St. Paul Phototour

Irvine Park

The neighborhood almost didn't make it.
In the 1870s - 1880s the homes in Irvine Park reflected its residents wealth and sophisticated taste. However, as the street car lines and roads reached to the tops of the bluffs, Summit Avenue, Crocus Hill, and Ramsey Hill supplanted Irvine Park as St. Paul's finest address.
Nearly 60 years of decline changed Irvine Park from one of the cities most prominent neighborhoods into one of its most blighted.
In 1970 with 96 percent of the area's housing classified as blighted, public acquistion of property for urban renewal began. However, it was the Ramsey House that inspired people to realize the Irvine Park's historic value and significance beyond that one structure. The Ramsey House which was given to the Minnesota Historical Society by Alexander Ramsey's granddaughters and had been open as a historic site to the public since 1964.

When you look around at the houses it's hard to imagine most of the neighborhood was scheduled for demolition. The city bureaucracy, which once pushed for the destruction of these homes now brings out-of-town visitors through Irvine Park declareing it a "St. Paul crown jewel!"

To learn more about St. Paul's Irivne Park Neighborhood pick up a copy of: "A Brief History of the Irvine Park District" produced by the Historic Irvine Park Association. The book was published recently in 2001 but is not easy to find. You can get a copy at the Minnesota Historical Society or at the Ramsey House Museum. Most of the history of the Irvine Park houses mentioned here comes from the book.

---Please note: If you decide to go on a real tour, most residences listed here are private homes. Anyone viewing them should respect that.