Memories of July 4 Past

Here was the news report of the fireworks show in my hometown of Duluth in 1988.  The year where the show was quite efficient, albeit accidentally. 

Oh the memories.

Summit Avenue Walking Tour

This afternoon I had a chance to go on a walking tour of Summit Ave houses presented by the Minnesota Historical Society.  Summit Avenue is perhaps one of the best preserved historical residential areas of the country. The 4.5 miles of Summit Avenue still holds 373 of its original 440 grand mansions built from 1855 through the 1920s.

Here's highlights of what I saw:

This is the largest home in Minnesota, James J. Hill house.  Hill was a gruff, blue collar, pull yourself from the bootstraps railroad baron who built the Great Northern Railway in the late 1800s.  Hill spared no expense in building his mansion.  This massive 36,500 square feet stone mansion was built in 1891 for railroad tycoon James J Hill.  The 5 story Richardsonian Romanesques-style mansion cost over $930,000 ($19 Million today).  Elaborate mahogany woodwork fills the mansion complete with 13 bathrooms, 22 gas lit fireplaces, 16 custom chandeliers, an 88-foot reception hall, and a 3 story pipe organ with 1,006 pipes.   It's quite the structure.

This is Driscol-Warehouser House, named after it's original owner, Frederick Driscol of the Pioneer Press Newspaper , who built the house in 1884 and is 11,000 sq feet with 8 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms.  Later on this house was bought by Fred Warehouser, who owned the largest lumber company in the world at the time and actually had more wealth than James J. Hill.  While Hill was the 36th richest person in the world at his time, Warehouser was 10th richest.

This is the Old Smith “Vine” Mansion.  Usually this house is covered by vines like Wrigley Field in Chicago, but recently those vines were removed.  What makes this house significant is that it's the oldest house on Summit Avenue, built in 1858 (same year when Minnesota became a state). 

This is Lightner-Young Double House.  This large brownstone house was built as a double house in 1886. Attorney Will Lightner lived in the left side (322 Summit) and his law firm partner George Young lived on the right side (324 Summit). Lawyers Charles McKim and Stanford White got their start working for Lightner and Young before branching out into the famous firm McKim, Mead & White.

Home was designed by Cass Gilbert and partner James Knox Taylor, as one of their first times teaming up. The Richardsonian-style of the mansion is named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson’s death who died the same year as this house was built. The style incorporates a lot of patterns into the design from red stone, to brick and marble. Richardson’s influence on an entire generation of architects was profound and the year before his death 5 of his buildings made the 10 best in America by his peers.

However, Lightner decided he needed more space, so he bought the lot next door and built this house.

While there are other houses on this tour, including one where the owner let us inside to take a tour, here's the last picture I took on the 1.5 mile tour.

This is the Rice-Ordway house.  This house was named one of it's famous owners, Henry Rice, for which Rice Park in Downtown St. Paul is named.  Later one this house was bought and renovated by Lucius Ordway in the 1920's.  Ordway is best remembered for his investment of $100k to bring the struggling Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company from Duluth to the Twin Cities. The company was close to running out of money and had heavy debt, but after being brought to Saint Paul, they made a quick turnaround. By 1916 the company, know today as 3M, had over $1 Million in annual sales from big breakthroughs with sandpaper technology.
It was a great day for a walk.  I glad I took the opportunity to learn a little more about the neighborhood I live.