St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-07-08
Inhabitants Approximated by
the Capital City Of the
North Star State.
A Careful Enumeration Has
Been Made by Expert
enced Canvassers.
Some Of the Details Cleaned
by Reading the Latest
Directory.
Wonderful Strides Made by
Business Of Every Kind
\ Within a Year.

The annual controversy regarding the
population of the Twin Cities has been
inaugurated for 1889 by the issue of the
So. Paul City Directory, which has been
made more complete in all details than
ever before. R. l.. Polk & Co.,
the publishers, state that while
the sole object of the directory
is to direct, their publication has
all the value for the people of st. Paul
of an annual census. According to the
careful canvass, and using the figure 3
as multiplier, st. Paul approXimates
100000 population. and it will not be
long before the quarter of a million post
is passed. The directory for 1878 con-
tanned 81, ,231 names; giving, by the null
tiplier 215, population in the summer
of 1887 of not less than 155,577.
The present volume contains 7O,234
individual names, an increase for the
year of S,003. If the multiplier 8, that
commonly employed in other cities,
were used to obtain the probable popu-
lation, st. Paul should be credited to-
day with 210, ,712 inhabitants, an increase
of 100000 in three years. And this is
substantiated by the census average of
i've W cuCll uWGIllliS, tucIt DeluS
41,S2) buildings in st. Paul which dur
ing the canvass for this directory were
found to be in use for dwelling pur-
poses. Adhering to the multiplier 2115
the minimum population of the city, at
the middle of 1888, is 175, ,4S5 souls.
THE BUILDING RECORD.
The season of 1887 was the most re-
markable, in its building record, in the
history of st. Paul. Notwithstanding
the enormous sums put into permanent
improvements for series of years pre-
ceding, both population and business re-
quired more abundant accommodations
than ever. The statistics of the year
are extraordinary even for st. Paul.
The number of permits issued was ,455.
and the value of buildings erected S12,-
939,314. This counts money actually
expended, and does not reckon the cost
of buildings previously begun and
finished during the year. AS the de-
VelOpment of suburban centerS. both for
residence and for manufacturing pur-
poses. is one of the notable features of
growth, the addition of these would
swell the list materially. Were these
included, the frontage OF buildings con-
Structed would aggregate length of
twenty miles. 1t is already certain that
the improvements of 1888 will Surpass
this grand total.
ST. PAUL REAL ESTATE.
The history of the st. Paul real estate
market for the last three years offers
the most conclusive proof that could be
given of the intensely conservative dis
position of her people. For many years
stationary, while population and busi-
ness were multiplying rapidly. Nothing
but the fear of speculative advances, of
which the city had a taste many years
ago, held them back. At last property
values felt the impetus of the growth,
and transfers became active and the
market very strong. A comparison of
the real estate records for three sue
cessive years will exhibit the character
af the movement.
No: Trans Consider,
1883 ................. Si e,92s s14,sIs,se7 sds,;
1ss6 1f az d43 2&s'926' SS '6SS
When the highest prices were real
lied and the transactions were liveliest-
the price per front foot of property in
st. Paul, both business lots and resi-
dence sites, was still notably below
that prevailing in other cities of nearly
the same population and business in
terests, and without its promise for
the future, The largest figure
paid for the choicest corner on
lIlC DcSI UuSlHeSS SUreGU was
between 81, 400 and 81 800 per front foot.
The year 1887 ended and 1855 began
with a comparative quiet, which has
thoroughly established public conf
dence in the stability of city real values.
Some of the largest transactions of the
present year have been purchases by
Eastern capitalists, attracted thither by
this unusual sentiment of conservatism,
and convinced by personal investigation
that prices here are now below the nor
NAL figure.
PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS.
AS long as city grows, its pubic i'm
provements must be carried on upon a
constantly enlarging scale and in wild
ening circles. This has been the eX-
perience of st. Paul. The cost of public
representing the grading of sixty-seven
miles of streets, paving of eleven miles,
construction of seventeen miles of sew
erS, forty-one miles of wood sidewalks,
and eight miles of sidewalks of stone
and cement. There was also SGT. 900
expended by the city upon bridges.
Within a short time two new bridges
will be added to the two already in
service for the accommodation of public
travel across the Mississippi. The first
of these, the high bridge acrosss the
.
is already well under way, and should
be opened to the public within the year.
At the last election it was also voted to
construct downtown bridge, for
which legislative sanction had already
been obtained, spanning the river at
Broadway. The immense development
on the West side. and the increase
there of railway and manufacturing in
terests, make these bridges of the
first importance in the growth of
the city. From January, up to
the present time, the common council
has given final orders for grading sew
teen miles of streets, for paving two
and twO-tenthS miles, for sewering four
and fve-tenthS miles, and for laying
forty-six miles of wooden sidewalk. BY
the end of the season, every street in
the st. Anthony Hill residence district,
with one or two tritiing exceptions. will
be laid with fine pavement, asphalt be-
ing generally preferred. There are
now i'll the city 103 mile of water mains,
of which twenty miles were laid
in 1887. In the same time, 1,O72
new connections were made. Family
rates were reduced once, and meter
rates twice last season. Extensive adj
ditions are now in progress, including
not only connections in new territory
opened to service, but also the substitu-
tion of larger mains for those now do.
ing duty in the wholesale district. A
siX-inch main was last year carried sue.
cpSSfullV across tn West ST Daul ppou