St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-01-25
GREAT GROWTH OF WEST ST. PAUL
A Ward That Makes Great Land Rescued From Waste
City All of It to Prove to Be Be-
self nanZa
ITS RESOURCES ARE SIMPLY ExHAUsTLEss.
Readable Sketch of the Onward Movement of This I'M
portant Section of the City, With Mention of the
Hustlers Whose Hands Are the Wheel

OF large pr0pOrtl0nS, ana CnOugn LOT The
last six or seven years it has been
worked with great deal of industry
and many people have made fortunes
there, the mine is just as rich and pro-
ductive now as it ever was, and the evil
dence is as abundant that it is abso-
lutely ineXhaustible. While the whole
city has been increasing III population
and wealth, this particular part of it
south of the river, known as the Sixth
Ward-has taken very decided lead.
In energy, wealth, population and gem
eral growth she has not been equalled
by any of the old wards. Her strides
in these directions have been enor-
nous, and men are struck with
wonder when they witness what
she has accomplished within the last
few years ago. of course, there are a
great many people in the city to-day
who were not here eight or ten years
ago. These people who look upon West
st. Paul to-day, and behold its big bust
ness blocks, its miles of graded and
paved streets, and the business activity
on its thoroughfares, cannot be made to
comprehend what it was few short
years ago. Then it wasEmostly collec-
ton of small and dilapidated shanties,
with no business, no wealth, and small
population. Then it was small village.
Now it is. in itself, a considerable city
of about $4,000 inhabitants, and growing
larger every day, and that, too, very
rapidly. What has always been known
as 1.-The flats" the low ground that lies
between the bluffs and the river,
has always been regarded as value
when the minds of people began
70
all this fiat property has so changed in
value in the estimation of the public
that lots that could not be sold for taxes
formerly are now worth many hundred
dollars per front foot.
HOW THE PROSPERITY WAS STARTED.
The real prosperity of West st. Paul
probably dates from the building of the
st. Paul & Kansas City road formerly
the Minnesota & Northwestern through
the flats between the bluffs and the
river. The project of constructing this
road before work on it was commenced,
attracted attention to the low lands re-
ferred to. Those in the secrets of the
road, and some that were not, but sus
pected what was going on, made pur-
chases of considerable tracts in the
these people was followed by
considerable number of men
who for the want of some
4hing better to do, and with the hope of
making living went to work to peddle
lots in small way. These people soon
began to see there was money in tn e
business, and, becoming bolder and
more confident, they went in deeper
and deeper, aid in this way each grew
into big real estate business almost
before they knew it. Without single
exception they all became wealthy, and
many of them can count their wealth by
the hundred thousand. In this way
they helped to build a city in itself On
that formerly lived here should return,
after having been absent during the last
seven or eight years, he would not
know the Sixth ward was the same
place. On the fiat the surface of the
ground was formerly and now
is, where it has not been
filed, very low. Of course, it
became necessary to fill it up. Streets
have consequently been graded in a
great variety of directions and in many
places up as high as twenty-five feet
above the level of the fiat. This work
has been immense and amounts to put
ting in the foundations
FOR A LARGE CITY.
Over large portion of what has been
known for years as 1.-THE fats" that
were covered much of the time with
water. are now to be seen long rows of
heavy brick business blocks, and every
where is to be observed the busting,
fustling business man with no time for
nonsense, but always ready to deal in
anything that will enable him to make
money and keen things moving. West
st. Paul to-day is one of the
most active, business like spots in the
city. AS one stands at the corner of
Dakota and Fairfield avenues, OF Da-
kOta and Indiana avenues, or at any
other point Oh Dakota avenue, he will
witness an amount of activity that will
remind him of jackson and Third street
corners. There is peculiar business
air and dash about the business men ON
this splendid avenue that leads out from
the Wabasha street bridge to the we'll
known Dodd road, and thence into the
interior of Dakota county. It's grand
avenue, and is rapidly coming forward
as one of the principal thOroughfares of
the city. South Robert street runs par
allel with it and is splendid business
street too, but it is younger. 1t will, in
people, be equal to Dakota avenue for
business. 1t is magnificent thorough
fare also, and is well graded for
over two miles south of the Robert
street bridge, and business is drifting
onto it good deal. Dakota avenue, it
is claimed, will still hold the supremacy
for some years to come, and perhaps
always. 1t makes but little difference,
really, about this for it is considered as
evident to all, that the Sixth ward is to
become one of the heaviest business
wards of the city, and that there will be
business enough for all. 1t has the To-
cation, large population that is rap
idly increasing, and beyond doubt, in a
few years, will have several more rail-
roads running through it. The claim is
also made that the splendid levee front
will soon give it very decided advant-
age over any other part of the city, and
that ultimately the heaviest part of all
freights will be received in, and
shipped from the levee in West st. Paul.
There is no question but the splendid
levee front possessed by the Sixth ward,
if taken care of and properly utilized,
will be of immense value TO West st.
Paul.
THIS LEVEE BUSINESS
has caused good deal of difficulty and
Wrangling, and there seems to be very
tangled network of uncertainty and mis-
representation connected with it. The
gentlemen who belong to the Citizens
union in that ward have the matter in
mind, and do not intend to let the ward
suffer loss through any neglect on their
part. This levee is magnificent pos
session, and if it is judiciously cared for
and utilized will be of inestimable i'm
portance and value to West ST. Paul. The
grading of the cross streets, as we'll as
the main avenues running north and
south, has been going on steadily for
years, and while the cost of the work
has been enormous. owing to the fact
that such immense masses of earth