City House

Saint Paul is a beautiful city. Like many other places, our forebears cut the people parts of the city off from the river because it was a working river. 

In recent decades, some efforts have been made to reconnect the river with places for people. One of them is City House, a food and gathering place located in part of a former grain elevator just east of downtown. I've known about it for a few years, but I had never been there until yesterday.

This is a drone shot from their website:

City House is in the low, dark building to the right of the white tower in the foreground... downtown Saint Paul is in the background. 

Inside, they have large posters on the wall telling about the history of the grain elevator, which was created by the Equity Cooperative Exchange, which later became the Minnesota Farmers Union:

It was the first successful river terminal elevator owned and operated by a farm co-op in the U.S. Obviously, there used to be a lot more of it than remains. The restaurant is in what used to be the "sack house," and the remaining white tower was the "head house." The grain silos have been demolished.

The panels include information on the mechanics of the elevator:

There are other panels describing how the river was used by industry and commerce over time.

This is the view from City House's outdoor seating, which faces the park on Harriet Island across from downtown, where the river boats dock:

It's a very pleasant place — one that I will go back to!