Friday, October 26, 2007

Howdy Pioneers!


This carving found in West St. Paul beckoned to me today. I waved back!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The statue isn't in West St. Paul, it's on St. Paul's West End.

Funny thing about that intersection: The house that the statue is in front of was built by a Mr. Lauer, a man who built grand houses out of stone. Mr. Lauer actually built the rowhouses you see in the background -- it's known as the the "Lauer Block" and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Mr. Lauer and his family were living in the house with the statue at the time he was building the rowhouses.

If you look closely at the side wall of the rowhouses, you'll see that there are no windows in it. On the other end, though, there are many windows (which added light and value to the end units). So why are there no windows on the side facing that statue and the Lauer house?

Well, it seems Mrs. Lauer objected to the idea of all those people staring into her parlor across St. Clair Avenue, and insisted that there be no windows on the side that faced her new house.

There are descendents of the Lauer family still living in this neighborhood.