Swede Hollow, Saint Paul
44°57′37″N 93°04′34″W / 44.9603°N 93.076°W
Swede Hollow was a neighborhood of
History
The area was originally a small, steep, wooded ravine cut through by
Although remembered with a certain nostalgia today, the former area was a true slum. People and industries occupying the surrounding "upper" neighborhoods used the Hollow as a makeshift dump, which the inhabitants down below routinely scavenged for clothing, metals, building supplies, and even shoe repair needs.[4] Several gristmills operated on the creek by the 1850s. Railroad tracks were built along the creek in 1865 because the creek bed provided an easier grade up from the Mississippi River than bluffs elsewhere.[2]
Unusually for a neighborhood in the heart of a mid-20th-century major American city (especially given the
Destruction
So squalid were the conditions of the Hollow, in fact, that in 1956 the city declared the entire neighborhood a health hazard. The last remaining families were forcibly evicted, and the entire housing stock was burnt to the ground on December 11 of the same year. At one time (1905) as many as 1,000 people called the tiny little glade their home, although there were far fewer (14 families in all) remaining at the time of the December 11, 1956 clearing.[2][6]
Today
Soon after the destruction, the area became a dumping ground and gathering place for the homeless. In the 1970s the valley was cleaned up, and it was designated a nature center in 1976. A 1917 report remarked, "Phalen Creek and the banks of this stream are ideal for park purposes, while in their present state they constitute a menace to the health of the residents and to the community at large."[6] The area remains uninhabited to this day. The original woodland state has returned (although some of the building foundations still remain), the creek has been partially restored, and the entire valley has been made part of Swede Hollow Park, a city park. The trail running along the west edge of Swede Hollow is the Bruce Vento Regional Trail, paved on the former right-of-way of the Northern Pacific Railway's Skally Line that ran from St. Paul to Duluth.[2]
The award-winning album Minnesota: A History of the Land, released by musician Peter Ostroushko in 2005, included a piece called "Swede Hollow Lament".[7] In 2012 composer Ann Millikan premiered an opera about Swede Hollow.[8]
In Sweden, the history of 19th-century migration to Minnesota was popularized by Vilhelm Moberg's four-novel series The Emigrants (1949–1959), which describes rural, hard-working, successful settlers in the 1850s. Former ABBA members Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson adapted these books into the 1995 musical Kristina från Duvemåla. The poorer, urban, less successful emigrants of the 1890s received less attention until described in Ola Larsmo's 2016 novel Swede Hollow, which has also been adapted into a play.
Connemara Patch
Just south and downstream of Swede Hollow was a lesser-known Irish neighborhood called
Like Swede Hollow, Connemara Patch was eventually cleared of its inhabitants. The neighborhood's remnants were completely destroyed by urban renewal in the 1950s. Interstate 94 currently occupies a substantial portion of the old enclave. The rest of the site is largely vacant, except for a few dilapidated industrial structures.[6]
References
- Twin Cities Public Television
- ^ ISBN 978-0-87351-540-5.
- ISBN 0-9630690-0-4.
- ^ Part I: The Great Depression in Swede Hollow, by Michael T. Sanchelli Minnesota Historical Society
- ^ "Swede Hollow Continues Immigrant Tradition with a Focus on Water". Minnesota Department of Health. January 24, 2007. Retrieved August 28, 2009.
- ^ ISBN 0-8166-4729-1.
- ^ Minnesota: A History of the Land. wikipedia.org. Retrieved: November 5, 2012.
- ^ Schouweiler, Susannah (4 June 2012), 'Swede Hollow' is the subject of a new opera and the site of its premiere
- ^ http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/35/v35i05p205-213.pdf [bare URL PDF]
- ISBN 0-9630690-0-4.
- ISBN 0-87351-419-X.
- ISBN 0-304-36334-0.
External links
- Swede Hollow Park at Placeography
- From Swede Hollow to Arlington Hills
- Swede Hollow Continues Immigrant Tradition with a Focus on Water
- Friends of Swede Hollow
Minnesota Historical Society
- Swede Hollow photos
- Swede Hollow artwork
- I Remember St. Paul's Swede Hollow
- Swede Hollow in MNopedia, the Minnesota Encyclopedia
Videos
Connemara Patch at the MHS