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.

The house is rumored to be haunted, but current owners Kay Savik and Joe Tashjian haven't experienced any ghostly phenomena during their nine-year tenure. "For 30 years, it was boarded up, so it got a reputation as deserted and haunted," Savik said. "If there is a ghost, it's friendly."

The details: The house still has its original mahogany and oak woodwork, Austrian-made light fixtures and stained-glass windows with a different botanical motif for every room. It also boasts ahead-of-its-time amenities such as a main-floor powder room and his-and-hers closets.

Savik and Tashjian have completely remodeled the kitchen and freshened up the breakfast room, adding a tile floor that Johnston specified in the original plans. The home has been the setting for their son's wedding as well as numerous musical events. "The house seems happy when there are a whole bunch of people here."

Don't miss: The hidden china cabinet behind a secret door in the dining-room paneling and the butler's pantry, which still contains most of the Dittenhofers' original china and glassware.

A medical, musical pedigree The house: Built in 1918, this Tudor Revival home with Arts and Crafts detailing sits on a massive corner lot surrounded by a wall of locally quarried Platteville gray sandstone. "It looks massive from the street, but we love how it isn't," said current owner Ginny Brodeen. "This is a family home, not ornate, with an open, contemporary feeling."

The history: Johnston designed the home for a prominent St. Paul couple, Dr. John Archibald Cameron and his wife, Jane Holland Cameron, a contralto soloist who once serenaded President Calvin Coolidge and found local fame as "the Sweetest Maid" on WCCO radio. She sang for the new station's opening celebration, and a vintage photo of her, draped in white ermine, is on display in the entry. Brodeen and her husband, Rawley, have lived in the house for 15 years and raised their three grown daughters there.

The details: The original living-room bookcases, designed to accommodate Jane Cameron's sheet music, are intact, but the baby-blue color scheme that the Brodeens inherited is gone. The couple have undertaken several major updates, including remodeling the kitchen, replacing the windows, converting the original maid's quarters into a master suite, rebuilding the balcony to its original specifications and re-landscaping the front and back yards.

"We have not stopped working on this house," Ginny Brodeen said. "This is a labor of love."

Don't miss: The secret garden in back, hidden from the street, with its fountain and tranquil seating area.