Ramsey County History – Fall 1984: “The Minnesota Club: St. Paul’s Enterprising Leaders and Their ‘Gentlemen’s Social Club'”

The Minnesota Club: St, Paul’s Enterprising Leaders and Their “Gentlemen’s Social Club”
Author: Robert Orr Baker

The Minnesota Club was launched in St. Paul in March 1869. It had a “refreshment room” with bar, a card room, a billiard room, and a reading room. Membership was by invitation only to this social club for the elite. The nationwide Panic of 1873 nearly ended things, and it closed from 1875 through 1884. Members then built a new clubhouse at Fourth and Cedar and another larger building in late 1915. Designed by Clarence Johnston, the new building featured many specialized rooms: billiard, a gymnasium, squash and handball courts, a bar, and two-dozen sleeping rooms. Women had a separate entrance, though none were members, and their own lounge and dining room. The Great Depression did not have a major affect on the Minnesota Club. Saturday lunches for executives were suspended for several years; then they were reinstated with great success in 1948. The club gradually became less of a private gentlemen’s club and more of a civic organization, becoming a popular venue for meetings and receptions.
PDF of Baker article