On this date in 1870, the Concert Hall block in St. Paul burns. The fire consumed several buildings, including the Concert Hall, built in 1857. Total damage as a result of the fire was $50,000.
Architecture
1850-05-16
On this date in 1850, the Reverend Edward D. Neill’s Presbyterian chapel in St. Paul is “burned to ashes” according to that day’s edition of the Minnesota Pioneer. This was St. Paul’s first recorded fire in the City of St. Paul.
1921-02-17
On this date in 1921, Sister Carmela Hanggi, principal of Cathedral School in St. Paul and a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, establishes the School Safety Patrol program in Minnesota. This program would become an international model for parochial and public institutions and was the first of its kind in […]
1978-02-15
On this date in 1978, more than 70 people are injured in a pair of explosions that gutted much of St. Paul’s Commodore Hotel. The devastating explosions at the residential hotel in the historic Cathedral Hill neighborhood blew holes in walls and tore apart much of the building’s interior. Around 3:45 PM, the first blast […]
1833-02-14
On this date in 1833, William Watts Folwell, the first president of the University of Minnesota, is born in Romulus, New York. Folwell received his undergraduate degree in 1857 from Hobart College in Geneva, New York and became adjunct professor of mathematics there in 1859. During the Civil War, he served in the 50th New York Volunteer Engineer […]
