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Lost Mansions of the Twin Cities: A Journey Through St. Paul & Minneapolis

This House

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Step back in time to discover the grand, vanished mansions that once dotted the skylines of St. Paul and Minneapolis. In this special episode of This House, we explore the architectural wonders that rose during the Gilded Age, from Summit Avenue’s legendary estates to Minneapolis’s lavish enclaves near Park Avenue. Witness how fortunes built on fur trading, lumber, flour milling, and railroads fueled an era of opulence, only for many of these majestic homes to fall to demolition, fire, and modern development.

How we make our videos:
Camera: Sony a6400
Microphone: Shure SM7B
Audio Interface: Focusrite Scarlett 2i2
XLR Cable: Mogami Gold XLR Cable
Green Screen: Neewer Green Screen
Teleprompter: Neewer Teleprompter

Production Credits:
Scripts: Ken Weiss
Storyboard: Ken Weiss
Video Editor: Dalton Sturm

Location: Twin Cities, MN

Public Domain Photos from: Library of Congress
CC BY 2.0 Photos from: Flickr User: Teemu008,
Paul Sableman, The Minnesota Historical Society
CC BY-SA 3.0Photos from: Wikipedia User: William Wesen
CC BY-SA 4.0 Photos from: Wikipedia User: McGhiever, Bmzuckerman
Assets from: Envato Elements
Music from Epidemic Sound

20 Comments

@jelsner5077 1 year ago

Minneapolis resident, here. A lot of Minneapolis' old mansions survive intact along the Chain of Lakes, including the iconic 'Mary Tyler Moore' house in Kenwood. Others were reimagined as businesses, museums, events centers and condos. St. Paul's Summit Avenue is considered one of America's longest avenues of surviving Victorian mansions, most of which survive today as private homes. Thanks for featuring us!

@John.Ahnemann 1 year ago

Worthy of note:
The bluffs of Saint paul, including Indian mounds park (native burial grounds) were open to winds and the area consistently burned. The wealth made an effort to move to cathedral hill, adjacent to the James J Hill house. So the first historic area of Saint paul was 1840-1880. Around 1880, most historic buildings began being built on Summit Avenue. That area is the largest stretch of historic properties anywhere in the country. It's gorgeous

@Badgerbrew 1 year ago

I love these types of historical videos, but as a resident of the Twin Cities, this could be elevated by showing what stands at these sites in present day.

@WillR3CB 1 year ago

You briefly showed the Turnblad mansion at the end of the video, but it's worth noting that it now houses the ASI (American Swedish Institute) and is open six days per week. Tickets are reasonable and tours are self-guided. It's a beautiful space and well worth a visit.

@KDubOriginal 1 year ago (edited)

St. Paul resident here and I really wish that all of those mansions and the mighty mills would all be standing today, it makes me very sad to see such beautiful architecture go to waste. I very much loved the swan turnblad mansion, so much in fact that I would love to live in it or at least a replica of it.

@SpanishEclectic 1 year ago

I found a postcard in my grandmother's things (postmarked 1920), sent from a fellow teacher in North Dakota to an address on Sherbourne in St. Paul. Grandmother had grown up in Wisconsin, and curious, I Googled the address. Still standing, a cute little Victorian house with a steep roof and porch. I later found photos from the 1930s, showing family members sitting on the steps of that house. Then recently, I found out from my cousins that the house had belonged to their grandfather, my grandmother's older brother. Perhaps she lived with them for a time, or was just using it as a mailing address, but she would have seen many of these impressive mansions when she went to visit the Big City. I'm sure it was a bit of a shock after spending a year teaching on the prairies of North Dakota.

@John.Ahnemann 1 year ago

Seems a tad bit deceiving to not make mention to the fact that the james J hill house blends into the neighborhood and can struggle to even be seen amongst the well over 1000 historic mansions still standing alongside it. Yes, areas have been lost. But Saint Paul has many gorgeous residences remaining. It's a blessing to get to drive through them daily on my way to the office. :)

@Quepis 1 year ago

I find it very interesting that it's not just the lower classes that suffered as a result of highway building.

@katharinerasnake1119 1 year ago (edited)

There were two families my parents were friends with who each had a home on Summit Avenue in St. Paul. It was always exciting visiting both families, because their old homes were beautiful. You could tell a lot of time was put into the details of those very old mansions. Both of those families moved elsewhere when they chose to downsize. Both homes are thankfully still standing so other families can enjoy them now.

@pigoff123 1 year ago

My father was stationed in St. Paul. We lived in White Bear Lake on Centerville Rd. I heard that the farm was torn down and a mall was built. So sad. So many memories

@lesal.1373 1 year ago

Such a shame so many beautiful homes are gone. MPLS has a special place in my heart. I did PR for Prince in the early 80s. Thank you Ken, for all your hard work!

@MK-651 9 months ago

I live in a one bedroom house that was built in 1927 Its crazy to think about all the history this house has stood through.

@outsidethewaxbox 1 year ago

St. Paulite here. I live not too far from the Crocus Hill neighborhood and there’s still a lot of grandeur that remains, so much so that the Hill house, while easily spotted in skyline photos, is much more unassuming when viewed in context with the other homes in the area. Irvine Park is another gem, with painted ladies and other grand structures surrounding a town square type park with a huge gazebo.

Merriam’s Lookout, at 2 Sherburne Ave, still exists in a way. While the mansion has long since faded, there is an octagonal platform with a walkway oriented southeast toward downtown and the capitol complex, and the ruins of the staircase that ascended up the hill from University and Jackson streets still lay below it.

@Dorthy_Danfruff 1 year ago (edited)

I live in an old colonial in St.Paul. My house was built in 1896. I love it and all the mansions I live by on summit!❤

@lauriehall1249 1 year ago

What a shame that changing times dictate the destruction of such grand residences. Thank you for another great video.

@saccharinesilk 1 year ago

😭 lyman daton's hair oh my god

@markcarter822 1 year ago

I love historical houses and buildings of the past and their stories.
If you enjoyed this, I would recomend a great book that I love. "Once There Were Castles". Lost mansions and estates of the Twin Cities by Larry Millet. So many photographs and stories of old mansions.

@pegatheetoo1437 1 month ago

In the 70s & early 80s, there was an old mansion in the 'woods' area that had been transformed into a restaurant. The library was then the bar. It was so beautiful!!

@andywestern7719 1 year ago

The Twin Cities still have a few mansion districts that remain largely intact - the Lowry Hill neighborhood in Minneapolis and the Summit Hill area in Saint Paul. And Saint Paul's Summit Ave is widely regarded as the best preserved Victorian monumental boulevard in the nation. I'm a bit astonished that you haven't done an entire video exploring Summit Ave.