Cathedral of Saint Paul Tours:

Catholic Churches in Saint Paul date back to the 1st chapel built out of log by Catholic priest Lucien Galtier near Lambert’s Landing (Saint Paul Landing).  This location along the Mississippi River where today’s Shepard & Robert Street meet was the true start of Downtown Saint Paul.  At the time, the young city was a collection of cabins known as Pig’s Eye (after a saloon) with competing development starting at Upper Landing near today’s Irvine Park.

Over the next few years, the city boomed and the congregation quickly grew which Saint Paul becoming the official name when it became the capital of the new Minnesota Territory in 1849.  With the growth, the church need to expand into the first Cathedral of Saint Paul under Archbishop Joseph Crétin in 1851.  Within a few more years, the growing church population of over 3,000 needed something bigger than their wooded buildings to worship in.   They decided to build a proper  3-story church out of stone in 1856 at the corner of St Peter and 6th Street East in Downtown Saint Paul (today’s Landmark Plaza).

The location of the new stone Church was good and centrally situated, but didn’t have the towering location over town many cities cathedrals had.  Most of the elevated land on the bluffs around St Paul was being bought up quickly by the rich and the Church missed its chance to buy in the first go around.  The best land was along Summit Avenue on Saint Anthony’s Hill including 40 acres bought by Ohio farmer Jeremiah W. Selby in 1849.

Shelby used the land to farm potatoes but paid a hefty price at $50 an acre when the land had recently only been $1 an acre.   Shelby was no dummy as he got rich quickly and was elected to the Minnesota Territory’s House of Representatives.  In 1854, one year after Shelby’s death, the road was named in his honor.

A large part of the Shelby land was bought by Norman Kittson Mansion who built a home in the Second Empire Style design with a French Mansard roof at the sight of the current Cathedral of Saint Paul.  Known as the Kittson Mansion, the home was considered Minnesota’s finest home when it was completed.  While a very popular and lavish style in its day, it may look a little creepy as a mix between the motel on Hitchcock’s thriller Psycho and the Addams Family Mansion (Photos: 1; 2; 3).  Kittson was one of America’s first millionaires as a railroad baron, and later with steamboats, but also served as the Mayor of Saint Paul (1858-59).  He loved horseracing owning several tracks around the country, including a 64-stable Kittsondale raceway in Saint Paul’s Midtown near University & Snelling Avenues which he built for one million dollars.

In 1903 Archbishop John Ireland declared he would build a new grand Cathedral in Saint Paul and also The Church of Saint Mary in Minneapolis to replace the Church of the Immaculate Conception.  Looking back it was a pretty bold move to replace both of the cities’ major churches at the same time.  Ireland had served as a Chaplin during the Civil War before coming to Saint Paul where he was known for being very progressive in immigration and education although he was strongly outspoken against saloons.  He gained a lot of favor through education and even helped found Saint Paul’s Univerisity of Saint Thomas among many other schools.  From his time in the Civil War, he became friends with both Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, and became a hard-line Republican in a time when Irish Catholics were very Democrat.

Ireland began his push to build his two grand Churches by finding the perfect architect before he even had any land secured.  Local architect Cass Gilbert twice turned down the designing of the Churches because he was busy in NYC, but he referred his friend Frenchman Emmanuel Masqueray whom he recently worked with at the 1904 Saint Louis World’s Fair.  For World’s Fair, Masqueray had produced the expo’s central building in a Beaux-Arts style with a main portal similar to that of the French Catedral de Périgueux.  The only surviving building from the 1904 World’s Fair is Cass Gilbert’s Art Building (now the Saint Louis Art Museum) as most of Masqueray’s were temporary buildings.  Temporary or not, his work gained him Cass Gilbert’s respect and ultimately the job of designing his first church for John Ireland in 9104, Minneapolis’ Church of Saint Mary.

Ireland got lucky with the land for Saint Mary’s Church in Minneapolis as Mr. L. S. Donaldson, who was an Immaculate Conception parish member, donated $45,000 of land next to Loring Park for the church in 1905.  Construction from 1907-1915 with the 1st mass in 1914 and in 1926 Pope Pius XI raised Saint Mary’s to become the 1st Basilica in the United States.

When it came down to the Cathedral of Saint Paul Ireland was confused and turned down the chance to buy land on Saint Anthony’s Hill for build near Midway instead.  Luckily he re-thought the deal and came back to the current Cathedral location and former Shelby farm in 1904 for $52,000.  The construction was fast-tracked in 1906 when John Cochran who live next door and opposed the Cathedral died.  Cochran had a huge distaste for Ireland, not because he was Protestant, but because Ireland converted his daughter to Catholicism against his wishes.  Ireland was able to acquire the land from Cochran’s wife and it now serves as the Church parking lot.

By 1907 they were ready to lay the cornerstone on the Cathedral of Saint Paul and it’s said that as many as 60,000 people attended.  The 1st service was on Palm Sunday in 1915 even though the inside wasn’t all the way done yet, but was still attended by 7,500.  The designer died in 1917 with most of the work done but only 3 of the interior chapels done. Ireland died the next year and it wasn’t until the 1950s that the final projects were actually finished. Cathedral finally concentrated in 1958.   In 2009 the Vatican declared the Cathedral the National Shrine of the Apostle Paul.

Original Kittson Mansion Photos: 1; 2; 3.