Oil on Canvas – 2009

Saint Paul, Minnesota’s capital city, is known as the City of Neighborhoods.  One of these neighborhoods is below the high bluffs and Summit Hill neighborhood to the north and above the Mississippi River to the south, the West Seventh/Fort Road neighborhood is one of Saint Paul’s oldest.

The first permanent European American settlement in the region was Fort Snelling (1825) located upstream at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers.  In 1839 a four mile property boundary was established around the fort to preserve surrounding river-bottom and bluff top lands for exclusive use of the fort.  Incoming immigrants thus began a small settlement just down river, a village which would become Saint Paul.  From here a trading road, Fort Road, was established to Fort Snelling.  Today West Seventh Street/Fort Road features many commercial businesses including restaurants, pubs and antique shops.