Whose view? From where? March 2013
Kudos to the several of you who correctly identified the landmark in the photo! Dot Drake notes, That is the Island Station in the background. (Precisely! More on this in a moment, after a mention of some urban wildlife.) This past summer I saw a river otter while walking in the area.
Apparently Dot isn't the only one who has noted the wildlife. Kinnell Tackett writes, It certainly looks to be the abandoned power plant across from Cherokee Heights Park, and it looks like the photo was taken from the inlet next to the plant. What a beautiful location that is extremely active with eagles, muskrats, otters and beaver.
Jim McKenzie writes, This view is ... looking towards St. Paul at the old NSP building.
Indeed, this is the lovely old power plant popularly known as Island Station, just riverward of the Schmidt Brewery, near Shepard Road and Randolph Street in St. Pauls West Seventh neighborhood. The plant was built in 1923-24 by the St. Paul Gas and Light Company, and designed by the firm now known as TKDA. The name island refers to the fact that the land on which it is built was historically an island, separate from the land around it, known as Ross Island.
The plant was built to use pulverized coal instead of standard coal. The cutting-edge technology had some practical challenges of safety, and never became mainstream. A year after construction ended, it was bought by Northern States Power (now Xcel Energy) and used as a backup to its more traditional coal plant just downstream at the High Bridge.
These and other facts are part of a comprehensive review of the plants history, undertaken as part of a recently-completed historic significance study by the St. Paul Heritage Preservation Commission. The review concluded that it is not eligible for designation on the National Register of Historic Places, and thus state and federal tax credits for historic properties are not available to the plant. The City is currently evaluating whether to place it on the local register.
Jonathan Riehle writes, I visited the site a few years ago when it was featured during a Minneapolis-St Paul Home Tour as a site being developed into condos.
Indeed, a previous attempt to build townhomes on the property by developer TJ Hammerstrom and others fell victim in the mid-2000s to a poor real estate market, and never got off the ground. That effort would have significantly privatized large portions of the riverfront in this area. In contrast, the Great River Passage Master Plan, just adopted by the St. Paul City Council, envisions this area as a central hub of recreational activity on the river and a possible location for a new National Park Service visitor center.
About Whose view? From where?
Each month in this section, we feature a photo somewhere along the river corridor in the Twin Cities that is in some way significant or important or just plain scenic. Individuals may then e-mail us and identify the view and explain why they believe it is significant to the community or important to them personally. Well publish some of your responses in the next issue of Mississippi Messages, where we will also reveal the correct answer.
To submit your guess and response, e-mail Bob Spaulding, River Advocate, through our contact form. The respondent to provide the first correct identification of the view and hopefully some interesting thoughts about its significance will receive a valuable prize for their effort. All entries must be received by the first day of the following month for consideration.