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93-610: The neighborhood was first settled 1860–1880 as the downtown area outgrew its borders. Workers on the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad , now BNSF Railway , which was built just to the north of the neighborhood sought housing nearby. Minnesota's first successful locomotive run occurred on these tracks in 1882. Shortly thereafter the Jackson Street Railroad Shops were built just northeast of Frogtown. The Jackson Street Shops were then joined by other railroad related industries in

186-424: A great deal of money, while others would stand to gain. One way in which downtown changed from the late 19th century to the early part of the 20th century was that industrial concerns began to leave downtown and move to the periphery of the city, which meant that downtown's businesses were chiefly part of the burgeoning service sector . Brand new firms followed the older ones, and never came to downtown, settling at

279-509: A local architecture critic described the building as, "The nadir of modern school architecture in Saint Paul, a building so resolutely grim and uninviting that it suggests that education can only be viewed as a form of incarceration." Until 2006 a barbed wire fence extended around Griffin Stadium and portions of the school facing Interstate 94 and Lexington contributing to the joke. In August 2013

372-460: A long line of talented athletes, the most notable being Major League Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Dave Winfield . More recently, Central's athletics programs displayed their dominance when they won the 2008 St. Paul City Conference in every fall athletics category. Other sports includes volleyball, tennis, badminton, etc. In the 2006–2007 season, the Central high school girls basketball team set

465-618: A model law, the Standard State Zoning Enabling Act of 1922 was drawn up for the guidance of cities wishing to enact zoning regulations, which are now part of virtually every American city. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the downtown area was the business district of the American city, but beginning around the 1920s and 1930s, as cities continued to grow in size and population, rival business districts began to appear outside of downtown in outlying districts. This

558-572: A relief map, the Loop would be equivalent to the peaks of the Himalayas compared to the rest of the city. In 1926, Chicago's central business district, which took up less than 1% of the city, had 20% of the city's land value. The same relationship was true in St. Louis in the mid-20s (20%) and Los Angeles in the early 1930s (17%). So when a downtown area started to shift its location, some property owners were bound to lose

651-403: A state record for most victories in a single season, going 32–0 en route to the class AAAA state championship. During their perfect season, Central was considered by some to be the best team in the history of Minnesota High School girls basketball. Central beat their opponents by an average of 44 points per game, averaged 86 PPG and had all five starters average more than 10 PPG. In addition,

744-496: A traditional butcher shop, several convenience stores, the historic No.18 Fire Station. Frogtown is the center of Saint Paul's immigrant communities, with very large populations of Hmong, Burmese , Vietnamese , Somali , and Ethiopian immigrants. A profusion of immigrant-owned businesses line University Avenue, offering clothing, shoes, jewelry, household items, entertainment media (DVDs, CDs, video games) and groceries. Immigrants from Africa operate several Halal meat markets in

837-655: A unique name, unlike the former boroughs surrounding it; the center of the city is also where Philadelphia City Hall is located within the city's original plat . New Orleans uses the term Central Business District (or CBD) for its downtown due to the French Quarter and other historic neighborhoods downriver from the CBD being referred to as "downtown" . United States (50 most populous American cities) Canada Central High School (Saint Paul, Minnesota) Saint Paul Central High School

930-509: Is uptown . In the common New York City phrase "We're going to take the subway downtown", downtown refers to traveling in the geographic direction of south. A person standing on 121st Street and walking ten blocks south could also be said to have walked ten blocks downtown. The term uptown is used to refer to the cardinal direction north. Such concepts derive from Manhattan's elongated shape, running roughly north–south and nowhere more than 2 mi (3.2 km) wide. As such, transportation on

1023-616: Is a term primarily used in North America to refer to a city's sometimes commercial , cultural and often the historical, political , and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district (CBD). It may also be a center for shopping and entertainment. Downtowns typically contain a small percentage of a city's employment but are concentrated in services, including high-end services (office or white-collar jobs). Sometimes, smaller downtowns include lower population densities and nearby lower incomes than suburbs . It

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1116-467: Is known as Little Mekong, named for the river many Hmong refugees crossed to Thailand. Today many view Frogtown as a new enclave for Vietnamese and now Hmong immigrants, who, in Saint Paul, comprise the largest urban contingent in the United States. Amenities include a full-service bank, gas station, community medical clinic, family services organizations, two parks, several Asian supermarkets ,

1209-407: Is located. Most major North American cities are located on major bodies of water, like oceans, lakes, and rivers. As cities expanded, people built further away from the water and their historical cores, often uphill. Thus the central business district of a North American city, or the historical core of the city, is often located "down", in altitude, relative to the remainder of the city. Many cities use

1302-468: Is often distinguished as a hub of public transit and culture. The Oxford English Dictionary ' s first citation for "down town" or "downtown" dates to 1770, in reference to the center of Boston . Some have posited that the term "downtown" was coined in New York City , where it was in use by the 1830s to refer to the original settlement, or town , at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan . As

1395-450: Is the oldest continuously operating high school in the state of Minnesota , United States. Founded in 1866 in downtown Saint Paul, Central has educated many leaders in business, government, literature, arts, sciences, and education throughout the state of Minnesota and the United States. It is also one of the biggest high schools in the state and, as of 2011, the second-largest in the city of Saint Paul, after Harding Senior High School on

1488-593: The Detroit Public Library and the Detroit Institute of Art , and most of the cultural institutions in Pittsburgh . Public reaction to these moves was mixed, with some bemoaning the loss of a counterbalance to the overall materialism of downtown, while others, particularly those involved in real estate, looked positively on the availability of the land which the cultural institutions left behind. The loss of

1581-758: The Great Depression had a major effect on the country's downtown area. Downtown was just coming off a major building boom, in which significant amounts of new commercial and office space, hotels, and department stores had been built. By 1931 there were 89 buildings of 30 stories or more in Manhattan, and between 1925 and 1931, office space nearly doubled; in Chicago, it increased by almost 75%, in Philadelphia by almost two-thirds, and by more than 50% in New Orleans and Denver. In

1674-701: The Harlem Renaissance and Shakespeare literature. Central has participated in the University of Minnesota ‘s College in the Schools program since 1994. As of 2018, Central High School was the only public high school in Minnesota to offer Russian as a foreign language. It also offers the only French Immersion program in the Saint Paul Public School District. In addition to Russian, Central has

1767-484: The Interstate Highway System , and white flight from urban cores to rapidly expanding suburbs . Due to well-intended but ineptly executed urban revitalization projects, downtowns eventually came to be dominated by high-rise office buildings in which commuters from the suburbs filled white-collar jobs, while the remaining residential populations sank further into unemployment, poverty, and homelessness. By

1860-533: The Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona . Mechanics Arts High School , then known as Manual Training High School, was first housed in the basement of Central. The school was renamed Central High School in 1888. Soon the building on 10th and Minnesota Street became too small, and the corner of Marshall and Lexington Avenues was chosen as the new site. A new school, designed by Clarence H. Johnston Sr. ,

1953-1055: The Metropolitan Museum of Art , the New-York Historical Society , the American Museum of Natural History and the Museum of the City of New York , all in Manhattan, moved out of downtown, as did the Museum of Fine Arts , the Boston Public Library , the Boston Symphony Orchestra , and the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston, the Cleveland Museum of Art , the Baltimore Museum of Art ,

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2046-571: The Quest program , the first gifted and talented program approved by Saint Paul Public Schools. This humanities based program was started in order to offer in-depth topics in the humanities that were not available in normal classes. The program continues to challenge students to think independently and to learn from each other and from the teacher in a discussion-based approach towards learning . Over 15 Quest classes are currently offered including classes on world culture, film documentary, ancient civilizations,

2139-774: The École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, travelled Europe and Asia. Also designed houses for Summit Ave, buildings for the University of Minn, many others. Architectural Artist – JC Trott (employed by the architect) Style – Collegiate Gothic Land purchased – 1909 Designed – 1909–1910 Building Permit Issued – May 31, 1910 Builder – C. Ash Company Construction started – 1910 Ready for occupancy – 1911 (old school dropped from City Directory) Cornerstone laid – April, 1912 (building completed) Flagpole installed – 1914 New gymnasium – 1924 (added to

2232-618: The "High School" on the third floor of the Franklin School building, located at Broadway and Tenth Streets in downtown Saint Paul. Some people thought that the school was a waste of space. Eugene Foster (known as the "Father of the High School") was the principal, and Mrs. H.M. Haynes was the lone teacher. The first graduating class of the Saint Paul High School was in 1870, and consisted of two students: Fannie Haynes (the daughter of

2325-402: The "Sun" that the outlying business districts revolved around. Others doubted whether decentralization had as strong an impact as it was credited with. Positions were taken that downtown was a natural part of the evolution of a city, or the unnatural result of a de facto conspiracy by merchants and property owners, so the question of what decentralization would do to downtown became bound up with

2418-422: The "castle" exterior was removed or overlaid with cement, a pool and other athletic facilities were added, and the interior was gutted and rebuilt. The building now uses only the structural frame of the previous building. This resulted in a joke amongst students that it was designed by a prison architect because of the school's rather utilitarian exterior, metal gates, and few windows on ground level. Larry Millett ,

2511-407: The 1880s are extant, some adorned with arched window and door openings, brick window hoods, and frilly intact open porches. The name "Frogtown" likely comes from the fact that the neighborhood was developed over several swamps and marshes, which were filled in over time. Archbishop John Ireland referred to the area as “Froschberg” or "Frog City” because of the many frogs in the area originating from

2604-405: The 1880s, and from there spread to most other American cities in the 1890s and 1900s. The apparent lack of a height limitation of this type of building set off a fervent debate over whether their height should be restricted by law, with proponents and opponents of height limits bringing out numerous arguments in favor of their position. The question of height limits also had a profound implication for

2697-539: The 1920s, 500,000 additional hotel rooms were built in New York, and from 1927 to 1931 there were 84 large hotels built there, an increase of hotel space by two-thirds. When the boom was over, and the Depression had begun to have its effect, much of this new space became unneeded excess. Owners of smaller buildings who could not keep a sufficient number of tenants to pay their overhead, tore down their buildings, but whereas in

2790-589: The 1990s, many office-oriented businesses began to abandon the tired old downtowns for the suburbs, resulting in what are now known as " edge cities ". One textbook, in explaining why edge cities are so popular, stated: The big central city comes with dirt, crime, subways, stress, congestion, high taxes, and poor public schools. Edge cities are not immune to all of these problems (especially congestion) but for now they largely avoid most of them. Since then, between 2000 and 2010, downtown areas grew rapidly in population. In U.S. metro areas with at least five million people,

2883-467: The 2006–2007 girls basketball team served as grand marshals for the 2007 Rondo Days parade. Overall, Central has won four state titles in girls basketball: 1976, 1979, 2007, and 2008. In the 2022 baseball season, the Central high school varsity boys baseball team ended their season in First within the Saint Paul conference. Not only did they place first, the team completely swept the competition, being

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2976-647: The Chicago Loop – although values in other parts of the city, including the outlying business districts, fared even worse. Department stores were hit hard; most managed to keep their doors open, but few made money. Hotels which needed to have large staffs, and required high occupancy rates to make a profit were also deeply affected; in Manhattan the hotel occupancy rate fell from 1929's 70% to around 50% in 1933. Room rates were slashed, revenue dropped, and many hotels closed or defaulted. By 1934, 80% of hotels in Manhattan were owned by their creditors. The slow recovery from

3069-485: The Manhattan model and continue to use downtown , midtown , and uptown both as informal relative geographical terms and as formal names for distinct districts. However, the city of Philadelphia uses the designation Center City , not downtown, due to the business district's central location, as well as Philadelphia's age and circumstances; "Center City" corresponds to the City of Philadelphia prior to its amalgamation with Philadelphia County in 1854 , leaving it without

3162-489: The Music Listening Contest. Central performing ensembles have traveled in recent years to Washington, DC , San Diego , New Orleans , New York City , San Francisco , Chicago , and Nashville . The Central Concert Band and Orchestra were selected to perform at the 2007 MMEA Mid Winter Clinic. The Central IB Music program offers instruction in music theory, history, composition, and solo-performance. Central

3255-537: The area including the Saint Paul Foundry, built near Como and Western Avenues, providing additional employment opportunities for residents. Residential development moved westward through the neighborhood as Polish , Scandinavian , German , and Irish immigrants took blue-collar jobs in the area. They built modest wood frame and brick houses on small lots in the neighborhood. Urban renewal has wiped out many of these homes, but working-class Victorian homes from

3348-511: The area of Frogtown with its comprehensive elementary and high school ( Saint Agnes School ), classes of kindergarten through senior high school. Saint Paul Public Library operates the Rondo Community Library adjacent to Frogtown. The newly renovated Rondo Library opened in late August 2006. 44°57′46″N 93°7′34″W  /  44.96278°N 93.12611°W  / 44.96278; -93.12611 Downtown Downtown

3441-429: The area, which also offer traditional African breads, spices and foodstuffs. Mexican-American immigrants operate small traditional Mexican carnicerías. The avenue is dotted with restaurants serving Cambodian , Thai , Laotian , Hmong , Vietnamese , Chinese-American , Somali , Ethiopian , and Mexican cuisine, some of it very authentic. The METRO Green Line light rail , which opened on June 14, 2014, serves

3534-455: The building profitable. What shattered that restriction was the invention of first the iron- and then the steel frame building, in which the building's load was carried by an internal metal frame skeleton, from which the masonry – and later glass – simply hung, without carrying any weight. Although first used in Chicago, the steel-framed skyscraper caught on most quickly in New York City in

3627-528: The business district lower Manhattan and the newer one in midtown began to grow towards each other, or in Chicago, where downtown expanded from the Loop across the Chicago River to Michigan Avenue . In fact, the instability of downtown was a cause for concern for business and real estate interests, as the business district refused to stay where it had been, and shifted its location in response to numerous factors, although it generally stayed fairly compact – in

3720-652: The cities themselves. Cities in the US grew much more slowly than during any other period in the history of the country, and some even lost population. Metropolitan regions grew faster than the cities inside them, indicating the start of the decades of urban sprawl , but they too grew at a slower pace than usual. Downtowns also had less daytime population because people now went to the outlying business districts, which were closer to their homes by car, for their shopping and entertainment, to do business, and to work. The increased use of automobiles over mass transit also damaged downtown, since

3813-866: The colonial militia men of 1775 at Lexington, Massachusetts, who fought against the British in the first skirmishes of the War of Independence, and were required to be ready at a minute's notice. The adjacent stadium was built in the early 1940s by the WPA ( Works Progress Administration ), as denoted by a plaque on the brick facade of the stands. It was renamed James Griffin Stadium in 1998. 1912 Marshall/Lexington building construction: Working name – West End High School Proposed name – Lexington High School Final name – Central High School Architect - Clarence H. Johnston Sr. - prominent Saint Paul architect, studied architecture in Saint Paul as well as MIT, and

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3906-579: The companies they did business with elsewhere. As a result of this migration, manufacturing was no longer a significant part of the downtown mix of businesses. Another sector which began to move away from downtown even before the turn of the 20th century were the great cultural institutions: museums, symphony halls, main libraries and so on. Not only was the high cost of land downtown a factor, but these institutions wanted larger plots of land than were available there, so that their buildings could themselves be easily perceived as works of art. Organizations such as

3999-418: The daytime population of the country's downtowns did not rebound. For instance, in Chicago between 1929 and 1949, the population of the city grew 7%, and that of the entire metropolitan area by about 14%, but the daytime population of The Loop only rose 1/3 of 1%. With a few exceptions, such as New York City, this pattern was typical across American cities, and was tied to the slowing down of the rate of growth of

4092-543: The decentralization of commerce which affected the importance and influence of downtown and the central business district. Theaters , vaudeville houses, dance halls and night clubs had been primarily located in downtown, with nickelodeons spread throughout the city. When film became the dominant medium, and exhibitors started to build movie theaters to show them in, they at first built those venues downtown as well, but, as in retail shopping, chain exhibitors such as Loews began to construct them in locations convenient to

4185-682: The directionality of both words was lost, so that a Bostonian might refer to going "downtown", even though it was north of where they were. Downtown lay to the south in Detroit, but to the north in Cleveland, to the east in St. Louis, and to the west in Pittsburgh. In Boston, a resident pointed out in 1880, downtown was in the center of the city. Uptown was north of downtown in Cincinnati, but south of downtown in New Orleans and San Francisco. Notably, "downtown"

4278-410: The early 1930s even the largest took up less than 2% of the city's space, and most were significantly smaller – and remained the primary business district of the city. Real estate interests were particularly concerned about the tendency of downtown to move because the downtown area had by far the highest land values in each city. One commentator said that if Chicago's land values were shown as height on

4371-465: The early part of the 20th century, English travel writers felt it necessary to explain to their readers what "downtown" meant. Although American downtowns lacked legally-defined boundaries, and were often parts of several of the wards that most cities used as their basic functional district, locating the downtown area was not difficult, as it was the place where all the street railways and elevated railways converged, and – at least in most places – where

4464-437: The east side of the city. It is also a national Blue Ribbon School . Central High School has been situated in four locations, beginning with the first building in 1866. Central High School was founded in 1866 in response to student requests. Before 1866, there were no educational opportunities in Saint Paul beyond grade school. About a dozen students wished to continue their schooling so, in 1866, two rooms were set aside for

4557-450: The edges of the city or the urban area. Industrial districts developed in these areas, which were sometimes specifically zoned for manufacturing. There, land was considerably cheaper than downtown, property taxes were lower, transportation of supplies and finished products was much easier without the constant congestion emblematic of downtown, and with the improvement of the telephone system, the industrial firms could still keep in touch with

4650-468: The effects of the Great Depression began in the mid-1930s, decelerated at the end of the 1930s, and picked up speed with the start of World War II , so that by the early 1940s the country was for the most part out of the Depression. Excess commercial space began to be used, vacancy rates dropped, department store sales rose, hotel occupancy rates went up, and revenues increased. Despite this recovery,

4743-666: The fence was replaced with new black vinyl fencing funded by the Lexington-Hamline Community Council, the St Paul School District ISD 625 and a Saint Paul Neighborhood Star grant. A parent-led effort to improve the appearance, function, and sustainability of the building, "Transforming Central," was initiated in 2011. Central offers many higher-level classes. It has offered the International Baccalaureate program since 1988. Central has

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4836-408: The first to do so in at least 15 years. Central high school has also produced many D1 athletes. Central High School has a plethora of extracurricular activities including National Honors Society, math team, Debate, Ski club and more. Central's math team has also been highly successful. In 2007, the math team was undefeated and won the state championship, scoring a state record number of points at

4929-468: The growth of the chain stores, to the detriment of the big downtown department stores. Furthermore, the "taxpayers", which many people had expected to disappear once the economy improved, remained in place, and even increased in number. In the Loop in Chicago, by the early 1940s, 18% of the land was vacant or was used for parking; in Los Angeles at the same time, the figure was 25%. Demand for commercial space

5022-473: The island travels in the uptown/downtown directions. The other boroughs are wider, and "downtown" there refers to Lower Manhattan, Downtown Brooklyn , or some more local business district. Mercantile efforts to promote the South Bronx as "Downtown Bronx" have met with little success. In some North American cities, downtown is the formal name of the neighborhood in which the city's central business district

5115-446: The major cultural institutions left downtown as a place primarily dedicated to business, but the loss of another sector, retail shopping, defined the type of business that was done there. The great retail outlets like the department stores had always had the tendency to move closer to the residential districts, to make it easier for their customers to get to them, but after 1920 they started to congregate in secondary business districts on

5208-515: The major cultural institutions, much of the retail shopping in the city, and its loss of status as the entertainment center, the nature of downtown had changed considerably. It was still the location of banks, stocks and commodity exchanges, law and accounting firms, the headquarters of the major industrial concerns and public utilities, insurance companies, and advertising agencies, and in its confines continued to be built new and taller skyscrapers housing offices, hotels and even department stores, but it

5301-409: The mass audience they were seeking; again, it was a matter of bringing their product to where the people were. By the late 1920s, movie houses outside of downtown far outnumbered those in the central district. Not all the movie theaters in the periphery were palaces , but some were, and the net effect was that downtown was no longer the entertainment center of the city. With the loss of manufacturing,

5394-437: The nature of downtown itself: would it continue to be a concentrated core, or as it grew, would height limits force it to spread out into a larger area. In the short run, the proponents of height limits were successful in their efforts. By the 1910s, most of the large and medium-sized cities had height limits in effect, although New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Minneapolis were notable exceptions. Ultimately, it

5487-475: The neighborhood with stops on University Avenue at Victoria Street , Dale Street , and Western Avenue . St. Paul Public Schools serves Frogtown. Some residents are zoned to Jackson Elementary, while some are zoned to Galtier Elementary. Some residents are zoned to Ramsey Middle, and some are zoned to Washington Middle. Some residents are zoned to Central High School , and some are zoned to Como Park High School . The Catholic parish of St. Agnes also serves

5580-487: The only Latin language program in the Saint Paul Public Schools District as well. Central offers music classes including Concert Band, Varsity Band, Orchestra, Central Chamber Singers, Mixed Choir, Tenor Bass Choir, and Soprano Alto Choir. Co-Curricular opportunities include Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Jazz Band, student led choirs such Minnesingers, Meistersingers, and North Star Singers, as well as

5673-482: The original town – which was also New York's only major center of business at the time – became known as "downtown" ( Lower Manhattan ). During the late 19th century, the term was gradually adopted by cities across the United States to refer to the historical core of the city, which was most often the same as the commercial heart of the city. "Uptown" also spread, but to a much lesser extent. In both cases, though,

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5766-410: The outer wall, making higher-up segments of the building progressively narrower than the base) to reduce a building's bulk by allowing additional height per foot of setback – the exact amount depending on what zone the building was in. The ultimate effect of setbacks is to increase the sunlight and visible sky at street level. New York City was the first to do this, with the 1916 Zoning Resolution , which

5859-503: The periphery of the city. The growth of chain stores such as J. C. Penney , F. W. Woolworth , Kresge and W. T. Grant , contributed to the increased importance of the outlying shopping districts, which began outselling those retail stores which had remained in the central business district, and provoked those stores to open branches in the secondary districts in attempt to go to where there customers were instead of having them come downtown to them. Entertainment venues also contributed to

5952-399: The population within two miles of the city hall grew twice as fast as the overall population in the metro area. The terms downtown and uptown can refer to cardinal directions , for example, in Manhattan, where downtown is also a relative geographical term. Anything south of where the speaker is currently standing, in most places, is said to be downtown . Anything north of the speaker

6045-815: The quarter-finals of the Tournament of Champions and one student was the 9th place speaker. In 2012, the team reached the semi-finals of the National Urban Debate League tournament. In 2013, Ayaan Natala became the first African-American to reach the final round of the Minnesota State High School League tournament. The school has trophies from debate tournaments going back to the early 20th Century. Records of Central High School are available for research use. They consist of historical data, programs, invitations, and handbooks, pupil lists, subject files, scrapbooks and photographs, documenting

6138-587: The question about the area's legitimacy. Decentralization also increased the incidences of rivalry between downtown and burgeoning business districts. In Los Angeles, for instance, downtown and Wilshire Boulevard battled for dominance, and in Cincinnati the rivalry was between the old downtown centered around Fountain Square and the one on Canal Street. The diminishment of downtown by decentralization caused these battles to be between areas that were now more relatively equal. Like almost every other aspect of American life,

6231-448: The railroad terminals were. It was the location of the great department stores and hotels, as well as that of theaters, clubs, cabarets, and dance halls, and where skyscrapers were built once that technology was perfected. It was also frequently, at first, the only part of a city that was electrified. It was also the place where street congestion was the worst, a problem for which a solution was never really found. But most of all, downtown

6324-520: The recent past they would have been replaced with taller buildings, now they became one- and two-story parking garages or ground-level parking lots. These were widely known as "taxpayers", as they generated enough revenue for the owner of the lot to pay the taxes on it. Rents fell, sometimes as much as 30%, and non-payment of rent increased. Even with the "taxpayers" taking away commercial space, vacancy rates rose precipitously. Owners went into default, and downtown real estate lost considerable value: 25–30% in

6417-430: The rise of the private automobile, which allowed shoppers to go to peripheral business districts more easily; a strong increase in streetcar fares; and the continuing problem of congestion in the narrow streets of the downtown area. As much as people disagreed about what caused decentralization, they were even less in agreement about how decentralization would affect the central business district, with opinions varying all

6510-531: The second largest IB program in the state of Minnesota. Students may also take Advanced Placement classes and their subsequent tests. Central was the only high school in Minnesota to be honored by the Siemens Foundation in their 2007-08 Siemens Awards for Advanced Placement. Central received the award for "its commitment to students and leadership in AP participation and performance". In 1970 Central began to offer

6603-422: The streetcar lines converged on downtown, while the roads went everywhere. All of these factors contributed to the lesser recovery of downtown relative to the city as a whole and the metropolitan area. Another sign that downtowns were no longer as central to city life as they once were include the decreased portion of retail trade that took place there as compared to the peripheral business areas, which profited by

6696-503: The swamps. Commercial buildings lined University Avenue as street cars along the corridor were able to efficiently transport workers to employers. The line also became the first intercity street car line, connecting Minneapolis with Saint Paul in 1890. Hmongtown Marketplace , a 200+ vendor Hmong-American mall and cultural center, is in Frogtown along Como Avenue. A Hmong cultural and business corridor along University Avenue in Frogtown

6789-635: The teacher), and A. P. Warren. The first 2 diplomas were hand printed on sheepskin. Gradually, the classes enrolled in the Franklin Building became too large for the two little rooms to accommodate them. In 1872, the Saint Paul High School moved to the Lindeke Building at 7th and Jackson streets where it occupied the second floor. That year, graduation exercises were held in the Saint Paul Civic Opera House where they were held until it

6882-510: The tournament. Central High School is home to a policy debate program. The team qualified to the quarterfinals of the Minnesota State High School League Policy Debate Quarterfinals as the fourth seeded team before they were eliminated by Edina High School . In 2008, the team faced Highland Park High School at the final round of the Minnesota state debate tournament. In 2010, the team reached

6975-408: The town of New York grew into a city, the only direction it could grow on the island was toward the north , proceeding upriver from the original settlement, the "up" and "down" terminology coming from the customary map design in which up was north and down was south . Thus, anything north of the original town became known as " uptown " ( Upper Manhattan ), and was generally a residential area, while

7068-436: The way from the belief that it would diminish downtown sufficiently that it would eventually consist of only offices and the headquarters of corporate giants, to the belief that decentralization would lead to the (perhaps deserved) death of downtown entirely as unnecessary, a victim of its untameable traffic congestion. In between were those who saw a diminishment of the area's influence, but not enough to prevent it from remaining

7161-438: The west side of the school, replacing the old one in the top floor of the middle section; see 1925 yearbook, history of Johnston's career, and spps history document) Stadium – 1940/1943 depending on the source (building permits or spps). Cost for 1909–1943 – $ 650,000 (not counting maintenance, heating, etc.) Rebuilding and modernization took place in the 1970s and 80s. Led by Ellerbe Architects in 1979,

7254-451: Was already a sluggish market. To many in the real estate industry, the zoning law was an example of a "reasonable restriction." Once New York had passed its law, other cities followed, although proposed zoning measures did meet stiff resistance in some places, often because of the inclusion of overly restrictive height limits, and sometimes because the entire concept of zoning was seen as undemocratic and bordering on socialism . Eventually,

7347-540: Was also known for its BlackBox Theater Program with the advance acting troupe known as Central Touring Theatre (CTT). Theater company members came from a variety of racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. St. Paul Central High School's Central Touring Theater (CTT) has created original social justice theater and the juniors and seniors became the teachers to the audience as they used theater to present important issues that resonate in their lives, including racism, sexism, depression, abuse and more. Central has produced

7440-417: Was assumed that people would climb, but with the elevator, that limit was shattered, and buildings began to be constructed up to about sixteen stories. What limited them then was the thickness of the masonry needed at the base to hold the weight of the building above it. As the buildings got taller, the thickness of the masonry and the space needed for elevators did not allow for sufficient rentable space to make

7533-479: Was built in 1912 on the corner of Marshall Avenue and Lexington Parkway, and was attempted to be renamed Lexington High School; alumni, however, wanted to keep the moniker Central High School . A compromise was reached when the Minuteman was adopted as a logo and mascot . In other words, the name of the school was retained, but for those who wanted the school to be named "Lexington," its logo and mascot were named after

7626-517: Was destroyed by a fire in 1899. Then the commencement exercises were held in the People's Church until the completion of the Saint Paul Auditorium. In 1872, the graduating class consisted of 12 students: five boys and seven girls. In 1873, the graduating class of 12 students originated the custom of presenting each senior with a souvenir appropriate to his/her character. For several years, a prize

7719-410: Was done downtown, those who had their homes there were gradually pushed out, selling their property and moving to quieter residential areas uptown. The skyscraper would become the hallmark of the downtown area. Prior to the invention of the elevator – and later the high-speed elevator – buildings were limited in height to about six stories, which was a de facto limit set by the amount of stairs it

7812-424: Was no longer as dominant as it once was. The causes of decentralization, which decreased the importance of downtown in the life of American cities, have been ascribed to many factors, including each city's normal growth patterns; advances in technology like the telephone, which made it easier for business-to-business intercourse to take place over a distance, thus lessening the need for a centralized commercial core;

7905-415: Was no money for an astronomical observatory. The Debate society decided to put on plays to make up the money to pay for it. Soon, Central was known as the only high school in the United States to have a fixed telescope with a lens ground and polished by the great telescope maker Alvan Clark (1804–1887), whose company built some of the largest and best telescopes in the world, including the telescope for

7998-514: Was not included in dictionaries as late as the 1880s. But by the early 1900s, "downtown" was clearly established as the proper term in American English for a city's central business district, although the word was virtually unknown in Britain and Western Europe, where expressions such as "city centre" (British English), "el centro" (Spanish), "das Zentrum" (German), etc are used. Even as late as

8091-405: Was not simple height limits that restricted skyscrapers, but they were limited by comprehensive zoning laws which set up separate requirements for different parts of a city. Zoning rules would regulate not only height, but also a building's volume, the percentage of the lot used, and the amount of light the building blocked. Zoning regulations sometimes encouraged setbacks (step-like recessions in

8184-479: Was offered for the best essay: a Webster's Unabridged Dictionary and a holder for it. The President of the Board of Education also presented a prize to the one having the highest standing in the class, usually a fine set of Shakespeare's works. A new building opened in 1883 at 10th and Minnesota streets. The building was the first high school built in Saint Paul. In 1888, a 14-room annex was added for laboratories, but there

8277-474: Was prompted in large part by the construction of the Equitable Building in 1915. The Equitable Building was a 40-story building with straight sides and no setbacks, which raised fears of the downtown area becoming a maze of dark streets that never saw the sun. Worse yet, at least from a real estate perspective, this new building created 1.2 million square feet (111,000 m ) of office space, flooding into what

8370-461: Was so light that it did not make financial sense to construct expensive new buildings, and banks began to refuse to make loans for that purpose, redlining whole neighborhoods in the central business district. The typical American downtown has certain unique characteristics. During the postwar economic boom in the 1950s , the residential population of most downtowns crashed. This has been attributed to reasons such as slum clearance , construction of

8463-406: Was still steadily losing ground as decentralization took its toll. Its daytime population was not keeping pace with the population growth of the city around it, and property values, while continuing to rise, were not rising as fast as those in the secondary business districts. Downtown was still the central business district, and was still the most important area for doing business and commerce, but it

8556-420: Was the place where the city did its business. Inside its small precincts, sometimes as small as several hundred acres, the majority of the trading, selling, and purchasing – retail and wholesale – in the entire area would take place. There were hubs of business in other places around the city and its environs, but the downtown area was the chief one, truly the central business district. And as more and more business

8649-441: Was the time when the term " central business district " began to appear as more-or-less synonymous with the downtown area. The phrase acknowledged the existence of other business districts in the city, but allocated to downtown the primacy of being "central", not only geographically, in many cities, but also in importance. And in many cases, the downtown area or central business district, itself began to grow, such as in Manhattan where

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