Ramsey County History – Spring 2018: “How St. Paul’s Federal Courts Building and Post Office Became Today’s Landmark Center”

How St. Paul’s Federal Courts Building and Post Office Became Today’s Landmark Center
Author: Bob Roscoe

In 1969, demolition of St. Paul’s Federal Courts Building and Post Office, a Richardson Romanesque Chateauesque-style public building that the federal government had constructed between 1892 and 1901, seemed imminent. When a new Federal Courts Building was constructed in 1961, the building now known as the Old Federal Courts Building became surplus property. A combination of citizen leaders and public officials stepped up, however, and saved the building. Their initial action was to get the building added to the National Register of Historic Places (1969). They also organized Minnesota Landmarks, a nonprofit led by Elizabeth (Betty) Musser and Georgia DeCoster. Their goal was to preserve the building. The resulting public-private partnership helped convince the federal government that the building could be restored and become the home for a variety of arts and science organizations that were then located elsewhere in the city. Ownership was transferred to the city in 1972. Now owned by Ramsey County, Minnesota Landmarks supervised the restoration work (completed in 1978) and operates the building today.
PDF of Roscoe article