Playing, Living and Dining in the Urban Village

• CHS Field (360 N. Broadway Street) CHS Field, named for the Minnesota-based international farm cooperative Cenex, can seat over 7,000 people and has been the home of the St. Paul Saints, the city's AAA baseball team, the Hamline University Pipers baseball, youth baseball camps and non-baseball events like the Summer Beer Dabler and the Cat Video Festival since 2015. It was formerly the location of the massive Gillette/Diamond Factory where over 1,000 Minnesota workers produced and shiped classic old-school beauty products like Dippity-Do Setting Gel and Toni Home Perms. The complex closed down in 2005 and the buildings were demolished in 2013 to make way for the stadium.

• The Crane-Ordway Building (281 E. 5th Street, NE corner of 5th and Wall) This modest structure was originally headquarters of the Crane-Ordway Company (1904), a steam engine manufacturing company. Vacant for almost a third of the last century, the building was purchased by a non-profit development company and rehabilitated as apartments (2006). The Crane-Ordway offers affordable housing for people learning 30 to 50% of the area median income (AMI) and features 14 units reserved for adults experiencing long-term homelessness.

• The Rayette (261 5th E. Street, NW corner of 5th and Wall) Today the Rayette is home to the Saint Dinette restaurant and loft apartments, but it was originally a hat and clothing company whose fate was changed by a curious young employee in the midst of the Depression. Raymond Lee, a former University of Minnesota chemistry student, cooked up a new kind of home perm kit in his free time (as one does). Lee's employers bought his formula for the "Raymond Wave" and reimagined itself the Rayette Company. Rayette's best-selling item wasn't the Raymond Wave, but the inexpensive but EXTREMELY POWERFUL Aquanet Hairspray, whose legendary holding ability made it the number one hairspray in the world in the 1960s.

Bjorhus, Jennifer. In a lather in St. Paul's Lowertown, Minneapolis Star-Tribune. July 21st 2010. Accessed July 30th 2020. https://www.startribune.com/in-a-lather-in-st-paul-s-lowertown/97636184/.

CHS Field. http://chsfield.com

Crane Ordway - St. Paul, MN Supportive Housing within a Mixed-Income Historic Development, Corporation for Supportive Housing. December 1st 2008. Accessed July 30th 2020. https://www.csh.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/CraneOrdway.MN_.FINAL_.pdf.

Kimball, Joseph. Major demolition starts Monday to make room for Saints stadium, MinnPost. July 12th 2013. Accessed July 30th 2020. https://www.minnpost.com/two-cities/2013/07/major-demolition-starts-monday-make-room-saints-stadium

Minnesota Historical Society Manuscripts Collection. LOWERTOWN REDEVELOPMENT CORPORATION:An Inventory of Its Records at the Minnesota Historical Society. Accessed July 22nd 2020. http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00673.xml.