1. Welcome to
Uncovering
Rondo

2. Tools Historians Use
Fire
Insurance
Maps
Census
Records
Books
Meeting
Transcripts Oral
Histories
City Maps
Newspapers Government
Documents
Photographs

3. What is Rondo?

4. Joseph Rondeau
1835
Mississippi
River

5. 1840
Mississippi
River

6. Lake Como
State Capitol
1905
Rondo
Neighborhood
Mississippi
River
1874

7. Capitol Hill Magnet School
560 Concordia Avenue
University Ave.
Rice St.
Lexington Ave.
Dale St.
Rondo Ave.
Marshall Ave.

8. Why “uncover”
Rondo?

9. Concordia Ave. at Arundel St. 1940
Rondo Ave. at Arundel St. - - 2009

10. CHANGE
C ause it
En H ance it
A dapt and Compromise
Notice it or N ot
Fight a G ainst it
L E earn from it

11. Prosperity
1880s – 1920s
1880s – 1920s
1800 1920s – 1950s 1950s – 1960s Today

12. Reading The Appeal

13. Reading The Appeal
• 100 years ago, St. Paul’s African American
community read about . . .
• Back then, the jobs that African Americans
held were . . .
• What Rondo neighborhood landmarks can
you find?

14. “Tough Times”
1930s – 1950s
1930s – 1950s
1800 1880s – 1920s 1950s – 1960s Today

15. Oral Histories & Photographs
I lived at
I remember my grandpa was playing the piano
one day, and my grandma [said]…, “We got to
have wood…. We’re gonna have to do what we
don’t want to do, but we’re gonna have to do it
anyway.”
Well, they chopped up the piano …
[for the] wood to heat the house….
So those are the tough times in the
winter time that we had….
Children of Rondo, published in 2006

16. Photographs
Evelyn Fairbanks
Author of Days of Rondo,
published in 1990

17. Rondo was really run down
very, very poor
very rich
run down
very run-down neighborhood
but very, very rich

18. What Makes a Place
Important?
• Oral histories show that Rondo was an
important place 70 years ago because . . .
• What stories do the photographs tell?
• What Rondo neighborhood landmarks
can you find?

19. The Highway
1950s – 1960s
1950s – 1960s
1800 1880s – 1920s 1950s – 1960s Today

20. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956
… There is hereby authorized to be appropriated for …
1957, $125,000,000…; the sum of $850,000,000 for …
1958; and the sum of $875,000,000 for … 1959…. The
sums authorized by this section shall be apportioned
among the several States….

21. Why build highways?
National Defense
Safety
Traffic Jams
Economy

22. Public Hearing at City Hall ― December 13, 1956
Everett J. McCubrey
District Engineer
Department of
Highways

23. Lake Como
Northern Route
State Capitol
Rondo/St. Anthony
Route
Mississippi River

24. Lake Como
State
Capitol
Mississippi
River

25. Northern Route
Rondo/St. Anthony
Route
Frank D. Marzitelli
Commissioner of Public Works

26. Northern Route
Rondo/St. Anthony
Route
George Shepard
Chief Engineer
Department of Public Works

27. Timothy J. Howard
Barber
Northern Route
Rondo/St. Anthony
Route

28. Floyd Massey
Minister
Northern Route
Rondo/St. Anthony
Route

29. Northern Route
Build a Bridge?
Midway
Business
Area
Rondo/St. Anthony
Route
Henry J. Lund
Executive Secretary Midway Civic Club

30. Frank Claybourne
Lawyer
Northern Route
Highway
Rondo/St. Anthony
Parkway
Route
Mississippi River

31. Northern Route
Rondo/St. Anthony
Route
Albert R. Shiely
Former President,
Saint Paul Chamber of Commerce

32. Which Route Would You Choose?
Floyd
Timothy J. Massey
Howard
Northern Route
Frank
Claybourne
Frank D.
Marzitelli
Rondo/St. Anthony
Route
Albert R.
George Henry J. Shiely
Shepard Lund

33. 1968

34. Cornelius
Benner
Maxfield School
Stop Sound

35. Marvin Roger
Anderson
Interviewed for
Voices of Rondo,
published in 2005

36. Nathaniel
George Davis
Abdul Khaliq
“Your grandfather
was a man!
He stood up.”
Interviewed
for Voices
of Rondo

37. “Every time I drive
down I-94 … I think I
must be driving over
my bedroom.”
― Barbara Vassar Gray

38. Why Remember
Rondo?
Today
1800 1880s – 1920s 1950s – 1960s 1950s – 1960s

39. How Can We Remember?
Looking South on
Arundel Street ― 1940
Looking South on
Arundel Street ― 2009

40. How can YOU carry on the
culture of Rondo?
“The values, the character,
the integrity, the close-knit
connection, the extended
family…. It was part of our
culture.”
― Yusef Mgeni
519 Carroll Avenue

41. CHANGE
C ause it
En H ance it
A dapt and compromise
Notice it or N ot
Fight a G ainst it
L E arn from it

42. Uncovering
Rondo