Children's Hospital

New emergency "wing?'

We can see scars from what seems like the endless recession all over the twin cities.  There are vacant buildings and store fronts and there still seems to be plenty of vacant office space around town.

This hospital campus between 35E and west 7th has been growing like crazy.  I will assume that the complex creates a lot of jobs too.  Got health insurance? 

 The crash of the housing market and the great recession have been hard on our historic homes but some are being rehabbed liked this amazing home in the 4th street preservation district on the East side of St. Paul.  Historic St. Paul is taking bids on a couple of homes that are in need of rehab.  For more information see Vacant Housing Rehabilitation: NSP Bidding Opportunities

Houses like these need a lot of work but lets face it they don't build them like they used to and right now real estate is cheap and so are mortgage rates. 

The home in the picture is at 696 E. 4th street in St. Paul.  The neighborhood has a high foreclosure rate and is in a historic preservation district. 

I used to write about a church every Saturday but I stopped because I got so many calls from people wanting to buy churches.   I am a residential Realtor not a comercial Realtor and unlike some of my kind I do not try to be an expert in every type of real estate or claim to be a neighborhood expert for every neighborhood in Minnesota. . . .but I am good.  I asked some comercial real estate agents for help but never found one that would return the phone calls or emails of people looking for churches. . . or my phone calls either for that matter. 

Here are some pictures of Our Lady of Victory chapel at St. Catherines University in St. Paul.  The church is not for sale and I don't sell churches I just photograph them.   

The church was completed in 1924 and is on the national register of historic places.   There are so many details on the outside of the church I just photographed parts of it to show them.  

Main entrance

By the front door

The oak tree and the steeple

I wrote this in January of 2008 and it came to mind yesterday when I was looking at a new listing  and I saw a picture of a beautiful Tudor style home and the agent listing it described it as a "classic colonial"  sometimes my peers make me cry.  

Tudor Style Home

This architectural style was popular in the 1920s and 1930s and can be found throughout the metro area. The defining characteristics are half-timbering on bay windows and upper floors, and facades that are dominated by one or more steeply pitched cross gables. Patterned brick or stone walls are common, as are rounded doorways, multi-paned casement windows, and large stone chimneys.

The name Tudor  imitates English architecture from the early 16th century, and a much earlier medieval architecture.

I have had buyers over the years specifically request this style of home. On the inside they often have cove ceilings, rounded doorways, exposed wood beams on the ceilings, built in book cases and plenty of woodwork. I have not seen one without a fireplace, a large dining room and bay windows in at least one room. The steep roofs make for some interesting attic rooms.

These homes are more plentiful in Highland Park, part of  West St. Paul and in Minneapolis. 

Mansard Roof

This style of roof isn't real common in the area.  They made a brief come back in the 1980's.  They are the most common in the oldest parts of town.  The advantage to this style is that there is more usable space on the top floor. 

Church of the Assumption on 7th Street St. Paul, MN

We are all waiting for the other shoe to drop in the form of cold and snow.  Each day that it doesn't snow is one more day without snow.  It is going to be cold later this week but back up to 40 by Sunday.  As I write this we are at a record breaking 52 degrees.  Not bad for the 10th of January in Minnesota.  

I think it would be fun to photograph all of the murals in St. Paul but that would take a lot of time because there are so many.  This one on the side of Java Train coffee shop on Pascal street in the Como Park neighborhood really caught my eye. 

Java Train