WOW, Larry found that Ancestry.com has a new collection of historic postcards! These first seven are from St Cloud, Minnesota, and it tickles me to recognize buildings I never actually saw...lol...and to realize which ones are mis-labeled, too.
For instance, ◄ Immaculate Conception Church and St Mary's School, before 1920. This would have been the view from St Germain Street...but that means that the school or street has moved in the last 100 years?
Right, memory can play tricks--I went to Google Earth to see if the school is the same one that's there now (the above view is the NW corner of the school). Wow, ► this is the view from the SW corner today. Ok, it's the same building. Guess I'll just live with the anomaly, huh? ☺
Now this card is obviously St Mary's Cathedral Church, and the photo was taken after 1931, when the upper church was finished. I think it was never called Immaculate Conception altho it did replace the church in the first card.
◄ This is Holy Angels before the 1930 fire that gutted the church. It was the pro-cathedral; (A Pro-cathedral is a parish church that is temporarily serving as the cathedral or co-cathedral of a diocese). I assume it was considered the cathedral for awhile, especially since the bishop built his magnificent home right behind it.The building was not returned to its former glory (right) after the fire. The steeple was replaced with a much shorter one, the one we knew as students at Cathedral High School, and the one that's still there on Holy Angels Performing Arts Center.
Added later: When the St Cloud Times celebrated their "First 150 years" in the summer of 2010, this article was published in the June 13th edition:
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Institutions in St Cloud: the Veterans Administration Hospital on the northwest side of town, and the State Reformatory for Men, on the southeast side. Both are still very much in business but changed from when these photos were taken: The VA had a working farm with a herd of cows when I was a kid, and a greenhouse. Patients worked in both as therapy and to provide dairy products to the hospital and gorgeous flowers for the hospital grounds. I remember driving around the campus, looking at this years' flower beds, and peeking into the barn. Too bad those programs are gone.The wall around the Reformatory was built using inmate labor with granite from the quarry right there inside the wall. They also used to have a working farm and vegetable gardens where inmates worked. The view on the postcard I think is from the SW corner looking towards the RR tracks. Highway 10 now parallels the tracks there.
Thanks for finding these Larry!
Now I'll do a separate post about the one he found from BUCKMAN ☺.
I thought the bishop lived by the hospital and that behind Holy Angels was just a big rectory for a priest-heavy parish. Or maybe just Peanut Butter Bartholome lived by the hospital...
ReplyDeleteNaw, the first Bishop was Otto Zardetti, and he thought the priests' house behind Holy Angels was way too small and not elegant enough for a BISHOP. He demanded free bricks from St Johns "I would like to remind the Abbey that their buildings, etc., were erected from the resources of the diocese.." (from a book by Coleman Barry)and levied a "donation" from each family in the diocese toward building that house. Remember how ornate the thing was? There was a balcony above the front door so he could address his flock, and the inside was beautifully appointed, according to the newspaper article before they tore it down.
ReplyDeletePeanut Butter built or bought the house by the hospital, I think.
☺ Thanks for asking!