| Dayton's
Bluff and
the Saint Paul Winter Carnival Last Update: January 12, 2006 |
| Dayton's Bluff has a long association with the Saint Paul Winter Carnival. William Hamm helped organize the first Carnival in 1886. An Ice Palace was built on the Bluff in 1938. Hamm's Brewery, the Dayton's Bluff Commercial Club, 3M and various local groups sponsored Winter Carnival activities and entered floats in the parades for many years. The Winter Carnival Treasure Hunt medallion was found in Mounds Park in 1987. |
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| 1886 Winter Carnival - Dayton's Bluff Toboggan Club |
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| The Dayton's Bluff Toboggan Club in 1886. The Dayton's Bluff Toboggan Slide appears to be in the background on the left side. Minnesota Historical Society Photo |
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| The Dayton's Bluff Toboggan Club in 1886 at the bottom of the Dayton's Bluff Toboggan Slide. Photographer: Schlattman Brothers & Ladd Minnesota Historical Society Photo |
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1886 Dayton's Bluff Tobaggan Slide and Ice Tower. Minnesota Historical Society Photo |
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| 1917 Winter Carnival - Hamm's Brewery |
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| The 1917 Hamm's Brewery Winter Carnival float in front of the Hamm's Brewery office. Apparently it had a 12 manpower engine. Minnesota Historical Society Photo |
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| The 1917 Hamm's Marching Club. Minnesota Historical Society Photo |
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| Ary and Margaret Gertrude Scheffer model
the1917 Hamm's
Brewery Winter Carnival costume. Minnesota Historical Society Photo |
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| 1938 Winter Carnival - Dayton's Bluff Ice
Court (The material in quotation marks is from the book "Ice Palaces" by Fred Anderes and Ann Agranoff; Abbeville Press, Inc., New York , 1983.) |
| The first Saint Paul Winter Carnival was held in 1886. It was also the first year that an Ice Palace was built in the city. It was followed by two more in 1887 and 1888. These Palaces were huge castle-style buildings. More modest ice structures were constructed in 1896, 1916 and 1917. That was the end of ice palaces until 1937. "The Ice Palaces of 1937 to 1947 were a series of marvelous
Art Deco
pavilions. Although not as tall as the three great early palaces,
they were comparable in extent. At night electric lights
illuminated
these crystal palaces in patterns of changing color." |
1938 Postcard
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| "The 'ice palace' that year [1938] was eminently simple, consisting only of a facade and a skating rink. A sudden January thaw undermined the walls to such an extent that the builders stopped work and decided to blast down the facade as a safety precaution. Three hours later an oldtime blizzard swept in out of the northwest, dropped the mercury 50 degrees overnight -- and dramatically saved the castle." |
1938 Postcard
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| "Two semicircular disks composed the facade of the completed palace. One stood 60 feet high, the other 50 feet high. Their brilliant lighting consumed as much electricty in ten days as a town of 7,000 inhabitants normally required in a year." |
1938 Postcard
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| "In front of the semicircles stretched a 'mirror of ice,'
about 300
feet by 100 feet, over which skaters glided. Along both sides of the
rink
ran colonnades of ice, topped with 30-foot poles flying pennants.
Jack Horner chaired the committee that designed the complex.
Construction,
in Dayton's Bluff, took about a week."
There is some confusion as to exactly where in Dayton's Bluff
the Ice
Court was located. It was definitely built in a playground in the
Mounds
Park area which has been variously identified as the Mounds Park
Playground or the Dayton's Bluff Playground. More than likely it was
the
Bluff Playground at Hudson Road between Euclid St. and Wilson Ave. That
playground was destroyed when the freeway (I-94) cut through the
neighborhood in the early 1960s. |
 1938 Photo - Source Unknown - Purchased at Antique Show |
 Closeup view of the facade. Minnesota Historical Society Photo |
 Hy Rosenblum with children Lenore Rosenblum (L) and Barbara Rosenblum (R) in front of the 1938 Ice Court. Photo courtesy of Lenore Gollop |
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 Lillian Rosenblum with children Lenore Rosenblum (L) and Barbara Rosenblum (R). in front of the 1938 Ice Court. Photo courtesy of Lenore Gollop |
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| The two photos above show a model of the 1938 Ice Court that was displayed in the window of Arlington Electric on Payne Avenue. Photos by J. Alden Engstrom, courtesy of his daughter Linda Engstrom. |
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| The Dayton's Bluff Carnival Club and their float, circa 1936 to 1939. Minnesota Historical Society Photo |
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| 1955 Winter Carnival Parade Floats |
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| The 1955 Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M) float. 3M's headquarters was still located in Dayton's Bluff in 1955. Minnesota Historical Society Photo |
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| The 1955 Harding High School float. Harding was located at Earl and Third St. in 1955. Note the Harding Knight towards the front of the float. Minnesota Historical Society Photo |
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| 1987 Winter Carnival Treasure Hunt |
| Mounds Park is often one of the first places treasure hunters search when the early Winter Carnival Treasure Hunt clues are published. With its commanding view of the river and downtown Saint Paul, many city landmarks are visible from there that seem to fit the clues. But the only time the Treasure Medallion was hidden and found in Mounds Park was in 1987. Take a look at the clues from that year and see if you would have figured it out. |
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| This page was created by Greg Cosimini . Contact me at cosim001@tc.umn.edu |