There’s no better way to get to know a city than to walk it.  In Minneapolis and St. Paul, several guided tours of historic neighborhoods offer scenic glimpses into the past and how it shaped the Twin Cities of today.  Many of the guided walking tours are programs of the Minnesota Historical Society and the historic sites it operates in the metro area.

St. Paul’s Summit Avenue

Staff from the Minnesota Historical Society lead tours of St. Paul's stately Summit Avenue.

The American Planning Association named Summit Avenue in St. Paul as one of the “10 Great Streets for 2008,” citing it as the “nation’s best intact street from the Victorian era.”   Running for four miles from the Cathedral of St. Paul near downtown west to the Mississippi River, Summit is the country’s longest and best preserved boulevard of grand mansions.  The architecture and park-like setting make Summit a popular driving, biking and walking route.

The eastern end of Summit, with its blufftop views, drew some of St. Paul’s early leaders to build their homes here.  The 1880s brought the first major wave of home building, including the impressive red stone mansion built for James J. Hill, owner of the Great Northern Railway.  This Richardsonian Romanesque style home was the largest and most expensive house in Minnesota when it was built.  The Hill House is now a state historic site, and its staff members lead 90-minute, 1.5-mile walking tours of Summit Avenue and adjacent streets.

The tours describe the variety of architectural styles represented in these 1860-1920 homes, including Italianate, Queen Anne and Prairie School.   They also note the social history these grand homes represent.  “Gilded age entrepreneurs and captains of industry lived together in a pretty exclusive enclave here,” explains Craig Johnson, site manager at the Hill House.  The civic and business leaders who built and lived in these Summit Avenue mansions were “the movers and shakers of St. Paul and the upper Midwest, people who had a profound impact on this part of the country.”

The Summit Avenue tours are offered Saturdays (11 a.m. and 2 p.m.) and Sundays (2 p.m.), June through September.  Reservations are recommended (call 651-297-2555) and the cost is $10 for adults ($8, seniors; $6 ages 6-17).  Reservations are also recommended for the separate tour of the Hill House itself.

Minneapolis Riverfront

The Magical History Tours use futuristic Segways to explore the historic riverfront near downtown Minneapolis.

The Minnesota Historical Society also offers several different walking tours along the Mississippi River near downtown Minneapolis. This was the city’s milling district, and the most of the 90-minute tours begin at the Mill City Museum, fashioned from one of the old flour mills.  Different-themed tours led by museum staff will be offered in rotation Saturdays (11 a.m.) and Sundays (1 p.m.) from June 13 to Sept. 13.

The Minneapolis Riverfront tour takes visitors onto the landmark Stone Arch Bridge, built in 1883 for the railway owned by James J. Hill.  This graceful old railroad bridge is now used by pedestrians and cyclists and offers great views of the St. Anthony Falls spillway, the dam that provided waterpower for the mills.  These tours focus on the west bank of the river and provide an overview of the riverfront, its flour milling heyday, the hydropower that ran the mills, and the transformation of the neighborhood, with old mills reborn as trendy condos just down the street from the new Guthrie Theater.  “Folks are as interested in the recent history of the neighborhood as they are in its older history,” notes David Stevens of the Mill City Museum.

A separate tour wanders cobblestone Main Street, on the east bank of the river, the oldest neighborhood in the city.  This tour focuses on life in the village of St. Anthony, which was established in 1848, a few years before Minneapolis, and became part of that city in 1872.  The tour views some landmark buildings dating to the 1850s, including Our Lady of Lourdes Church.  It leaves from the Pracna Restaurant in the St. Anthony Main complex.

Another tour offered occasionally is led by a costumed guide portraying Eva Valesh (who wrote under the pen name Eva Gay), the reporter whose newspaper articles exposed the harsh working conditions of the women who labored in the woolen mills and shirt factories along the riverfront in the late 1880s.

Reservations are required for all of the tours (call 612-341-7555); dates and times for the different tours are available at www.mnhs.org.  The $14 fee (less for seniors and kids) for each of the tours includes admission to the Mill City Museum, where most of the tours start.  The museum was created in the ruins of the Washburn A Mill, the largest in the world when it was built in 1880.

The museum’s interactive exhibits chronicle the Minneapolis flour milling industry that dominated world flour production for half a century.  Don’t miss the museum’s video “Minneapolis in 19 Minutes Flat,” starring local humorist and playwright Kevin Kling, who takes a lighthearted look at the city’s past.  There are terrific views of the Mississippi and the city from the museum’s rooftop observation deck.

Adding a bit of adventure to riverfront history are the Magical History Tours, with participants each riding a Segway, an electric, self-balancing scooter. The tours, which last about three hours, begin with training to operate the vehicles safely (lean forward to move forward; straighten up and you stop).  The Segway tours are a fun way to try out futuristic transportation technology while viewing interesting sites from the past along the scenic riverfront.  “It’s more than a history tour, it’s an experience,” says Bill Neuenschwander, who runs the tours.

The Segway tours take in more territory than the walking tours.  Covering a five-mile route along both sides of the river and across the Stone Arch Bridge, the tour visits St. Anthony Main, the Mill Ruins Park, the upper lock and dam and St. Anthony Falls, and stops for refreshments at the Mills City Museum.  The Segway tour is open to teens and adults, and helmets are provided.  It’s offered daily (10 a.m. and 3 p.m.) Apr. 1 to Oct. 31 and costs $80; reservations are required.  Beginning in June, the company is adding a Segway tour in St. Paul.  (Phone and web site are listed in the info box on this page.)

Mendota Tours

The tiny village of Mendota sits on a river bluff above the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, just south of St. Paul.  One of the oldest towns in the state, it began as a fur trading settlement in the 1820s.  At the edge of town is the Sibley House Historic Site, operated by the Minnesota Historical Society; the Sibley House was built of fieldstone in 1838.  The staff from the site leads walking tours offered monthly.

One is a 90-minute, Sunday afternoon stroll through historic downtown Mendota, and the other is a Saturday morning walk along the river, focusing on its role in fur trade and the development of Minnesota.  You can bring your dog along on the river walk and hear about the dogs of Henry Sibley, manager of the fur trading post here.  The tours are each $6 (less for seniors and kids); reservations are recommended (651-452-1596).

Twin Cities Walking Tours

Minnesota Historical Society
651-259-3000
888-727-8386
www.mnhs.org

Magical History Segway Tours
952-888-9200
800-749-5584
www.magicalhistorytour.com