The Saint Paul globe., 1900-04-22
historic MISSION ROUSE
Park PLACE MEMORIES RECALL
ED By NEW PROJECT OF
PARK BOARD
MAY RESTORE SOME GLORY
But Its Greatest DnyA Have Long
Since Passed Into the His
tory of a Frontier
Town.

neighborhood Is a meny-yoll,med ro
nance, on whose pages are written the
comedy, the pathos, the tragedy of the
commonplace. Occasionally that bubble
tame' 1loats gaily in the light near some
dingy habitation. A historic deed, per-
maps mas glorified 1t; or the early life of
some famous man has woven its golden
thread In with the gray of mediocrity
Inc nelghborhood never forgets this touch
or glory. In It's senile decay, should a
hstener care to pause long enough he
may hear a garrulous tale. "Yonder." it
Will say. stretching out a skinny hand
the great one as a boy played through
the long hours Of the day. There he used
TO SIT OF an evening to watch the stars
We knew he would be great; We always
prophesied it."
But perhaps the neighborhood has risen
in the world It's cottages may have met
amorphosed into palaces; its cottagers
into millionaires. Then what a parvelu
1t is, turning an ear Of stony deafness to
every chance illusion to the past; destroy
Ing with quite a human snobbery and
most indecent haste each landmark that
might in any way suggest its unlovefy
beginning. Tommy Blank may have
cobbled his shoes IN poor cottage on
yonder Site" it will say with chilly po-
liteness to some persistent ques ioner.
No doubt you are correct, but we never
hIiCW tA0 person.
The historic neighborhood Is far moro
interesting than either of the above
types, and with such g neighborhood this
article has to do. In the very heart cf
st. Paul, bounded, as the schoolboy would
say, by st. Peter and Rice streets, Col
lege and Summit avenues, there lies
plot Of ground that is indissolubly con.
nected with the history, and moro espcc-
tally the religious history, Of st. Paul.
fn rQo1 tai fn
man the plot is known as Park Place ad-
dition to st. Paul, but old Inhabitants.
and the older members Of the Episcopal
church in the city, probably never speak
OF 1t except as the Episcopal mission
grounds" Today five-minutes walk will
take one quite around the plot, and dur
Ing that walk 1t is not likely to occur to
stranger that he is looking at anything
unusually picturesque. A narrow strip of
green, it's level broken by few shade
trees, and facing this green and lining a
narrow street row of ordinary dwelling
houses, that Is the Park place of today.
The ground is high, but the more preteD-
tious dwellings that face on the avenues
and streets bounding Park place quite
shut out from residents in the place Il
view that once upon time was consid-
cred rather fine. No, the place contains
little of interest today. But turning the
pages back fifty years or so, the story
possesses what playwrights would term
dramatic possibilities. A half century!
1t is a long period in Western life In
the history of ST. Paul 1t spans tiny vii
lage and a great city To this tiny VII
lage, then, there came one June mornin 3
in the year 1850 three men who were deS-
tined to do much for the spiritual up
! building of the village. They We're the
Rev. James Lloyd Breck and the Rev.
Timothy Wilcoxson, clergymen of the
rnf OF ITT1ic0 al1I1 1JO17 TC1oVr 4
Merrick, deacon of that church.
Rev. E. G.. Gear was the chaplain at
Fort. Smelling then, the only clergyman
| of the Episcopal church in the territory.
! He welcomed the newcomers and doubt
less afforded them practical assistance
In pitching their teDts-real enough tents
they were, too-"on the bluff to the rear
of St. Paul'' or what is now Known
as Park Place addition. The outlook
must have seemed rather drea1y to the
newcomers. OF natural beauty, GER
F.: tainly there was an abundance. Standing
! in the doorway of their canvas homes
they could look upon a goCdly prospect.
Beyond the pine tops and over the heads
Of the dingy buildings they caught
glimpse of the Mississippi that bound the
embryanic city with a silver band. There
were wide, wide vistas where they could
look almost into the infinite and en- .oy
the thrill that such a prospect brings.
But-aEd even the most devout are apt
to be troubled by these things-in this
small village there was little that af-
forded human comfort, and all days were
! not June days. But the men went Wig
! orously to work and soon there were re-
! suits.
/ Christ church parish was organized
with Mr.. Breck as its first rector. The
new pastors personal solicitations flom
| friends In the East obtained for him suf-
! ficient funds to purchase the ground
upon which he had first pitched his tent.
Five acres were purchased in four diff
ferent purchases during the years 1850
! his wife and the other two from John
and 1851. Three Of these acres were
| purchased from one Vetal Guerin, and
| II. Irvine and his wife. The total amount
paid for the land was 1920. Later an
other lot fronting on what is now Rice
street was purchased from Mr. and Mrs.