Join us for a hike along the west end of St. Paul's historic Summit Avenue.
Summit Avenue in St. Paul is one of the best preserved upper-class Victorian promenade boulevards in America. It is a monumental boulevard of houses, churches, synagogues, and schools that stretches four-and-one-half miles from the Cathedral to the Mississippi River.
St. Paul's rich and famous began ascending Summit Hill in the 1850s, erecting splendid homes as monuments to their success. The structures are an assortment of Queen Ann, Romanesque, Beaux Arts, Georgian Revival, and Italian Villa styles and a majority remain intact. Summit Hill's first homes, built on scattered plots of ground, preceded the actual construction of Summit Avenue. The west end of Summit Avenue developed from 1890 to 1920. The architecture of Summit Avenue does not lack critics, however. Frank Lloyd Wright, for instance, assailed it for being "the worst collection of architecture in the world."
Directions: From I-94, take the Snelling Avenue exit and proceed South to Summit Avenue. Go East (Left) on Summit Avenue ½ mile to Hamline Avenue. We will start the hike from the Zion Temple, 1300 Summit Avenue, on the corner of Hamline Avenue and Summit Avenue.
West Summit Avenue/West Portland Avenue Architectural and House History Hike Route and Directions
Observations on Architecture along the Hike-Summit Avenue
Observations on Architecture along the Hike-Portland Avenue
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This webpage was last updated on October 31, 2015.
