What? Longest Avenue of Victorian Houses in US is in Minnesota?

Yeah, that is right! I did not know this until I came across a TikTok on it, but it is very true! As stated by Visit St. Paul, a 4.5-mile span of Summit Ave is home to 373 of the street’s original 440 Victorian homes.

Okay cool, now why is it amazing? Well, the Wikipedia page about Summit Ave shares this:

Summit Avenue is known for being the longest avenue of Victorian homes in the country, having a number of historic houses, churches, synagogues, and schools. The street starts just west of downtown St. Paul and continues four and a half miles west to the Mississippi River where Saint Paul meets Minneapolis.

This just makes my little heart happy because the beautiful state we live in gets to say “Hey we know this is important for history and we want to preserve it.” It is noted that Summit Avenue is part of two National Historic Districts and two City of Saint Paul Heritage Preservation Districts.

The original houses on Summit are large, distinctive houses built between 1890 and 1920. What is very cool is that out of the original first 6 homes built on Summit Ave, one of them still exists today, the Stuart House at 312 Summit. Visit St. Paul explains that “This Victorian-era was the first of two massive periods of construction with houses built in the many architectural styles of the time, including Queen Anne, Romanesque and Tudor Revival.”

It is noted that “The most famous home of the first construction boom was the James J. Hill House, built in 1891 in Richardsonian Romanesque style,” by Visit St. Paul. Other styles of houses featured on Summit include Beaux Arts, Tudor Revival, and Georgian Revival which came more during the 1920s.

But did you know it wasn’t originally very well-liked? Yeah, as noted by both Visit St. Paul and Wikipedia, F. Scott Fitzgerald disliked Summit Avenue, stating that Summit Avenue is “a mausoleum of American architectural monstrosities.” But um, didn't he live on Summit? (just thinking out loud here). And in addition, “world-famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright dubbed it ‘the worst collection of architecture in the world’—Wright was not fond of copying European styles and sought to create uniquely American architecture.”

As someone who can love and appreciate history and architecture (my dad is a history buff who taught me many things about Minnesota), I absolutely love this! It could be because I adore European-styled architecture, and love Minnesota history (again, thanks dad).

You can visit Summit Ave any time you want and you can even tour the James J. Hill House. All and even more information can be found on Visit St. Paul. And if you want to dive into history as well, check out the Wikipedia page.

All information is credited to the Wikipedia page and visitstpaul.com.