300 Broadway Street, 300 East Fourth Street, 308 Prince Street

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

Over the next 30 years other local manufacturers, warehouses, and wholesalers took advantage of rapid (and far lighter weight) improvements in fireproof construction and erected three other large buildings on this block so their operations would be conveniently located near Union Depot where St. Paul's manufactured goods were shipped.

Images

The Tilsner Building when it was the Farwell, Ozmun & Kirk Wholesale Hardware Company (1902)

Lowertown Commons (1920)

Foley Brothers and Kelley Warehouse (1915)

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

To view these building, begin at the SW corner of Broadway and Kellogg and walk north to the end of the block.

The Tilsner (300 Broadway) which was built in 1894 to house a hardware wholesaler and then carton manufacturing company.

The Northern Warehouse (northeast corner of Broadway and Prince) constructed to serve as the warehouse for a local grocery wholesaler and subsidiary of the Northern Pacific Railroad (1908)

Lowertown Commons (northwest corner of Broadway and Fourth) built in 1905 to house a rubber factory, a grocery wholesaler, and a printing works.

From 1880 until 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression, businesses like these kept Lowertown humming as the neighborhood fueled the development of St. Paul.

Sources

Millett, Larry. The AIA Guide to the Twin Cities. Saint Paul, MN. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2007.

Millett, Larry. Lost Twin Cities. Saint Paul, MN. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1992.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

Minnesota Historical Societ

Minnesota Historical Society

A Glimpse of Gilded Age Lowertown

300 Broadway Street, 300 East Fourth Street, 308 Prince Street

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information