Sometime during 1950, my parents purchased the second Forepaugh Mansion built about 1889 and located at 302 Summit Avenue, only the third owners of that twenty-room, three story, red brick home located next door to the colonial-style Weyerhauser Mansion. It is the lesser-known of the two Forepaugh homes, the more well-known of course is Forepaugh’s Restaurant adjacent to Irvine Park and across from the Ramsey House at 276 Exchange Street. It is today divided into condominiums.
The home had been in the Forepaugh family until 1948 when it was sold and the new owner converted it into “light housekeeping” apartments. Each apartment consisted of one room, furnished with a bed, a couple of chairs or perhaps a couch, a table, and a two-burner electric hot-plate for cooking. On each of the four floors (including the basement) there was a shared bathroom and refrigerator.
The owner/caretaker’s apartment consisted of three rooms: what was once the butler’s pantry became the eat-in kitchen, the former formal dining room was large enough for dining area and spacious living room and the former library, complete with cherry wood bookcases, was roomy enough for two or three bedrooms. The owner/caretaker however, had to share the single bathroom with the first floor tenants.
What I find interesting as I sort through my memories of 302, there was seldom a vacancy; people were willing to share a bathroom and refrigerator with several others and live in one room. Each floor became a micro-community over time with similar dynamics to those of a neighborhood. To be sure there were occasional problems…morning lines at the bathroom and food missing from the shared refrigerator, but for the most part the problems were few. I have to wonder if people today would consider such accommodations…I think I already know the answer.
My parents owned 302 Summit until 1960, but we only lived there about four years; from 1950 to 1952 and 1958 until 1960. Realizing there was no elementary school within walking distance, my parents found and purchased a duplex at 1008 Ashland Avenue, two blocks from the James J. Hill School at Oxford and Selby. My childhood memories of Saint Paul are mostly from that neighborhood as it was there I really experienced the fifties.
Cool history. I think you’re right about that level of social living. Outside of dorms, I don’t think it flies today.
A lot of off-campus student housing is set up exactly this way. Besides that, I agree with Ed – not very likely to find much of this anymore.