Ramsey County History – Summer 2010: “A Saint Paul Chronicle: The Return of the ‘Black Maria'”

A Saint Paul Chronicle: The Return of the “Black Maria”
Author: Maya J. Beecham

A short article based on an excerpt from a letter written by Bernard M. Schorn Jr. whose grandfather drove a “Black Maria.” This was a name given to the workforce vans that transported convicts from the courthouse to the city workhouse at Lake Como. The horse-drawn vehicle discussed here was purchased in 1897 and used until replaced by an automobile sometime between 1914 and 1920. It was sold to a local politician and then was transferred to a Florida museum in 1953. Two decades later, an Ohio collector bought it at an auction. The article then details the efforts by various St. Paul police and others to buy it back. The original “Black Maria” returned to St. Paul on January 21, 1986, and is now housed at the city’s Western District police office on Hamline Avenue.
PDF of Beecham article