Historic Tour in White Bear Lake

The Ramsey Hill House Tour was last weekend, if you missed it or are just hankering to walk through more historic houses, our neighbor city White Bear Lake has their White Bear Historical Home Tour is THIS SUNDAY, September 20,2009 from 12-6pm!

How to purchase your tickets:
1. By phone: 651-407-5327
2. At the Depot - Hwy 61 and 4th Street. Depot hours are 10 am – 4 pm, Tuesday through Friday, and 10 am – 1 pm on Saturdays.
3. By mail – make check payable to “WBLAHS” and send to PO Box 10543, White Bear Lake, MN 55110
4. Online at http://www.whitebearhistory.org/Tickets.htm

Tickets are $25 each before the tour, $20 for WBLAHS members and $30 the day of the tour for everyone. Visa/MasterCard/Discover accepted. Tickets purchased by phone, mail or online may be mailed up until September 11th Or picked up at the Depot through September 19th. Or picked up at the Fillebrown House the day of the tour.

Fall 2009 Street Closures

Labor Day was Monday, which means the end of the State Fair, the start of school, and the beginning of Fall here in the northland. For Summit Avenue, Fall brings the St Paul Bike Classic and the Twin Cities Marathon.

Bike Classic: Sunday 9/13/09

Summit Avenue will not be closed to car traffic for the Bike Classic, however, parking will be restricted on the North side of the street on Sunday, September 13th, 2009 during the event in order to provide an expanded bike lane (From the Classic's website, "On some open streets, like Summit Avenue, a wide lane is provided for cyclists). The bike ride--it is not a race, just a fun family-friendly event--will begin at Cretin and Summit, and I imagine there will be a bit of a bottle neck there around the two start times of 7:15 AM and 9:15 AM. For more information, check out their website or the course map.

Marathon: Sunday 10/4/09

Summit Avenue will be closed for the Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday October 4, 2009 from 6:50 AM until around 2:00 PM for most of Summit, for more information, check out TC Marathon's page on road closures and Marathon Course Information.

Pre-Marathon: Saturday 10/3/09

The East end of Summit, from the Cathedral to Pascal Street, will be closed to all traffic on Saturday morning October 3rd, 2009 at approx. 8:20 a.m. until approx. 11:30 a.m. for a 5k Fun Run. For more information, check out TC Marathon's page on road closures.

Tree Work

Many SARPA members and readers of this blog will remember back a score and some years ago when Dutch Elm disease swept though St Paul, thinning much of the gorgeous canopy of trees along Summit. Unfortunately, tough times for trees have returned to St Paul. I came across a two block closure of Summit this afternoon toward the eastern end of the Avenue, and in the middle found a crew of tree workers. I immediately guessed it was the Emerald Ash Borer, a reasonable assumption since the borer was discovered in St Paul this Spring. And while it is likely that there are ash trees along Summit that will come down, the tree being removed today was a 100+ year old Elm struck down by the old tree killer, Dutch Elm Disease.


For more information on the Emerald Ash Borer locally, the University of Minnesota Extension Services offers the following advice if you have an ash tree:

• Ash trees lack a way to defend against these pests. Once an ash is attacked, it will be killed.
• Look for 1/8 inch, D-shaped exit holes in trees. These are the result of borers leaving the tree once they have become adults.
• Do not apply insecticides to ash trees out of the likely range of emerald ash borer.
• Do not transport firewood, even within Minnesota.
• Extension has close to 200 volunteers trained as emerald ash borer First Detectors. These volunteers can help homeowners determine if their ash trees have been attacked.
• If you think you have found emerald ash borer, go through the steps at Do I have emerald ash borer? (246 K PDF) to be sure. Those without internet access can call Forest Resources Extension at 612-624-3020.

More Ash Borer Information:

Local blog with a wealth of information about the ash borer, including great images.
City of St Paul website: the city's plan to dealing with the ash borer.

Cass Gilbert 150th Birthday Party

150th Birthday Celebration for Famous Minnesota Capitol Architect Cass Gilbert

Join the Party Saturday, November 21st

The Cass Gilbert Society will host a celebration to honor this nationally recognized architect whose buildings are an important part of Minnesota history.

The 150th Birthday Celebration for Cass Gilbert will begin at 2pm on Saturday, November 21, 2009 with a free tour of the Minnesota State Capitol. Guides from the Minnesota State Historical Society will focus on the Cass Gilbert story and the architectural details of the capitol. These free tours, which begin at 2pm, require reservations by calling 651-296-2881. A LEGO(TM) model of the capitol will be on display to delight visitors young and old.

An exhibit highlighting 50 years of buildings designed by Cass Gilbert will be on display in the North Corridor of the capitol building and continue to be available for public view for two weeks following the celebration.

Festivities will include a birthday cake that will be served in the capitol’s Rathskeller at 3:30pm. This event is free an open to the public.

Gilbert’s first residence in St. Paul was built on Ashland Avenue for his mother. Soon his commissions included churches, office buildings, railroad stations and commercial buildings in Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas and Montana. He designed several homes along Summit Avenue, including the Lightner House at 318 Summit, pictured below.



In 1895 Cass Gilbert was selected to design the new state capitol in Minnesota. This job enhanced his career and brought him national recognition. In 1899, he won the commission for the U.S. Custom House in New York. The same year he opened his New York office and moved to New York.

Gilbert would go on to design many buildings in New York. In 1913, he completed the Woolworth Building in New York City. It would stand as the world’s tallest building for over a decade. His work was recognized throughout the United States. Cass Gilbert’s last building was the U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C.

The Cass Gilbert Society is a non-profit organization founded in 1998 to preserve and enhance the nation’s cultural heritage by advancing scholarship and appreciation of Cass Gilbert’s contribution to American architecture. Membership in the society is open to all. To join go to www.cassgilbertsociety.org.


For more information contact: Cindy Stephani 612/719-8419
www.cassgilbertsociety.org

SARPA Annual Meeting: Sept. 10th

SARPA Annual Meeting
Thursday September 10th, 2009
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
1731 Summit Avenue

Business Meeting/ Elections 7:15 PM
Wine/Desserts 7:45 PM

Please RSVP via email: SARPAexpress@gmail.com

Upcoming Happenings for the St Paul History Buff

The Ramsey Hill Association's 2009 House Tour is coming up next month and tickets are available for purchase online. Ramsey Hill is a historic neighborhood that includes Summit Avenue east of Dale Street:

http://www.ramseyhill.org/tour.php

The Cass Gilbert Society's next event will be a celebration of his 150th birthday in November. There will be free tours of the Capitol building. Information is not yet up on the CGS website, but for those who are interested check back with their website as we get closer to November:

http://www.cassgilbertsociety.org/cgs/events.html

The Summit Hill Association will be publishing a history of Summit Hill this fall:

http://www.summithillassociation.org//files/uploaded_files/6.9.09_history_book_flyer.pdf

Finally, the MN Historical Society has tours of the James J Hill House, including walking tours of Summit Avenue.

http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/jjhh/

They even have a virtual tour podcast online:

http://discussions.mnhs.org/tours/category/summit-avenue/

Summer on Summit

A hearty thank you to the SARPA volunteers who planted the urns on the bridge over Ayd Mill (that's "the Shortline" to old school St. Paulites).

Summit got a fresh coat of white wash on its bike lanes this week, just in time for some of the best biking weather of the year. Perhaps we will have Garden Stroll attendees on bicycle this year? Or...

If you are in search of a novel way to explore Summit, there are options! For the technologically inclined--the SEGWAY Tour, or for active socialites, there's the PEDAL Pub.

Summit Segway Tours

I found this article in the 6/4/2009 Pioneer Press:

Segway tours are set to roll down Summit Avenue this summer

By Julio Ojeda-Zapata

If you're strolling on Summit Avenue sometime soon, look out for Segway stampedes. You're actually in little danger, but pay attention as drivers of the upright scooters roll by — likely with smiles on their faces.

They're partaking in a global trend: the Segway history tour, now coming to St. Paul.
Segway creator Dean Kamen thought he would revolutionize inner-city transportation with his gyroscopically balanced one-person vehicle, but this never came to pass. Like other consumer technologies, though, Kamen's invention has been put to unforeseen uses.
Entrepreneurs like Bill Neuenschwander, of Minneapolis, have snapped up dozens of the scooters and used them to offer history tours for visitors and others who want to see cities from a fresh vantage point.

This month, Neuenschwander, who has been leading Segway expeditions along the downtown Minneapolis riverfront for years, will realize his longtime dream of expanding into the east metro with Summit Avenue scooter tours.

His partner in this endeavor, the Minnesota History Center outside downtown St. Paul, is letting him use the facility as a staging ground with easy access to points of interest, such as the James J. Hill House and the Cathedral.

Segway tours offer unique advantages, Neuenschwander said. "We can go into alleyways and little nooks" along Summit that are not accessible on bus tours while covering much more ground than walking tours allow.

Segway tours won't replace other, traditional ways to see the metro sights, said Wendy Jones, manager of the History Center. But she said Segway tours provide "a hook you can use to get people engaged in history and connected to their neighborhoods. I think you should use that hook."

The History Center has followed Neuenschwander's Segway exploits for years, partly because his Segway Magical History Tours in Minneapolis stop at the Mill City Museum. The History Center even was inspired to buy a Segway of its own, Jones said. That scooter is being used by facility staffers to teach visitors about transportation.

"The kids are fascinated by the Segway," Jones said. "And this will get them to look at other things in the exhibit."

The History Center has no role in determining how Neuenschwander's tours will be conducted, Jones said, but it has allowed him to use a room in the facility for Segway orientations before participants head off on 90-minute journeys.

This formula is being repeated hundreds of times around the world by Segway entrepreneurs who are finding this to be a profitable business formula "if done properly," said Carol Valianti, vice president of global communications for Bedford, N.H.-based Segway Inc.

The company monitors and regulates the Segway tours organized by its scooter dealers "so we can hold them to certain standards, such as training and helmet requirements," Valianti said.
Segway takes a more hands-off approach with independent operations, such as Neuenschwander's Mobile Entertainment, that only offer tours and do not sell Segways.
Segway tours first appeared in Paris after the scooter's 2001 debut and quickly spread around the globe to state parks, beach areas, historical monuments and inner cities.

"It's not only what you're seeing" on such a tour, "but a new way to see it," Valianti said.
She pointed to one prominent Segway tour operator: Disney. Segways have seen increasing use at the company's Walt Disney World theme park in Orlando, Fla., initially in the futuristic Epcot area, and more recently in other parts of the operation, such as the Fort Wilderness Resort.
Segway Guided Tours, an online Segway tour directory created by Twin Cities native Joe Brown, recently tallied its 300th such listing, Adventure Tours of Idaho, based in downtown Boise.
Florida leads the nation with 29 tours, according to the site, followed by California with 28 locations and Texas with 16. (Mobile Entertainment is the sole Minnesota listing.) The site lists 115 locations in this country, along with tours in such far-flung locales as Latvia and Zambia.
In Minnesota, Neuenschwander plans to beef up his fleet of 85 Segways with 20 more scooters to accommodate his east metro clientele (with tours starting June 15). He is up from about 20 of the vehicles when he started his company in July 2003.

Despite a tanking economy that is causing consumers to rein in discretionary spending, Neuenschwander said he is seeing continued demand for tours with a significant surge last month compared with the same period in 2008. Clients include tourists, companies having team-building exercises and residents seeking to give out-of-town visitors a thrill. "People are willing to pay for an experience," he said.

The ever-entrepreneurial Neuenschwander, meanwhile, is looking beyond Segways. He's looking to invest in a fleet of scooter-like electric bicycles with more speed and range, allowing him to conduct daylong tours of the metro area with meals included.

"It's going to be a hoot," he said.

Summit Pedal Pub "Tours"

Photo by Pedalpub LLC

According to its website, PedalPub is a bicyle-like vehicle designed by the Dutch that you can rent for tours. They have several routes your can chose from around the metro area. The route that travels on Summit for seven blocks on its eastern side is not really a Summit Avenue tour; instead the real destinations of the tour are the local watering holes on Selby Avenue, Grand Avenue and Dale Street. You can book your own tour, however, so for the truly intrepid, you could pedal the entire 4.75 miles of Summit--caution, though, at an average speed of 5 mph, the round trip is going to take at least a couple of hours.

UST and Grand Avenue

UST article in the May 20, 2009 Villager:



Deadline Looms for Selling Grand Lots

St. Thomas, neighbors are at odds over the marketing of off-campus property

By JANE MCCLURE

Local residents on the West Summit Neighborhood Advisory Committee (WSNAC) have turned heir thumbs down on St. Thomas' latest proposal for selling off three residential properties on Grand Avenue across the street from the university's campus.

Prospective developers Craig Anderson arid Frank Greczyna had asked WSNAC on May 12 what it thought about changing the zoning of one of the three contiguous properties from residential back to commercial.

The zoning of the lot at 2076 Grand, which has a maintenance garage on it, was changed from commercial to residential as part of the 2004 agreement among St. Thomas, its neighbors and the City of St. Paul that allowed the university to extend its campus to the two blocks bounded by Summit, Cleveland Grand and Cretin avenues.

According to Anderson, the cost to acquire all three properties and demolish the existing buildings is too great to make redeveloping all three lots as housing feasible in the current market. The two houses at 2080 and 2084 Grand could be renovated and sold, but that leaves the maintenance garage. "When the heck can you do with that?" Anderson asked.

Anderson suggested reopening the 2004 agreement to allow the rezoning of 2076 Grand to commercial use.

WSNAC members representing the Macalester-Groveland and Union Park distriuct councils, the Summit Avenue Residential Preservation Association and Neighbors United made it clear at they are opposed to any change that would force the reopening of the university's special condition use permit and the complex legal agreement that ammended it in 2004.

"It's frustrating to me that we’re in this situation,” said WSNAC co-chair Scott Banas. According to him, any amendment could unravel the entire 2004 agreement and negate years of progress in university-neighborhood relations.

The fear is that if the special condition use permit is reopened to address one issue, its other-points could all come into play as well.

The 2004 agreement created WSNAC and the processes used to review campus projects. It requires St. Thomas to buy 30 rental houses in the neighborhood around the campus over the course of 12 years and return them to owner-occupied status. The agreement also calls for the university to sell all of its off-campus properties by August 11, 2009.

The off-campus properties are to be sold strictly to owner-occupants and are not to be redeveloped as student housing. The intent of this provision was to discourage the longstanding practice of property owners in the neighborhood around St. Thomas from selling or bequeathing their property to the university, according to Marc Manderscheid, a Macalester-Groveland resident an member of WSNAC.

Over the past few years, three prospective buyers have backed out of plans to redevelop, the three Grand Avenue properties. "Were going to continue to market them and try our best to sell them,” said Mark Vangsayd, St. Thomas' chief financial officer.

“But clearly we're running out of time,” said Doug Hennes, St. Thomas’ vice president for intergovernmental relations. "We honestly thought we could sell properties, but life has gotten a lot more complicated,” he said, referring to the downturn in the housing market.

St. Thomas officials asked WSNAC members last month if the university could continue to use the maintenance garage until a new maintenance facility is built as part of the new Anderson Athletic complex that will be completed in the next couple years. However, WSNAC rejected that idea because of its potential for reopening the university’s special conditional use permit.

WSNAC members discussed redeveloping the three properties as rental housing, possibly for senior citizens, but that would also require reopening the 2004 agreement. Another idea is to allow the maintenance garage property to be redeveloped as a parking lot for a nearby business. Davanni's restaurant just to the cast had expressed an interest in the property a few years ago.

A few WSNAC members suggested knocking down the garage and selling it as a side yard for the adjacent house. Another suggestion was to demolish the maintenance garage and move a house onto the lot. St. Thomas owns all but one of the houses remaining in the two block campus expansion area and has plans to redevelop those properties with either classroom buildings or student housing.