Twelve Little Lusty Lustrons
Lustron prefabricated porcelain-enameled steel homes were developed after the Second World War in response to a housing crisis. The low maintenance, vitreous enamel finish was expected to attract returning servicemen and new families who might not have time or interest in repairing and painting conventional wood siding and plaster. In 1947, the Lustron Corporation [...]
The Spangenberg Residence Then and Now
Built in 1864, the yellow limestone walls of the Frederick Spangenberg House’l came from banks of the Mississippi River. The rocks were hauled up on a sled by oxen. Frederick Spangenberg was a German immigrant dairy farmer. His 80-acre farm become the best part of Saint Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood. The house was occupied [...]
The Church of the Assumption Then and Now
The Church of the Assumption was founded by Bishop Joseph Cretin in 1856. The original church, known as the Feast of the Assumption was just north of the present site. The congregation, made up of immigrants from Germany outgrew their original building, and work began on the new church in 1871. The Romanesque [...]
The Astounding Angus
The Blair Flats apartment building designed by Hermann Kretz and William H. Thomas was completed in 1887. The Blair was converted to a residential hotel and renamed the Albion in 1893. An even larger hotel , called The Aberdeen went up the same year. Thomas Lowry, president of the St. Paul Street Railway Company, bought [...]
Frank B. Semple’s Mansion Then and Now
Frank Semple, was a partner in a wildly successful wholesale hardware firm. Janney Semple and Company, began on the Mississippi riverfront in 1866 and operated under different names until it was acquired by a national retailer in 1960. Framk and his wife Anne built this imposing Beaux-Arts mansion on the corner of Franklin and [...]
