Ramsey County History – Fall 1981: “Montgomery Schuyler Takes on ‘The West’”

Montgomery Schuyler Takes on ‘The West’
Author: Patricia Murphy

In 1891, architecture critic Montgomery Schuyler wrote an article in Harper’s Magazine entitled “Glimpses of Western Architecture: St. Paul and Minneapolis.” It looked at nine buildings in St. Paul: the Ryan Hotel, the Dayton Avenue Presbyterian Church, the Pioneer Building, the Courthouse, the People’s Church, the Endicott Building, the Bank of Minnesota, the Chamber of Commerce Building, and the New York Life Insurance Building. Schuyler wrote, “There is nothing to be compared with the massing of the handsome houses of St. Paul upon the ridge above the river.” He wrote about the rivalry between the Twin Cities and concluded that a “national architecture” might soon emerge.
PDF of Murphy article