Take a tour of the lost mansions of the Twin Cities

1993 American Institute of Architects International Architecture Book Award

An engaging, startling look at the dramatic evolution of landscapes in Minneapolis and St. Paul from the vantage point of their relatively static streets, in seventy-two historic black-and-white photographs, taken from the 1880's to the late 1950's, coupled with informative essays.

Celebrating America's favorite cityscapes, this series combines historic interest and contemporary beauty. Then and Now features fascinating archival photographs contrasted with specially commissioned, full-color images of the same scene today. A visual lesson in the historic changes of our greatest urban landscapes.

Well known as the most prestigious and beautiful street in the Twin Cities, Summit Avenue runs past the opulent mansion of railroad tycoon James J. Hill, an early home of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and several residences designed by renowned architect Cass Gilbert. In its heyday the four-and-one-half-mile-long boulevard included 13 churches, 9 schools, and 440 residences, 373 of which survive. St. Paul's Historic Summit Avenue highlights the fascinating story of this boulevard, from its pre-Civil War origins, when the area was still considered wilderness, to its fashionable height at the turn of the century. Ernest R. Sandeen discusses the preservation of Summit Avenue and takes readers on a walking tour of the first and grandest mile of the street, beginning with the Cathedral of St. Paul. A second walking tour gives the reader Fitzgerald's Summit Avenue, including excerpts from his notebooks and stories describing the area. The book concludes with an index of Summit Avenue houses built through the 1970s. Before his death in 1982, Ernest R. Sandeen was the James Wallace Professor of History and codirector of the Living Historical Museum at Macalester College. He served as a member of St. Paul's Historic Preservation Commission and as a partner in Lanegran, Richter, and Sandeen, an architectural preservation, design, and land-use firm.

Princess Charlie embarks on a fantastical adventure to solve the mystery of the missing Queen and save her kingdom.

THE STORY: The home of the Blackwoods near a Vermont village is a lonely, ominous abode, and Constance, the young mistress of the place, can't go out of the house without being insulted and stoned by the villagers. They have also composed a nasty s

Learning that a presumed-dead killer is alive and keeping a hostage, Sherlock Holmes sets out across multiple continents accompanied by Irish saloon keeper Shadwell Rafferty, but finds the case complicated by someone who is impersonating him.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate.

This winner of 11 national publishing awards belongs on every coffee table Summit Avenue, grande dame of Victorian boulevards, is lined with magnificent turn-of-the-century mansions built by railroad magnates, lumber barons and captains of industry. Great Houses of Summit Avenue and the Hill District is a celebration of these homes on St. Paul's best-known and most beloved avenue. With a foreword by Garrison Keillor and fascinating stories penned by four award-winning writers, the book opens the doors to more than two dozen legendary homes situated on America's best-preserved avenue from the era. Photographer Karen Melvin takes us along for a tour through stately mansions to view these remarkable architectural gems. Richly illustrated with hundreds of photos, this book offers an irresistible invitation to step through the doors of these showcase homes to explain what we are all curious to know.