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This history is based upon Twenty Five Years of Facing
Change, published in 1998 by the Fort Road Federation on its 25th
anniversary.
In 1973, with the national flight to the suburbs as a
backdrop, the neighborhoods of the West End faced similar challenges.
Responding to this challenge, a dozen community members banded together to
create the West 7th/Fort Road Federation. They founded the organization
on the principle that citizen acting together could maintain and improve the
quality of life in their neighborhoods and help commercial endeavors prosper
once again. With a $5,000 start-up grant from the Christian Sharing
Fund, its journey began.
A Minnesota history
A St. Paul/Upper Landing/High Bridge
history
Immigrant history of the West End
Publications of the Federation
Ramsey County:
Ramsey County Historic Site
Survey Report for District 9/West 7th Street
St.
Paul Photo Tour
Site created by Joe Hoover
Includes photos of homes and businesses of
The Brewery District,
Irvine Park, and
Uppertown
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Residents of the Leech-McBoal neighborhood
changed the intended location of the replacement High Bridge
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Irvine Park: the historic park with its
majestic homes and central fountain was intended to be razed and transformed
into an industrial park and high rise apartment buildings. Neighbors
organized and fought the Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) as one of
its first major redevelopment efforts, and Irvine Park was designated a
historic district in 1973, and is now featured by the City of St. Paul
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1976: Neighbors organized to fight and
close adult entertainment establishments, often under threat from their owners
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The CSPS Hall, 381-383 Michigan at West 7th was
built as a two-story lodge for members of the Czech-Slovak Preservation
Society. In the mid-1970's, the local Project Area Committee (PAC) and
the City of St. Paul wanted to raze the entire block to install a strip mall.
The Federation united with SOKOL Minnesota to place the building on the
Historic Register in 1976 and it now serves the local Czech and Slovak
community as the national longest-serving Czech-Slovak building
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Kepps Glenn Sewers: When the City of St.
Paul condemned a number of houses without access to the city's sewer system,
the Federation organized neighbors to secure block grants for sewer connects
to save 105 homes and an entire neighborhood from destruction
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Monroe Community School: When the School
District proposed closing the school in 1981, neighbors rallied under the flag
of the Federation to protest and establish the first K-8 school of the time,
and in 1997 again worked with the St. Paul School District, the Wilder
Foundation, Monroe staff, and neighbors to implement the Achievement Plus and
Paidea Programs
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Interstate 35E: Plans to drive a freeway
through the neighborhood were stalled when 300 neighbors gathered at the
Federation's first "Issues Brew" in 1973 and voted to stop the freeway.
Already many homes had been cleared. Compromises didn't stop the
freeway, but rather transformed it into a lowered parkway with reduced speed
and prohibition on truck traffic
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Community Development Corporation, 1978.
In the early 1980's, the Federation began its "Houses to Homes" project that
turned into a city-wide project. Between then and 1998, the Federation
invested close to $9 million in rehabilitating 50 units in revitalizing its
housing stock with dramatic effects on property values
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974 West 7th Street/Fort Road: in 1994,
the Federation moved its offices to this century-old building intentionally
rehabilitated toward this purpose. Transforming this condemned structure
had a visible effect on the neighboring commercial district while providing
office space for its programs
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Superior Street Cottages
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