Saint Paul, despite a history of tearing down many of its buildings, is not quite as bad as Minneapolis on that front. So there are still a significant number whose original purposes are unknown to me. Sometimes they're vacant or under renovation, and sometimes they've been converted to something else.
Recently Daughter Number Three-Point-One and I were wondering what this building — at the corner of University and Western Avenues — was originally:
I remembered that it was recently renovated and is now housing, but I couldn't recall its original purpose.
DN3.1 quickly discovered the website Saint Paul Historical, which told us that this building was the Old Home dairy building. This is what it looked like when it was originally built in 1912:
The company did an Art Deco renovation in 1932, adding the central tower, black stone details, and bas relief figures of a boy and girl adoring a bottle of milk:
When the company moved its headquarters to Bloomington, Minn., they took the bas relief with them. The company's history page doesn't mention what year that was, but this photo from 2013 still has the company's logo above the front door:
The company has been family-owned for four generations. The current generation is all women.
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Photo credits:
2024: Google Street View
1912: Minnesota Historical Society
Bas relief: Michael Koop, via Saint Paul Historical
2013: Kimmy Tanaka, via Saint Paul Historical
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