Ramsey County History – Fall 2010: “Once There Was a Street Called Decatur”

Once There Was a Street Called Decatur
Author: Paul D. Nelson

This is the story of a small street, Decatur, which was perched on the western edge of Swede Hollow in the East Side of St. Paul. It had been laid out in the 1850s, but the first buildings did not go up until the early 1880s during the city’s population boom. The article is an attempt to recreate the streetscape, which was destroyed in the 1930s so that a new extension of Payne Avenue could be completed. The article also reports as much as possible about the people who lived on Decatur Street. The 1895 state census showed nineteen households, many of which took in boarders, and a total of 142 people. A majority of these residents were immigrants. Many of the men were railroad workers or general laborers, and there were also many tradesmen, such as butchers, teamsters, and carpenters. Widows and unmarried women were often domestics, seamstresses, or worked in laundries. Because the city took photographs of the houses on Decatur Street that were torn down, there is a good visual record of the street. The article includes an interesting sidebar drawn from the reminiscences of Ralph Yekaldo who about Decatur Street and the surrounding area.
PDF of Nelson article