Daily globe. [volume], December 31, 1883, Page 10, Image 10

About Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884

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10
ST. PAUL ILLUSTEATED.
Some of the Notable Buildings of
■ ISS3.
_________ ■
A CITY SURE AXD SOLID,
"Which is Rein?: Built at the Railroad i
and River Terminus of the
Sorthwest.
A RECORD OF STUBBORN FACTS,
■Which Demonstrate the Substantial
Character of this Great and
Thriving City.
In addition to the detailed statistics
which the Globe publishes elsewhere, we
append notices in detail of some of the
new edifices erected in 1883, and illustra
tions of public and private buildings in
the city. These notices are by
so means designed to cover all nota
ble building?, but are merely isolat
ed sketches, to enable non-residents to see
the style of architecture in vogue and the
eolid character of the city.
These descriptive pages and their ac
companying illustrations, clearly demon
strate that no city in the country has been
or is being constructed in a more substan
tial or more beautiful manner than St.
Paul.
City and County Building. "
This long talked of "Palais de St.
Paul," the^building of _whieh_ has been
DENNIS RYAN'S HOTEL.
postponed from year to year becanse the
gentleman having charge of the projeot
■were looking ahead for a time when the
cost of labor and materials should be at
the lowest ebb, is likely to be begun dur
ing the year beginning to-morrow. It is
' not likely to be finished Smhin the one
year, because it is a public enterprise and
because it is to be a very large building,
intended for a city and county bnildiDg
lor all time. But just what the building
■will be no man or newspaper reporter cau
tell. Several years ago the commission
accepted and adopted a plan which the
arohitect afterwards gavo with gome in
terior modifications but no material
change of the exterior to the state for its
new capitol building. Since then an earlier
discussion as to what the city and county
building should be has been revived with
renewed interest on the part of those who
are opposed to adopting the typical ideas
■of the "Palais do Ville," etc., of foreign
municipalities. They urge that the com
mendable characteristics of St. Paul
should be conformed to and the traffic
■value of the surrounding streets be pro
moted by covering the four sides
■of tho court house square with busi
ness blocks of three or four stories, thn
' first floors and basements of which, with
such offices above as are not needed for
public uses, could be rented to bnsiness
men and retail merchants. In behalf of
this scheme or plan of construction it is
■ argned that a palace placed upon the cen
ter of the court house square, though its
construction may cost millions, will sooner
or later prove too small for the yearly
growing business of city and county; and
that the construction of store and office
blocks around the square would give
enough room for all time, besides being in
conformity with the simplicity appropri
ate to republicanism, democracy and busi
ness. The old fogy arguments against
this scheme have tne advantage of being
advanced by hard-headed men
■who are in a position to put their opinions
iDto execution. These say that the courts
cannot be properly held in such near
proximity to noisy business streets as
would be necessary if these public build
ings were placed on the street lines. The
judges, they say, would be made nervous,
then distracted and finally be driven to
profanity by the roll and rattle of street
MARKET HOUSE.
traffic. The gentlemen who talk thus are
too old to submit to dispute, and might be
offended at a claim that the people who
pay taxes would rather have a town block
than a city palace. They are pretty snre
to bnild a pretty palace at the center of
the little square, to be applauded for a
time by those who admire prettiness in
architecture, and finally to receive left
handel blessings for having un
dertaken to coop a republican
eagle in a feudal crow's nest. Still the
commission has not yet adopted any of
the plan 3 submitted to it. It has only
decided to begin building next season and
ordered for this winter exoavation, quar
rying, the sale of rock, and the removal of
the old court house building—vacated
some time ago and since long ago a public
disgrace and nuisance as well as a oountiy
building. It is probable the city and
county vrill expend on the contemplated
palace during the coming year not less
than $150,000, and that, whatever plans or
style of building may be decided on, the
total expenditure will be not less than a
quarter of a million.
Chamber of Commerce Building.
This building, of which Carpenter & Telz
are the architects, is to be erected the com
ing season at the corner of Sixth and Rob
ert streets, where the ohamber has bought
a lot 50x150 feet. The building, Gothic
Renaissance in style, will be six stories in
height above a stone basement. It will be
built of brick with pressed brick facings
and cut stone trimmings. The first story
will be divided into four stores and a 16
--foot entrance hall. The second and third
stories will be used for chamber of com
merce and board of trade rooms and the
secretaries' offices. These floors will be of
iron construction and fire-proofed. The
three uDDer floors will be divided into
offices. The stairways are to be all of iron
and fire-proof. A novel feature will
be the iron-bridge construction
of the three upper floors, so that in case
of fire these stories will • not be wreoked,
but remain standing complete. Another
will be that the windows will be hung—
without weights and cords, but swinging
■ botb ways—with patent fixti res, now in
use in New York and other large cities.
Another is that the ventilating and light
shafts are so introduced as to form no part
of the interior construction, Throughout
are used all proper precautions, based on
experience, to make the building safe and
durable, and adapted to the uses for which
it is to be built. It will be provided with
hydraulic elevators and heated throughout
by steam from a pi:\nt of boilers on the
rear of the lot, outside of the building.
The basements are designed for use of the
stores, except that the corner one may be
finished for a restaurant. The elevation
of the building, as shown by the engrav
ing in the Globe to-day, promises a struc
ture which in appearance as well as con
struction, will be a credit to the chamber
and to the city.
The, High School Building.
The new high school building, at the
corner of Tenth and Minnesota streets, is
now nearly completed, under the superin
denoe of D. W. Millard, architect, at a
cost for building and heating apparatus of
little less tian $100,000. A portion of the
third story is unfinished. The plans, r.
some time ago described in the Globe.
gave the form and style of the building.
If we consider its internal completeness,
substantial construction and fine external
effects, with the cost, it greatly excels
other public buildings of the city. The
basement has rooms for the superinten
dent of education and olerk of board of
education, a book room, a fire proof vault,
a board room, janitor's apartment-;, wa
ter closets, chemical laboratory, physical
laboratory and work rooms, and boiler and
fuel rooms. In the first story, fifteen feet
high, is the principal's office, four large
school rooms, three training school rooms,
and the chemical leoture room. The
second story, also fifteen
feet high, contains five
large school rooms and the assembly room
which is twenty-five feet high with 700 sit-
THE ST. PAUL DAILY (xLOBE, MONDAY MOKNISG, DECEMBER 81,1883.
tings ana an a^pi? aras-e. xae tmra
story has four large unfinished rooms, 8
musenm and , gymnasium, wLish latter is
over the assembly hall. Throughout the
building is furnished with stone Blate,forty
eight-inch boards, and a fine equipment of
school apparatus has been provided. The
stair halls and stairways are worthy of no
tice and commendation. The steam heat
ing apparatus is intended to change the
air of all the school rooms and the assem
bly hall once in each forty minutes, be
sides affording direct radiation. As a
whole the building is a city institution
which all citizens may justly be proud of.
School Houses.
Besides the high school building the city
school board has built this year one four
room school house, the Adams, which will
be doubled in size this year by an addi
tion of four rooms at a cost of 3.000.
It has also built i four
room addition to the Humboldt
school at a cost of 10,000 and an addition
to the River school (a frame building)
which cost $3,000. This work was under
the direction of Architect Ganger, who is
preparing plans for two new school houses
each of eight room?, one on outer Rice
street and the other in the Fifth ward.
Both will be of brick with stone trimmings,
each 100 feet square, two stories with a
tower 100 feet high, and to cost $20,000
each. An addition to the Webster school
is proposed, to be made next year at a
cost of $10,000. The addition to Lincoln
school, made this year, embraces eight
rooms, the first in the city to be provided
with what is commended as the proper
system of ventilation. Mr. Millard, the
architect of the building, who has planned
scores of schools in the west with similar
ventilation, insists there is no other sys
tem at once economical and sanitarily
correct for schools. It will be introduced
into the new school buildings he is to plan
for Arlington Hills and Sigel's additions.
The board has built one school house
and three large additions during the pres
ent year. Next year it will build three or
four new school houses and two large ad
ditions, and would build more to keep pace
with the growth of the city if it bad the
means. Its building expenditures this
year have been about $150,000, and in '84
it will spend on new bnilding3 about $100,
--000.
In addition to the new public school
houses the corporation of Macalester
college has built for its Baldwin school a
house furnishing ten large school rooms,
all well lighted and ventilated.
Parish of St. -John's School.
A notable improvement in the west end
of the city and the prettiest pieoe of work
in stone is the building erected on Mac
kubin street for the parish school of the
Episcopal parish of St. John the] Evan
gelist. The architect is Mr. Willcox, and
the superintendence was shared by the
rector, Rev. Mr. Kittson. The building,
24x56 feet, is constructed of Dresbach
stone, the walls being laid in [buff stone
and the trimmings being in a light blue
stone from the same quarrie?. The roof
is slated. The whole exterior is church
gothio in proportions and style and in
deed this school building is to be a sec
tion of a stone church building, to occupy
the place of the present frame church and
the whole space south to Ashland avenue.
Over the west sable is the emblem of St.
John, an eßgle, carved in stone. The
west window shows in cathedral rolled
glass the figure of a child kneeling, and in
I the north oriole window is the figure of a
I lamb. The doors, massive in appe&ranoe,
; are constructed of Georgia pine,
hung with large brass hinges
\ and handled with heavy brass rings, in old
time church style. The interior walls show
the stone instead of plaster, and are really
interior walls, the structure being double,
which is another old-time church way of
bnilding and a good way. The arched
ceiling is formed of Georgia pine in pan
els, divided by arched lines, or beams, sup
ported by corbeil?. The walls are for the
present wainscoted with pice, which ia to
be reolaced with tilin&r. The flooring is in
STATE CAPITOL BUILDING.
narrow red oak. Over tne large north
window are curved two eagle's wings,
carved in wood. The wood work of the
interior is all in natural color, and the ef
fect inside, even more than outside, is an
impression of solidity, relieved by light
but bold lines and harmonizing colors.
TJie Army Storehouse.
This buiiding, planned by Wirth of this
city, is to be constructed during 1834, at
the corner of Robert and Second streets,
cover.ng an irrugular block of ground pur
chased for this purpose. Thß elevations
and plans provide for a high stone base
ment and two high stories of brick, with
atone trimmings. Two fire walls will
divide the building into three warehouses.
Oo the main floor, which will have a richly
decorated round arch office front, facing
Robert street at the corner of Second, there
will be two offices and three large store
rooaas. The upper floor will be divided
into offices end small store rooms. The
basement, planned for heavy storage, for
receiving and shipping rooms and for
stabling for the horses employed in haul
ing for the establishment will be supplied
*ith elevators communicating with the
upper floor?. The building will face 111
fcset on Robert street and 131}£ feet en
tha alley, and 112 feet on
Second street by 120 feet deep at the east
3ide. It will be occupied by the depot
quartermaster at St. Paul, and will be the
principal warehouse and supply store for
the military department of Dakota. Its lo
oation is fairly convenient for the trans
action of business, and its building is
likely to attract attention to the vacant
property on Second street as furnishing
t»ood locations for various lines of trade.
Dennis Ryan's Ho cl.
The great hotel of St. Pan!, the construc
tion of which was seenred this year by the
00-operation of a number of capitalists
and real estate owners, in inducing Mr.
Dennis Ryan to invest not les3 than a
million and a quarter dollars in the enter
prise, has been located on Robert and
Sixth streets, where excavations were made
and retaining walls built late this season.
The building hs now begun will have 150
feet front on Robert street and 225 feet
on Sixth street, but the
intentions of the owner and
HIGH SOEOOL BUILDING.
tho plans of the architect contemplate
extensions of the building to 300 feet
frontage on Robert street, and 250 feet on
Seventh street. The general plan pro
vides for the future an interior open court
50x130 feet. The building will be seven
stories high, constructed of granite, sand
stone and pressed brick with terra cotta
and sandstone trimmings, the lower two
stories being in stone and the other five
stories in brick. The main entrance,
midway of the present Robert street front,
broad and literally decorated in the mod
ern gothic style and the building will lead
through a pleasantly lighted and famish
ed hall, twenty feet wide to the office and
general public room on the first floor.
This room, 70x50 ftet and twenty-five feet
in height will be lighted from a court 50x
40 feet which will be covered at the roof
line of the building by an immense sky
light or glass dome. From the large office
will open the reading room, billiard room,
etc. The ladies' entrance, midway on
Sixth street, protected by a carriage porch
over the sidewalk, will also have a
direct hallway to the ofice room, and at
the left of this entrance will be the ladies'
reception room on the Sixth street front.
The grand stairway, reached by the kail
from the ladies' entrance, will be at the
right of the office room. Another lesser
but also grand stairway will lead to the
upper floors from the main hall at the left
of the office. Both stairways open to the
offico through pillared arches and both
stairways will be lit from the court. Near
each stairway will be a passenger elevator,
running in a fire-proof brick shaft and
provided besides safety appliances with
all late improvements in the construction
and operation of elevators. The safety
appliances trill include automatic fire
proof doors and domed caps above the
roof, which, in ea=e of need, will be au
tomatically lifted. On the second floor a
large lobby overlooks the ground floor of
the main office. Otherwise the second floor
of the present building will be mostly
taken up by five large parlors
and three dining rooms. The main dining
room 90x46 feet, and about 30 feet high,
(extending through the third story,) will
have light from three sides—from the
court, from Robert street, and from the
alleyway front. The smaller or breakfast
and family dining rooms, 14 feet high, will
be each 30x17. The remainder of the sec
ond floor on the street fronts will be
divided into large chambers and family
suites, each with private bath room and
ante room. Around the court on this floor
will be the kitchen, pantries, store rooms
and carving rooms, etc. The five upper
stories will be divided into bed rooms and
suites, with wide, well lighted hallways,
bath rooms, etc. That portion of the first
floor not taken for hotel uses, will be de
voted to stores, whijh will be large and
high and well lighted. I« construction
and fittings the building will be from
foundation to roof first class in every re
spect, and Licking in no approved
appliances which will serve the
comfort cf guests or facilitate
the transaction of basiness. Still most—
and this involves a considerable percent
age of the cost —the building will be fire
proofed as far as possible, by the use of
non-combustible materials for partitions,
stairways and hallways, and by laying the
floor juists solid on iron and brick. Fur
thermore precautions will be taken to
provide for shutting ont a fire if started in
any part of the building, for protecting
the ways of exit from any possible flame
or -mo;; 6 and for providing safe and easy
ways of exit from all parts of the building.
It will be the grand hotel of the northwest,
the best in the west.
The Minnesota Historical Society.
At tne beginning of the year 1883, the
»*«ate Historical society was occupying
ooms in the basement of the Market
House, or temporary state capitol, into
which it had removed after the burning
of the old state house in March 1,1881.
These rooms were very unsuitable for the
uses and purposes of the society, and but
little could be done dering the two years
they were occupied by it. Still, some
progress was made, and much of the loss
occassionea 07 me [disastrous nre wa»
made good. Considerable poschases of
new books were made, a goodly amount
of binding done, the membership consid
erably increased, valuable historical ma
terial secured, interesting meetings held,
and the work of the society extended in
various ways. It was not until nearly
April 1, that
THE NEW BOOMS
were ready for occupancy, in the new
capitol, and the collections of the society
were moved thither at that
time. It was nearly midsummer, how
ever, before the library and other effects
were properly and satisfactorily arranged.
These new apartments are in the western
part of the basement of the oapitol, front
ing on Wabashaw street. They are pass
ably comfortable, bnt very awkwardly ar
ranged for the use of the society, not hav
ing, for instance, an ontside entrance,
while they are poorly lighted (a very seri
ous defect for a library room) and in the
summer are damp, cold and unwholesome,
besides being divided up in such a way as
to be very inconvenient The amount of
space, though, is ample, at least for the
present, and the rooms are believed to ba
very secure from fire. In addition to this,
there ie a very large vault or fire-proof
room, for the storage of especially valu
able matter and manuscripts, or other ir
replaoable property. These apartments,
such as they are, will answer the purposes
of the society passably for several years,
though at the present rate of growth, their
insufficiency is only a question of time.
This has led to a new agitation of the pro
ject for
A FIBE-PBOOF BUILDING
for the society. At the beginning of 1883,
the measure had a promising outlook.
Gen. Sibley, the venerable president of the
; society, who had pressed the measure with
I such faithful and zealous persistency, had
suuutiouea in securing pieages xrom various
citizens, of $14,000 towards such a building.
In the spring, unfortunately, he was taken
seriously ill, and was unable for several
months to pursue the subject any farther.
Kecently, at a meeting of the society, the
work of collecting subscriptions was given
in the charge of a committee, and some
steps hays been taken towards securing
plans and estimates for the proposed
building. It is hoped that $50,000 may
be raised for the purpose of erecting the
same.
THE LIBBABY
has been constantly increasing in size and
value. Duung 1883 nearly 1,000 bound
volumes were added to it, besides fully as
many unbound. There are now 11,000
bound, and 10,000 unbound, or 21,000
separate documents in all. About the
time of the fire which so seriously
interrupted the work of the society, a cat
alogue of the society was in contempla
tion, and would have been Boon com
menced . On removing into the new oapi
tol, this project was again resumed, and
soon entered on with energy. Miss Mary
6. Meriam, a professional catalogue com
piler, who had for some years had the best
experience in Harvard college and Boston
public libraries, was engaged, and has been
at work for several months. The work
will not be completed until the fall of
1884, but when done will be first-class in
every respect, and it is the design of the
society to print it as soon as possible.
PUBLICATIONS.
Since the flm, the society has not been
able to continue the issue of its series of
volumes of historical collections, but will
soon do so. A very valuable manuscript
has been obtained recently, being a his
tory qf the Ojibwa nation, written by the
late Wm. W. Warren, and is a most inter
esting work. This manuscript was the
mopertv of Mr. H. M. Rice, who donated
NEW NATIONAL GERMAN AMERICAN BANK.
it to the society on condition that it should
be published, which will be done in a 6hort
time. The work will form a valuable con
tribution to the history of the Northwest.
The Gniird Opera House.
This institution being one of the most
prominent building improvements of tho
year, a highly valued addition to St. Paul
and in all important respects most credit
able to owner, architect, builders, decora
tors and fitters, ought to have had a name
worthy of it, instead of« the name of
'"Grand" which has been made unmeaning
by its common use for cheap show houses.
This building Co3t $200,000 without auy
expenditure for outside finish or decora
tion. It is situated at the rear of the old
opera house, having the same main en
trance, bat enlarged, ornamented and
leveled, and, having the new Club house
block on its Fourth street front, its great
solid walls are visible to passers by only j
at the broad carriage way to the Fourth !
street side entrance. Mach waa saved of
coat for ornament by the position of the
building, but the lavish expenditure for
safety and tha richness of the interior
have more than exhausted that saving.
There are provided for occasions of panic
or necessary haste a3 many as twenty con
venient exits from the building, and
enough on either side to let out an audi
ence by that one side in less than th.-e.
mimUe* All these exits are carefaily
guarded against fire, and while a Inrpre
portion of the interior of the biildirg s
necessarily combustible jet toy.-z-.i>.
--bustible materials have been u^ed as
much es porsib'e, an<? no fire txcept at the
gas jets is used within the walls, the heat
ing being from a .=:eam plant ouUide.
Then the security of iiudioDnes is fartht-r
guarded by the great strength of the wallp,
by strorg construction thronghont,
and by the tcpports of
*fn;je, floors and galleries ali
resting on massive sloce piera and walls
securely founded on the bod rock of me
locality. The proportions and iiucs of the
interior are admirable to view, and frr tlip
uses of tho house have been f>ucd almost
perfect—certainly not surpassed by any op
era hou?e in the country. The ota^e fl"sor is
41 feet -i inches deep by 80 feet in wUlth,
the ctirtßia opening being 33 ftct widfc,
leaving 21 feet width to the wings on
either side of the stage. The height of
the pro?eeninm arch is 39 feet. From the
curtain to the stage front, at the center,
is 5 feet, and the orchestra occupies 5 feet.
LINDEKE, WARNER & SCHURMEIER.
•as maer uno Deing 08 reei rrom tne ouier
line of the dress circle. An actor or c-inger
standing at the middle of the stage line
will be distant from the most distant audi
tor in the dress circle C 3 feet, from the
most distant in the balcony C 8 feet;, and
from the extreme boy in the gallery only
80 feet. From the frott centre the pitch
of the drees circle towards tha Ft»i*e is C
in 30, and the parquette pitch is about 2.2
in 30. The girdeis of circle, Ualcocy and
gallery have the reverse ond onrv<?s of
Cnpia's typical bow. The pitch of the
dress cirole girder from center to stage
ends is 10 inchesl, of the balcony girder
21 inches and of the gallery girder 32
inches. The circle seats nearest the stage
are no higher above the front row of par
quette seats than are the circle seats at the
center front above the rear rows of par
quette seats. Two results of what is here
stated are, that every face of an audience
filling every seat in the house may be seen
by the actor occupying the stage, and no
one of the audience finds himself or her
self shut out from a broad view of the
audience by an abrupt elevation of seats in
his or her neighborhood. Another result
which may be attributed to the propor
tions and lines above stated is that tha labor
of singing, speaking and hearing is lighten
ed—in other words the house answers all the
requirements of acoustics for an audience
of about 2,ICD persons, the number the
house will comfortably seat. In the par
quette and parquette circle there are 704
chairs, and in the balcony 62(5, while the
gallery benches will seat about 800
persous. Oa Thursday night of the week
of the Boston Ideal?, (four weeks ego) it
is said there were 2,300 persons m the
iiouse, all seats being filled and about 200
persons taking standing room. Uuderthe
proscenium arch, at either tide cf the
stage, on the circle and balcony floors,
there are two boses (eight in all) which
mo tn.v;-.iiLi v nmsneu auu nomy [artiisneu.
The foyer is separated from the rires* c'r
cia by a draped partition and in many de
tails of utility as well rs decoration the
critical observer will note the adoption of
good old ideas adapted to
present conditions ■ and styles.
The upholstery and decoration, as
lo carpets, curtains, papers, painting and
carving were all folly described in tho
Globe of Oct. 14th,on which day '.ho hoaso
was first opened to the public with a dedi
catory address and tho performance of lill
Trovatorfc" by Emma Abbott and com
pany. It is sufficient to say here that in
all respects the finish and famishing of
the house is rich ar.d beautiful, Many of
the best features of construction and fitting
of this mode! and truly grand opera house
are to be cr< dited directly (o Mr. MacO«r
thy, the superintending architect. For in
stance he so planned the pitch of circle,
balcony and gallery, that the first impres
sion of a hew visitor to the hou?e, will be
that the distances across tlia honvj
are much lues than they are
and that 2,100 people comfortably
seated will all be in view from the stream!
each have a fair view of both audience i»nd
stage. His crowning "ishieveccent is that
he has completely done away with Hie once
indisuensible "pit,"' or dopressiou from the
ciro c. The gentleman iv th« front circle
who wished to invite his bald headed friend
from the nearest parent Ho seat to a
search, between acts for olovee and burned
coffee beans, in ancient limes had to shout
his invitation at the to of hi* vuic.-. In
modern days he could, his arnj* were
long,) call the attention of his frit-ml by
tapping him on the head with the .ip of
his cane. Now, in our new Opera house,,
he will find his parquette neighbor in
i whisper-hearing distance, and will £nd
him good natured because he can see most
of the house. It only remains to be added
that the Grand Opera house of St. Paul has
ample facilities and room for the use
of occupants of the stage and attaches of
the house. Prominent among those facil
ities are a dressing room and property
room on each side of tho stage floor, three
dressing rooms each side on a floor above,
and twelve dressing rooms, two wash
room?, etc., around tho trap room beneath
the stage.
Religions Institutions.
The Sisters of St. Joseph have adopted
plans by Bassford for building during
the coming: season, and to be completed