Earl St.
In The Dayton's Bluff Neighborhood of
St. Paul, Minnesota
Last Update: July 10, 1999
 
Earl St. is one of the main roads on the East Side of St. Paul..  It runs North-South  all the way from Phalen Park (north) to Indian Mounds Park (south).  According to the book "The Street Where You Live - a guide to the street names of st. paul" by Donald Empson (Witsend Press, 1975), the street was first platted in 1857 as East Street. The name was changed in 1872 to Earl Street.  Mr. Empson said it was a personal name but he didn't know whose. 
 
There is a very good chance that Earl St. was named after someone in the Earl family, possibly Peter Earl,  father of George and Robert,  two well known  doctors  who were surgeons at the Mounds Park Sanitarium.  The Mounds Park Sanitarium, built in 1906 at 200 Earl St. (coincidence?) near Indian Mounds Park, later became Mounds Park Hospital. It  was replaced by a new Mounds Park Hospital just to the east of the old one in the 1960s. The site of the old one became a parking lot for the new one. The new Mounds Park Hospital was closed in the late 1980s or early 1990s and has since become the Marian Center of Saint Paul. 
 
 
Two postcard views of the Mounds Park Sanitarium circa 1910.
Click on a picture to see a larger image and postcard information.
 
The Earl brothers, Dr. George Earl and Dr. Robert Earl,  were featured in the book "Men of Minnesota" (c. 1915 by R. L. Polk & Co. of St. Paul). This book contains the photographs of 2048 important Minnesotans (all of the male variety) from almost all walks of life.  There was very little information about either of them, only the captions under their pictures.  Here are the good Doctors Earl: 
 
The good Doctors Earl, George and Robert
There is no known connection between Earl St. and the popular oldies song "The Duke of Earl".  And more than likely the Earl of Sandwich never made his home, or his sandwiches, on this street. And  former Minnesota Twins catcher Earl Batty never played ball there.  In fact, there are an incredible number of Earl related names that have absolutely nothing to do with this street. 

This page was created by Greg Cosimini.  The information contained herein is sketchy at best.  Anyone with more complete and/or accurate  information should contact me at cosim001@tc.umn.edu and I will make the appropriate changes. 
 
 
 
 

 
 

 

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.