St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-09-28
ST. PAUL'S BUSINESS CENTER
with five million dollars 1 can place the

with five million dollars l can place the
business center of st. Paul where please
This very significant remark was made re-
Gently by visiting Boston capitalist to j.
Frank Conklin, manager of the Grand Ar
cade. The Boston nan had invested and is
sti Il investing in st. Paul, and his statement
was made in course of a conversation on
bust mess locations. This is a very singular
and significant fact-that St Paul has no one
precise spot which might be called this bust
ness center, and it is a question whether it is
OF advantage or the contrary. stranger
comes to the city and asks:
Nv here is the business center?''
r, 'Wabasha and Sixth" answers man do
Ing business in that locality.
Third street, at Robert is the reply of
ano Their.
Robert and Sixth says third
seventh and S1bley' and ''Wabasha and
Seventh" are also given.
f.
The fact is that the business district of st.
Paul is so ample that there is no one point
that can certainly be set down as pre-
eminently the center. A prominent business
man yesterday declared that this was an i'm
mense- advantage, for 1t permitted mer-
chant to make his selection ana gave him
the benefit of the competition among land
owners; while another as positively asserted
that 1t was palpable disadvantage, as it dis
couIaged newcomers who sought location
in 1.-THE business center" and were at once
confused.
+
In the real estate history of st. Paul the
shifting of this center and the several efforts
TO control and fix central locality are of
considerable interest. Ten years ago Third
street was the main With rafaiI hr,S;
ness at the head and jobbing at the foot.
Property between Wabasha and franklin
commanded fancy prices, and Bridge Square
was the choicest retail location. A man paid
oD,0Oo for piece of property between Wa
Dasha and st. Peter that he would gladly dis
pose of for half that sum. Later came the
movement at Robert and Sixth, engineered
~ the interest OF property along there, and
which secured the building of the Robert
street bridge and securing a fixed position
for the locality of which the Ryan hotel is
the center Two years ago, when the Lowry
theater was talked of to succeed the burned
out Grand. there was no location like Wa
basha and Fifth, and it was UNANIMOUSLY
pronounced the business center. Then Sixth
came into prominence, and the building of
the New York Life and the Metropolitan
opera house, the produce exchange and
OtHSl otiuCtuISS Seut hue popular CurreQG
surging in that direction.
i
The electric car system has brought Waba-
sha into popular favor, and corners on that
thoroughfare are now believed to be the
most acceptable business property in the city,
The growth seems TO be in the direction of
South Wabasha and over toward st. Peter.
and when Schuneman & Evans get into their
mammoth new store, the Merrill block is
completed and the government building
done, this growth will be accentuated Third
street, when it loses Schuneman & Evans
and the Merrill company. will receive quite
black eye; but the fact that the Mann
heimers will remain in their building and
Ransom & Horton and other large dealers
are fixtures there, will prevent the deca-
dence of the street.
4
Nothing can change the current on Seventh
street or rob it of its prestige as the longest
OF the business streets. 1t is really the most
crowded of all the streets, an is the great
pedestrian artery OF st. Paul. connecting the
city center with both east and west ends.