Ramsey County History – Spring 2004: “Irvine Park in 1854: Its Homes and the People Who Lived There 150 Years Ago”

Irvine Park in 1854: Its Homes and the People Who Lived There 150 Years Ago
Author: Robert J. Stumm

There are an impressive number of homes in Irvine Park today that were already there in 1854. The neighborhood dates from 1849 when the land for a park was donated. The author describes ten large Greek revivals and smaller federal styles. The Symonds house at 234 Ryan, considered the city’s oldest surviving structure, was built in 1850. These pioneer houses survived to the present because Irvine Park was spared the intrusion of largescale commercial development that has doomed other older neighborhoods in St. Paul.
PDF of Stumm article