(October 2023)
Tim Spitzack
Editor
Those new to Downtown St. Paul quickly discover two key streets as navigational aids: Robert Street and Seventh Street. Both dissect the city – and each other – and will get you from one edge of downtown to the other. That’s all fine and dandy unless you happen to be on Robert Street and are looking for an address on Eighth Street.
Fasten your seatbelt and let me explain.
When St. Paul was platted in 1849, downtown streets running parallel to the east bank of the Mississippi River were named numerically, denoting the number of streets away from the river. Thus, Seventh Street is the seventh street from the river. Or is it?
Well, today the answer is no, if you’re traveling on Robert Street that is.
Stay with me. I’m getting ready to reveal how one downtown street magically disappeared. POOF!
Let’s start with an illustration. Imagine you’re on the West Side and crossing into downtown St. Paul. The Robert Street Bridge takes you over the river, Shepard Road (the first street from the river, originally named Water Street) and Second Street (originally called Bench Street). The bridge ends at Kellogg Boulevard (the third street from the river and originally named Third Street.)
Still with me? It gets simple from here.
You cross Fourth Street, then Fifth Street, then Sixth Street. Now, however, wayfinding gets muddier than the Mississippi River bottom. The next street you approach is Seventh Place, not Seventh Street. Because you have above average intelligence and have been keeping track, you know you’re seven streets from the river. Hmmm, you think to yourself. I must be just one block away from Eighth Street (and who would blame you?). You travel one more block and find yourself at – wait for it – Seventh Street. “Ugh,” you blurt out for everyone to hear. You continue one block further, only to find yourself at Ninth Street. Now you utter something unfit to print in this paper. You turn around and head back one block to Eighth Street, which you can now attest has vanished from plain sight.
How can a street in the heart of downtown St. Paul mysteriously disappear? Well, it has to do with street alignment and that pesky “East” and “West” designation that many streets have. The City of St. Paul made the change in 1987 to – get this! – avoid confusion. A resolution adopted by the city council in 1987 states: the name change would eliminate street confusion in this area by extending E. and W. Seventh St. as a two-way street through the downtown area, extending from the Fort Snelling Area on the west to Hazel St. on the east for a distance of over 9 miles; therefore, be it resolved that W. Ninth St. between St. Peter St. and N. Wabasha St. shall be known as W. Seventh St.; and E. Eighth St. between N. Wabasha St. and Sibley St. shall here after be know as E. Seventh St.
Unlike nearly all other downtown streets that are straight as an arrow between Broadway and St. Peter, present-day Seventh Street has some twists and turns. They are most evident near the intersection of Sibley. It is here you’ll find Seventh Place (so named in December 1976), which goes for a mere three blocks West of Sibley before dead-ending into Minnesota Street. As one would expect, the original Seventh Street ran through downtown. It is one of the original 15 street names on the 1849 plat and, according to one reliable source, is the longest street in the city, travelling from the East Side all the way to Fort Snelling, which is why it is co-named Fort Road.
While the sleight of hand from the 1987 city council resolution added a new wrinkle to downtown navigation, Eighth Street did not disappear completely. A tiny, two-block section exists near Wacouta Commons Park and the Church of St. Mary, which happens to be hosting a fall booya on October 1. If you’re new to the city and wish to attend that event, I suggest using Google maps.
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