Payne Avenue Walking Tour

Welcome to Payne Avenue, on the East Side of Saint Paul.

This research project is a collaboration between the  East Side Freedom Library  and the  Geography Department  at Macalester College. It was conducted by students, their professor, and their teaching assistant. This project acts as a digital companion to an existing  walking tour of the East Side  by historian Peter Rachleff.

Our research was guided by two goals:

1. To preserve Rachleff’s telling of the East Side’s history.
2. To share the community’s present-day stories and plans for the future. 

 Peter Rachleff  started the walking tour in 2016. As an East Side resident and labor historian, the tour focuses on bringing to life the history of immigration that shapes Payne Avenue. This project furthers the tour’s original aim to understand the resilience of residents and put community experience in context. It complements  other walking tours  of the area too.

Our original research relies on historical archives, secondary historical sources, and primary interviews of business owners and community organizers on Payne Avenue. Our research focused on one main question: How have East Side communities demonstrated resilience through neighborhood investment?

This is a big question, and our research uncovered many answers. Each community member carries their own history and narrative.

We hope that each stop on this virtual tour helps to uncover neighborhood investment. For the purposes of our research, investment can mean many things: traditional forms of financial investment, community organizing, resource sharing, infrastructure, education, and art. What unites all of these initiatives is that they are intentional steps towards a better future. Further, we hope that this project contributes to the historical record by combining past events with the ongoing efforts of the East Side’s community members today.

We encourage you to browse the walking tour from a computer and explore our hyperlinked resources. We also recommend visiting these locations in person, using this project as a guide. For more information on our process, read our methods section below.

This project employed a variety of qualitative methods, including archival research, field research, and semi-structured personal interviews. In collaboration with the East Side Freedom Library, we identified nine sites and organizations along Payne Avenue that are reflective of local communities and their histories. When selecting these locations, we thought it most important to highlight locations with stories that tell how the past informs the present. We used archival research to relate historical movements and themes with current patterns in the neighborhood and understand past land uses of the sites we chose.

We then interviewed individuals from these sites with questions based on our research, and searched for overarching themes which tie the responses together. Lastly, we combined the results into nine narratives corresponding to each location on Professor Rachleff’s original walking tour. This StoryMap ties it all together in an accessible format.

A timeline of events at each location. The start date of 1800 is arbitrary and native people have lived in the area for centuries before settlers arrived. The last entry on the timeline notes the arrival of different waves of migrants to the East Side of Saint Paul.

When looking at the Hamm’s Brewery site today, it almost feels like you are looking at a ghost of what was. It is no longer the Hamm’s Brewery of old, and much of its buildings are no longer in use and have been empty for a long time. However, its land has been acquired by  numerous other institutions over the recent years .

The site is now broken up into 3 different parcels all under the ownership of different owners. Before it was split up, the brewery was a mainstay in the Swede Hollow neighborhood since its construction, and was a major source of employment for its residents for over a century. Today, the area yields the opportunity for redevelopment on a huge scale. While its past is significant, its future is reinvigorating the potential of what this site used to be.

In order to get more information on the past, present, and future of the site, we turned to who is taking control of the site to spearhead its redevelopment. When looking to redevelop the area, the Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) awarded developer status to  JB Vang Partners Inc . in 2023. We met with Stephanie Harr from JB Vang to discuss the site and its development shortly coming to fruition.

From the meeting it seemed that the project had “certain priorities that included repurposing the old buildings and historic buildings and maximizing jobs and housing for the community.” She also discussed that the development is going to: “build a new apartment building for housing and repurpose the old buildings into two main things, one being artist style loft housing. So to continue to add housing to the site, and then take a portion of those historic buildings and make it into a commercial marketplace. And the commercial marketplace will offer opportunities for vendors to come and sell their stuff and create a gathering place for the community.”

JB Vang does not seek to merely put something in the space, they want to create an “activated space” that not only has viable housing opportunities, but creates a meaningful community and place to live for families. The overarching theme of the meeting was reactivation, as the current site has been stale and mostly empty for nearly 20 years.

After our meeting with Stephanie, we felt the Hamm’s site has future prospects that will open up the area, and allow it to blossom down the line. Not only would it apply new opportunities for residents in the area, it would make the Hamm’s site somewhere people want to visit because of its impact.

The Hamm's Brewery site has an extensive history of numerous owners, iterations, and expansions that go back all the way to  1865 . During that time, a man named A.F. Keller constructed “Excelsior Brewery” in Swede Hollow. It was later that Theodore Hamm, an immigrant from Germany, would inherit the brewery and turn it into the “Theodore Hamm Brewing Company.”

As the area expanded in population and economy in the 19th and 20th centuries, the brewery would become an iconic East Side landmark, notably as an employer. During the 1950s, Hamm’s expanded numerous times and became the 5th largest brewery in the nation.

In the latter half of the century, the brewery would be sold numerous times and hold a number of different names. The final operation was known as “Stroh’s” and lasted from 1983 until its closure in 1997. The final change to the brewing site was in 2004, when the HRA acquired the southern portion of the site in order to expand Swede Hollow Park. Since then, there hasn’t been much action in the area until recently.

The future of Hamm’s is coming soon and looks to be an improvement for the currently mostly vacant site. Some businesses have begun to settle in the area, including Saint Paul Brewing and 11 Wells Distillery. However, as mentioned previously, JB Vang’s massive redevelopment project is making the future of this site so intriguing. Not only would there be an overhaul of new additions to the area, it would use the original buildings and keep their charm in the new era of the site.

The redevelopment project is split into 3 major parts according to JB Vang: Site Improvements, Artist Style Housing Units & Commercial Marketplace, and East End Apartments. The Site Improvements include multiple access points to encourage pedestrian mobility, more green spaces and plazas, and more encouraged community spaces.

The artist housing units and marketplace intend to encourage community building by targeting the arts scene. The housing units look to encourage singular residents or smaller families to move into those spaces while having compelling art around the building. The East End apartment buildings target larger families, including around 120 units of affordable housing. All of these developments, including overall updates to the site, could yield a very promising future for the redevelopment of Hamm’s Brewery.

Cookie Cart comprises two non-profit neighborhood bakeries, the first opening on West Broadway North Minneapolis in 1988 and the second on Payne Avenue on the East Side of Saint Paul in 2018.

The former executive director of Cookie Cart, Matt Halley,  mentioned that  the North Minneapolis location was “maxed out” and professional opportunities were limited for the neighborhood's young adults. The second bakery opened at 946 Payne Avenue. The Program Director, Tanika Reese, told us in an interview that a pilot workforce development training program started in 2016 in partnership with Johnson High School. Cookie Cart offered training for young adults aged 15-18 from this particular community.

Both sites’ functions mirror one another, but Cookie Cart strives to address each community's specific opportunity gap and needs. Reese explains, “So there may be some similarities in North Minneapolis and Saint Paul, but we want to make sure that we are creating equitable opportunities for diverse populations.”

The Payne Avenue location is attracting more foot traffic as people are still “getting to know them,” unlike the more well-known North Minneapolis bakery, due to its 35-year presence. After the COVID-19 pandemic, Reese comments on creating more opportunities for people to “get back out of their houses and engage and come to the stores.” 

Cookie Cart, as we see it today at 946 Payne Avenue and North Minneapolis, has a heartwarming story and humble beginnings. We need to look elsewhere to understand what is going on at the Payne Avenue location. It all started when Sister Jean Thuerauf, then a member of the order of the Sisters of Mercy and teacher at our Lady of Grace Church in Edina, became acquainted with children of North Minneapolis. Her parish sought to “build a bridge between the suburbs and the inner city.” (Sun Sentinel, n.d)

“She told her friends she was called by God to be a loving presence to the poor wherever they were. That calling eventually brought her to Minneapolis.”

Sister Jean then founded  Mercy Missionaries  in 1985 to link people, especially the rich and the poor.

The youth program provides young people of color aged 15–18 with a first-time paid professional experience, empowering them to transition to traditional employment. The model comprises experiential learning in their Baking Bright Futures program, classroom learning (resume, interviewing skills, financial literacy), and credentialed learning. (National Career Readiness Certification and ServSafe Food Handler Certification)

“The gist of our programming is to offer that first-time job experience to young adults who are interested in making their mark in the workforce but creating opportunities for themselves.”

“This is how they're trained to show up in the space. And these are very transferable skills that they build. Like, this is how we should all show up in the world, not just at work (...)"

We were curious about the quote above the door, so we asked Reese about it.

Since Cookie Cart became a 501(c)3 organization, Reese estimates that the organization served close to 15,000 young people; around 180 to 200 a year. About 30% of the youth are from Saint Paul, Ramsey County, a number that they want to increase. “We moved to Saint Paul to have an impact and to do good work (...). And so we are interested in investing in the community and growing that number to where our number would probably look closer to 50/50, than 60/40, and one of our biggest challenges, honestly, is space. We are a retail bakery, but the other side of our programming is the Baking Bright Futures curriculum and the growth and development through workforce development training for the young adults. And this is our classroom, right? (small in size)” 

A success story Reese shared with me was Miko’s, alias “KoKo.”

“KoKo started our program in the fall of 2022; that was her first job. She stayed with us for a little bit over 18 months, (...) and I was her trainer in this very classroom, and she came in, she was so shy, she wouldn't speak, she didn't want to engage, she wouldn't make eye contact. And over that 18 months of engaging with us, and becoming more self-aware, growing her confidence levels, she started with entry-level, first-time job experience. She graduated from the program in June of 2024. When she graduated, she was one of our leaders in the program. We have a leadership pathway. She was a cart captain, a peer leader in the bakery and the program. She's now serving on our Teen Advisory Council. She stays connected to the organization, and she is currently thriving. When she transitioned from Cookie Cart, she transitioned into her first real-world job, and so she's thriving academically and in her pathway to post-high school experiences. And that's what Cookie Cart does. That's the overall gist of our mission.”

Cookie Cart is an example of a small initiative producing fruits decades later, providing adapted assistance to underrepresented youth. As for the Payne-Phalen neighborhood, the non-profit provides a beacon of hope for the future, despite challenges linked to capacity. We pray more resources will be provided in the future. One way to support the organization is to buy cookies. Try the double chocolate variety or order hand-decorated batches!

Reese manages a team of the program team, responsible for the youth experience in its entirety at Cookie Cart. Her team role is to oversee programming, 21st-century skill-building, and experiential learning. Tanika Reese oversees the mission and is the dot connector between the actual execution of the work, the engagement with the young adults, and the mission and strategy to support them.

We thank you for the time you allocated to this interview.

The story of 1020 Payne Avenue, a seemingly unremarkable building, sheds light on the commercial and cultural journey of its community.

In the early 1900s, Payne Avenue thrived as the bustling " downtown of northeastern Ramsey County ." Yet, the Payne-Phalen neighborhood remained distinct from the rest of the city, separated by both physical and cultural boundaries.

Geographically, the deep valleys surrounding Phalen Creek and Trout Brook, along with the neighborhood's hilltop location, isolated the neighborhood from the rest of the city. Payne-Phalen became a haven for immigrant groups, which resulted in socioeconomic isolation, as cultural and economic development occurred separate from the rest of St. Paul. Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Payne-Phalen welcomed new Americans from Ireland, Germany, Italy, and Sweden. Payne Avenue became a commercial hub, and was home to a number of immigrant-owned businesses catering to the needs of its diverse and growing community.

Among these establishments was Nelson Brothers Grocers, located at 1020 Payne Avenue. A fixture of the East Side's commercial landscape for decades, Nelson Brothers Grocers embodies the story of historic investments by and for the immigrant community.

 Nelson Brothers’ story began in 1903 , when Arthur Nelson, the son of Swedish immigrants, established the first iteration of the store down the road at 999 Payne Avenue. In 1908, he moved the business to a newly constructed, larger building at 1020 Payne Avenue. This location would remain a neighborhood mainstay for 68 years, until it closed in 1970.  Throughout its operation, the store remained entirely within the Nelson family’s management, as it was operated by Arthur's siblings Albert, David, Minnie, and Alma.

Nelson Brothers was far from the only commercial establishment that shared this story. In the same time period, at least three other small grocery stores served the East Side community.

East Side Grocery operated from 1901 to 1956, and was located on 7th and Bradley street. It was operated primarily by Walford, Otto and Charlie Johnson, and later by his son Harold, making it another family run grocery in the community.

Dahlquist’s, another East Side grocery store, operated in the early 20th century but was purchased by the Johnson family in 1921.

Kormann’s Grocers was established in 1878. In 1886, its founder, an immigrant German blacksmith, constructed a new building for his growing business located at the corner of Minnehaha and Burr. It remained there for 112 years, finally closing its doors in 1998. Across three generations, the store stayed in family hands. In 1996 Phil Kormann, the grandson of the store’s original founder, speculated that Kormann’s could be “the oldest grocery extant in the state.”

Often, these grocery stores catered to the culinary traditions of specific immigrant groups. Early 20th century immigrant communities “were pretty monocultural,” recalls Professor Peter Rachleff, an historian and East Side resident. “And so the Italians went to Italian grocery stores, and the Germans and the Irish went to German and Irish stores, and the Swedes went to the Nelsons.”  Because these grocery stores were typically not in direct competition with one another, their owners maintained a sense of comradery. Phil Kormann remembered having “good relations with Wallford (Johnson).”

Throughout the East Side’s history, its businesses have often embraced values of  “solidarity, collaboration and cooperation,” instead of “individualism and competition,” Professor Peter Rachleff states. “Small business people recognize that they all face the same challenges.”

Another food business on Payne was a meat business operated by the son of a Swedish immigrant named Charlie Olson. Olson became well known for selling Swedish specialities to the East Side’s large immigrant community. As one resident recalls, “they’d make [Swedish sausage] in large tubs at Christmas time.” Another resident, who used to work down the street at Olson's store, said that “one of the things Charlie [Olson] used to tell me was that he sold more lutefisk than any other store in the whole country.”

Since closing its doors in 1970, the Nelson Brothers Grocers building has housed a number of businesses and organizations. It was purchased by the VFW in 1970, and became a VFW post. Later, until approximately 2014, it housed Parkway Printing, a local print shop specializing in wedding invitations. Today, the main building stands vacant, while a smaller section, partitioned from the original structure,  serves as a church, Taller Del Maestro Asambleas de Dios.

This, too, reflects Payne Avenue's multicultural history, where, as Professor Rachleff notes, religion remains a key arena for cultural exchange and preservation:

“In the mid to late 19th century, you had a German Catholic church, and three blocks away, you had the Irish Catholic church. And I've interviewed people who talked about family members who would complain, why do I have to walk three extra blocks? Can't I just stop at the first Catholic church that I come to? And some of that then has to do with particular practices in Catholicism, like confession, and the desire to confess in the language that you're most comfortable using. So, to confess in Spanish, or to confess in German, and to know that the priest on the other side of the screen understands the language that you're using.”

Today, Taller Del Maestro Asambleas de Dios offers services in both Spanish and English. Despite facing plenty of change and challenge over the years, 1020 Payne Avenue, in its many iterations, has remained an important cultural hub to the East Side community.

The East Side Freedom Library (ESFL) is an independent, nonprofit institution located in the heart of the Payne-Phalen neighborhood. Founded in 2013, the library occupies the historic Arlington Hills Carnegie Library building at 1105 Greenbrier Street. In its current form, the ESFL is a non-circulating library dedicated to exploring labor history and celebrating the diverse immigrant communities that have long shaped the East Side of St. Paul.

The library’s collections focus on stories of migration, labor struggles, and community resilience, aiming to connect past and present through accessible, engaging programming. These offerings include workshops, performances, and community gatherings, all grounded in  the ESFL’s mission  "to inspire solidarity, advocate for justice, and work toward equity for all."

Community members see the library as  more than a repository of books — it's a hub for cultural exchange, learning, and social advocacy, rooted deeply in the values and traditions of St. Paul's East Side.

Saengmany Ratsabout is the executive director of the ESFL. Ratsabout wears many hats, overseeing day-to-day administration and fundraising efforts, as well as maintaining the library’s collections and coordinating staff and consultants. He is deeply intentional about extending the library’s impact, aiming to reach wide audiences:

“I bring my vision of bringing the work of the library beyond the brick walls of the space here, but also beyond St. Paul."

Ratasbout emphasized the role of the historic building as a powerful anchor for the community, embodying the neighborhood’s history while offering a space for connection and growth. He described the library as both a site of resistance and a launchpad for resilience, where grassroots initiatives are nurtured and developed into broader movements that contribute to social justice on a much larger scale.

"The core of it is for us to be that place: to convene, to curate, to catalyze."

For much of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the land where the library now stands was undeveloped. Slowly, homes and businesses emerged around Greenbrier Street and Jessamine Avenue. As late as 1880,  a St. Paul City Railway horsecar carried residents of the city along Greenbrier . In 1916, the Arlington Hills Carnegie Library became the first building constructed at the intersection, marking a turning point for the neighborhood.

St. Paul is home to three  Carnegie libraries , each reflecting the vision of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, who believed libraries should be  both functional and visually inspiring . Designed by Charles A. Hausler in the Beaux-Arts style—a classical architectural form meant to inspire civic pride—these libraries are the St. Anthony Park Library, Riverview Library, and Arlington Hills Library, located in the neighborhoods of St. Anthony Park, the West Side, and Payne-Phalen, respectively.

The Arlington Hills Library quickly became a source of pride for the community. When it opened in September 1917,  news reports  described its overwhelming popularity: “[The library] has had such a large patronage that every second day it was necessary to send to the main library building for additional supplies of books because the shelves were empty.”

Immigrant communities on the East Side responded enthusiastically, with school children making up much of the early patronage. By the 1930s, librarians had established programming for nearly all East Side schools, including Johnson High School, Cleveland Junior High School, and several public and parochial grade schools. For decades, the library provided an essential “free space” for immigrants of all ages to learn and connect.

In 2007, East Siders learned that the St. Paul Public Library intended to replace the Arlington Hills branch. A consultant's report proposed a new East Side library to be co-located with a city parks and recreation facility. The city appraised the Carnegie building at $365,000 and offered it for sale, requiring buyers to present a community-focused reuse plan that honored the building’s history and cultural significance.  Because the library was on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a local landmark, any changes required approval from the city's Heritage Preservation Commission .

The building faced a precarious future, as vacant structures often deteriorate or risk demolition. While Carnegie libraries were well-built, many have been lost or repurposed.  Of the 65 Carnegie libraries in Minnesota, only 22 still serve their original purpose, with others adapted to new uses or demolished. 

Fortunately, in 2013, Macalester College professors Peter Rachleff and Beth Cleary took action. Wanting to contribute to the East Side’s renewal, they established a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to take over the building: the East Side Freedom Library. With a mission to contribute to social justice and equity, the ESFL focused on labor, African American, and immigration history while providing a welcoming space for sharing diverse stories.

“The idea was to create a community space, definitely from and for the community— like the folks who live on the East Side, many of whom felt disenfranchised or not invested in by the city.”

In June 2014, the city approved a $1-per-year, 15-year lease of the building to the ESFL, which will run until 2029. Meanwhile, the new Arlington Hills Community Center, housing the relocated Arlington Hills Public Library, opened at Payne Avenue and Maryland Avenue on May 22, 2014. Today, the East Side community retains both a public library and a repurposed historic landmark, fulfilling complementary roles in serving the neighborhood.

The ESFL envisions a future deeply rooted in its role as a gathering place for shared learning, cultural exchange, and mutual support. While the historic building’s current lease secures its presence until 2029, the library aspires to purchase the property outright, ensuring its long-term preservation as a vital community hub. This vision reflects the collective investment of community members, whose ongoing support has been integral to the library’s resilience.

The ESFL also aims to expand its reach, connecting with not only the diverse residents of the East Side but also audiences across greater St. Paul and beyond. Through carefully curated programming, the library continues to celebrate and amplify the voices of historically marginalized communities.

Adapting to challenges of funding and capacity, ESFL relies on a shared ethos of mutual support to sustain its mission. Volunteers, donors, and participants alike continue to rally to keep its programs thriving.

Payne Avenue is more than a historic commercial corridor; it is a living testament to the power of mutual support and community investment. The stories of these nine locations illustrate how residents, businesses, and organizations have embraced diverse strategies to circulate care in place — whether by nurturing local talent, creating spaces of belonging, or preserving collective memory. These investments are not only acts of resilience but also reflections of a shared vision for a vibrant and inclusive future.

As Payne Avenue evolves, it remains rooted in the values that have sustained it for so long: creativity, solidarity, and a deep sense of home. This StoryMap celebrates the community's ongoing efforts to honor its past while boldly imagining new possibilities, reminding us that resilience is not just about overcoming challenges but about creating opportunities to thrive together.

This project was conducted under the supervision of Professor Dan Trudeau and teaching assistant Zippa Curiskis ‘25 by the students of the course Qualitative Research Methods in Geography at Macalester College. The nine students of this course consisted of both geography majors and non-majors across a variety of backgrounds and class years.

• Ranoromiangaly Andriamihaja-Rabe ‘27 learned more about investment opportunities for youth through researching Sister Jean Thuerauf and interviewing Tanika Reese at Cookie Cart.
• Emmett Clancy ‘25 spoke to Karibu Deli & Grocery owner Abdi Ali about his upbringing in the neighborhood and involvement in the community.
• Caroline Fitzpatrick ‘26 researched the impact of a local barber shop, Gentlemen Cuts, by interviewing bold founder Mr. Red.
• Magdelyn Herzig ‘26 connected with the land of the Payne-Phalen neighborhood as she researched how community farming programs, through Urban Roots, inspire youth.
• Researching family grocery stores, Riley Hodin ‘25 learned how different immigrants to the East Side expressed themselves and shared their culture through food.
• Ryan Przespolewski ‘25 followed the legacy of Hamm’s Brewery to showcase current development and business at Saint Paul Brewing by interviewing Stephanie Harr.
• Learning more about our partner organization, Aidan Reynolds ‘25 interviewed Saengmany Ratsabout, executive director of the East Side Freedom Library, about the community space and cultural education.
• Joel Sadofsky ‘25 researched the immigrant settlements of Swede Hollow and spoke to Matthew Anderson at the East Side Neighborhood Development Company to better understand economic exclusion and integration.
• Focusing on the history of the land, Maggie Walker ‘27 explored the importance of Dakota sacred sites, primarily Wakan Tipi, in the surrounding St. Paul area.

We are grateful for the contributions, participation, and assistance of many individuals who helped make this project possible, including Abdi Ali, Matthew Anderson, Stephanie Harr, Skyler Hawkins, Molly Murphy, Peter Rachleff, Saengmany Ratsabout, Mr. Red, Tanika Reese, Sidney Stuart, & Sam Wegner.