Map of St. Paul

Rare and detailed pocket map of St. Paul, MN from 1886.

This fascinating map of St. Paul, Minnesota was copywritten by C. Wright Davison and published locally in 1886 by Brown, Treacy & Co. This is one of their earliest publications – the firm issued numerous county and state maps of the Upper Mississippi Valley between approximately 1885 and 1914. They produced another map of the Twin Cities in 1886, but no other examples of this St. Paul plan have been identified in WorldCat or elsewhere. Based on the irregular borders that continue off the page, it’s likely the image was lifted directly from another source.

The map shows the city on the banks of the Mississippi during a period of tremendous growth in population and industry. Three years prior, the completion of the Northern Pacific Railway cemented St. Paul as the eastern terminus for a transcontinental railroad. Railcars and riverboats allowed for the mass transportation of agricultural commodities from the entire region, and, the same year as publication, the Union Stock Yards began operation (see far left).

Electric railways facilitated the development of outer neighborhoods like Saint Anthony Park and Como Park. Major landholders are labeled throughout and electoral districts are outlined in blue. Also of interest is the outlined ‘Prohibitory District’ in the west. According to “We Are What We Drink” by Sabine Meyer;

“St. Paulites’ conceptualization of their city as an anti-temperance space and their tendency to define themselves in opposition to their neighbors were responsible for an inner-city war between them and the residents of the Midway area. Located midway between Minneapolis and St. Paul, the area’s residents identified with the former while belonging to the latter. The Midway area was St. Paul’s only reformist enclave, a residential suburb differing from the rest of St. Paul in the character of its population, its mindset, and its moral outlook. Like in the case of St. Paul, the Midway area’s identity and its attitude toward alcohol were to a great degree based on its founding narrative. Previously a vast open space, sparsely settled by farmers, the completion of the interurban railroad in 1880 made the Midway area an attractive place for settlement. Right from the start, its major promoters—many with a pietistic background—conceived of it as a village for wealthy businessmen and white-collar workers. As late as 1969, newspapers still described the Hamline neighborhood as “prim, straight-laced, conservative.”

The Midway area soon turned into an important educational center, attracting institutions such as Hamline University and Macalester College. Luminaries such as John Ireland and Thomas Cochran also greatly boosted it by buying real estate and working for an improvement of electrification and transportation. Because of such economic growth, St. Paul cast greedy eyes on the flourishing Midway area and was granted the right to annex it by the 1885 legislature. Legislators, however, prohibited the city council from issuing licenses for saloons within a circuit of four and a half square miles, of which Merriam Park was the center. Founder John L. Merriam strongly advocated the prohibition of liquor in the area, and the presence of several educational institutions underlined such advocacy.”

Source: We Are What We Drink;