be decades before Shepard Road was built (G.M. Hopkins, St. Paul Atlas, 1916)., In 2010, the neighborhoods and areas along the river support many types of residential, commercial, and industrial land uses. Major transportation changes since 1923 include Shepard Road, completed in the early 1960s, which would provide access to Crosby Farm Regional Park. Land for this park was acquired in 1965 and included a floodplain forest and Crosby Lake. I-35E, following a portion of the route of Pleasant Street, was completed in the mid-1980s (City of St. Paul, 2010).