Anwatin Middle School and Bryn Mawr Elementary sit at the western edge of Laurel Avenue in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood of Minneapolis. Currently, they are part of the Minneapolis Public Schools. But a mosaic of St. Margaret of Scotland on the exterior of the building suggests a different history. In fact, the school building was opened in 1960 as St. Margaret’s Academy, a high school for girls run by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.
On April 8, 1843, Father Augustin Ravoux finished his daily office and looked out at the Mississippi River. He later recalled, “I had under my eyes two beautiful rivers, a clear sky, a good fire, and nothing to disturb my mind. It is then that the voice of nature is easily heard and understood.”
When John Ireland dedicated St. Joseph Church at North Fourth Street and Eleventh Avenue in Minneapolis on Sept. 15, 1889, it was not yet completed, but it was already beautiful. Its white brick and sandstone structure was like no other building in the city, with imposing towers on both front corners of the building. Inside, there was seating for 1,200.
On Sept. 6, 1894, Catholics both wealthy and working class gathered to celebrate the opening of the Archdiocese of St. Paul’s new major seminary on the bluffs above the Mississippi River. Although it was not quite finished, The St. Paul Seminary represented the culmination of a vision of two men: Archbishop John Ireland and James J. Hill. Their financial contributions also combined to make it a reality.
In 1854, St. Paul was a river town on the American frontier. Its economy and population were growing quickly thanks to steamboats packed with Irish and German immigrants journeying north on the Mississippi River. Unfortunately, the same cramped conditions that made the inexpensive trip favorable for poor immigrants also bred disease.
On March 17, 1873, the Irish of Minneapolis and surrounding areas gathered for Mass, filling the largest church in the city to overflowing. After hearing Father James McGolrick preach on the history of Ireland and the place of the Irish people in America, they poured out of Immaculate Conception to begin a St. Patrick’s Day parade through the city.
If you look closely at the north side of the library building at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, you might notice the words “Our Lady of Peace” etched in the lintels above some of the doorways.
At the corner of Buford and Cleveland in Falcon Heights stands a stone and copper building. The copper is new, but the stone structure that faces the St. Paul Campus of the University of Minnesota was built in 1940 in anticipation of one of the crowning events in the history of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
