Oh Otis!

Born in 1876, Otis Edgar Clymer spent most of his baseball career as a right fielder. During his six season major league career, he played with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Senators, Chicago Cubs, and the Boston Braves. During his time in the majors, Clymer had a .267 batting average (355-for-1330) with 182 runs, 2 home … Read more

New York Life in St. Paul

9 stories high, crowned with Flemish and Neo-classical finishing touches, the New York Life Building haunted Minnesota Street for 78 years. Built with three bays to the north and two bays to the south, an addition to the south side, completed in the early 1930’s, beautified the building’s profile and balanced everything out. A bronze … Read more

See you on Summit

Regarded as one of the most beautiful residence streets in the United States. Running along a great part of the edge of a plateau overlooking the Mississippi river, it possesses many natural charms. The avenue is 5.5 miles in length, extending from near the center of the business district west to the Mississippi. For a … Read more

Meeting in Merriam Park

Merriam Park— The largest suburb in the city limits. Reached by the St. Paul-Minneapolis, the Selby- Lake and Merriam Park car lines and the Milwaukee railroad. The park has a very good private hospital (Dr. Cobb’s), some churches of different denominations, a bank and branch post office. It is a very desirable residence district, within … Read more

Griggs & Cooper

Dear Green Jeans, While at the “Minnesota Stale Fair”,  Shaveless Hardjaw and I plan to visit the large factory illustrated on the other side. They tell me that here, under one roof are manufactured a larger variety of foods than are manufactured in any other similar organization in the United States. Shaveless is anxious to … Read more

T.J. Strupp: Inventor

TODAY, with gasoline scarce along the Atlantic coast, certain U. S. naval officers remember with regret a mysterious inventor who turned up during the last war and said he was able TO MAKE GASOLINE OUT OF WATER. THE STORY SEEMS LIKE A MYTH. BUT IT IS RECORDED IN THE C. S. NAVAL INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS AND … Read more

Fortune and the Fate of the Twin Cities

In April, 1936, Fortune magazine hired Austria-Hungary-born American writer and illustrator, Ludwig Bemelmans for an exhaustive article profiling the rather bleak fortunes of Minneapolis and St. Paul. I can almost hear our local boosters howling across the years. Fortune painted thoroughly unflattering, gloomy picture of the metropolis at the center of the most radical state … Read more

June Elvidge

Another big star of the silent silver screen, June Elvidge was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1893. At the ripe old age of 22 she made her stage debut in New York City in 1914. Her screen debut came the following year in the role Mrs. Van Allen in Sam Shubert’s film, The Lure … Read more

Skyline Greetings

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA The skyline Of the city. Minneapolis is a beautiful city with its gleaming skyscrapers, its modern mills, its magnificent homes and its spacious parks. 1 . . Bambi Land. Nisswa  2 . . Headwaters of the Mississippi, Lake Itasca  3 . . Itasca State Park  4. . Runestone replica, Alexandria. Minn.  5 . … Read more