New Sights at Old Sites in St. Paul Midway District

[minoly]

Winter here in St. Paul keeps going even at this date, but it's losing its grip. So I'm able to get back at documenting changes in the Midway neighborhood, especially University Avenue. I have a lot to catch up with.

There's good publicity for the new soccer stadium (Allianz Field) that is going up at University & Snelling on the site of the former [Street]Car Barn that later became a bus garage where buses parked when out of service. Now Allianz Field joins the downtown CHS Field (AA league baseball) as new sports structures in the city.

Construction of the stadium went on all winter. This photo shows the progress on the Eastern side seating; the Western side's seating is out of sight now except from the back. (Arista Premium 400 [Tri-X] in Canon AE-1P)

Allianz is located on a good plot, though traffic and parking will likely be an issue. Here's what the space looked like about 8 years ago when tired buses went there to rest or die. (Taken with an Olympus 35SP, other details not available).

New wall murals have shown up just North of University Avenue on Snelling; that whole stretch needs some color and pep-- the murals bring some of that. The first one below is on the wall of a Korean grocery. The real snowdrift below the summer scene works pretty well. (Canon PowerShot A620)

Dragon Bird on Mural at Snelling and Thomas. The whole side of the building is shown in the last photo (Canon PowerShotA620).

Bill Delehanty

[GrahamS]

Interesting tour, Bill. Thank you for sharing. I have a Canon AE-1 in my collection.

[alexvaras]

Hello Bill, thanks for sharing, I like towns where walls can be used for mural paiting.
Where are you located btw? You should be in the States or Canada since here is football and not soccer
Here in Moscow we had very hot days (yesterday was 17 C) and mostly all snow is gone.

[Julio1fer]

Very interesting series! Thanks for sharing these. I like those mural paintings.

[PFMcFarland]

Glad to see your weather is getting better, Bill. It's always good to break out to see the changes.

PF

[minoly]

Thanks, Graham, Alex, Julio, and Phil for looking and commenting. Alex--St. Paul is in Minnesota, USA at about 45 degrees N latitude. We're pretty much open to big weather systems moving through. This year has persistent winter weather: it's not so much like April 11th as it is like February 70th! Lots of wet snow is predicted for the weekend. So maybe it will still be better to stick with photos through my window as in the following.

Bill Delehanty