Back in the day, when Minnesota's movers and shakers were building their mansions and carriage houses, the most fashionable addresses were on the river bluffs just west of downtown St. Paul.
Railroad and lumber barons, prosperous merchants and homegrown celebrities such as Jazz Age writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nobel Peace Prize winner Frank Kellogg and architect Cass Gilbert all made their homes in the area now known as Summit Hill.
The neighborhood's well-preserved Victorian-era dwellings offer a visual smorgasbord of architectural variety, but they're also rich in history and local lore. This Sunday, some of the locals will open their private doors for a public tour that showcases the neighborhood and benefits its block clubs and crime-prevention efforts.
Many of the homeowners will be on hand to answer questions and share tales.
Come for the stained glass, stay for the stories.
Glensheen's cousin The house: Prolific St. Paul architect Clarence Johnston was busy in 1906. While designing this home on Summit Avenue, he was also at work on a similar house in Duluth, known today as Glensheen, the Congdon mansion. The two Jacobean Revival houses share the same architectural DNA, with gabled exteriors and carved dark woodwork interiors.
The history: The 9,000-square-foot house was a gift from Jacob Dittenhofer, a partner in the Golden Rule Department Store (later Donaldson's), to his son Samuel and his 17-year-old bride, Madeline.
Madeline, considered a great beauty, later relocated to Paris. (Some considered her a fan and "follower" of playboy scribe Fitzgerald, according to local lore.) Samuel went to fetch her, and they stayed in Europe until his death in 1952. Madeline then returned to the United States, but not to the house, which she donated to a religious order, the Christian Brothers Provincialate, in 1966.
