My Blue Heaven

A disheveled man paced the intersection of Snelling and University avenues, waving his arms as he described to passersby how his car had broken down and he’d been sleeping at the nearby Catholic church. If somebody would spare some change, he promised, he’d be on his way. The man had plenty of pedestrians to talk to, as the Midway is an area of the city where people walk, whether to Ragstock or the Safarii coffee shop or Big Top Liquor. The panhandler finally approached an older woman leaning on a cane. She listened to the man’s story, and then scoffed, “That’s a Baptist church,” and hobbled away.

In the 1890s, University Avenue was a streetcar line and Snelling was a bumpy path leading to the fort of the same name. The intersection was largely populated by military men waiting for various streetcars. Both routes were soon paved and the Midway became St. Paul’s industrial epicenter. Workers here fixed streetcars, shoveled coal, loaded trains, and filled orders for old-style department stores like Montgomery Ward. With the workers came houses and shops and bars, like the now-hip Turf Club, which once served doughboys on leave from overseas, and has since been dubbed University Avenue’s “best remnant of the 1940s.” A half block away sits Big V’s Saloon, the Turf’s main competition for local rock shows. Some of the drums hammered on both stages come from Ellis Drum Shop on Snelling, which outfits the Bad Plus’ Dave King, for one.

The Midway is lousy with old-style, one-of-a-kind places, like the somewhat claustrophobic Midway Used and Rare Books, which opened its doors in 1965. It has since supplemented its collection of pulp novels and other pop culture ephemera with an impressive selection of literature and books on art and photography. And, while you can’t buy the hulking iron lung at Ax-Man Surplus on University, you can pick up a bucket of glass beads, a gas mask, or a wagonload of old wooden fruit crates.

In recent years, the Midway has evolved. Mainstays have been supplemented by stores and restaurants opened by newcomers to the neighborhood—Hmong, Latinos, and African-Americans. Now you’ll find the tasty Mirror of Korea, the Black Sea Turkish restaurant, and a host of ethnic groceries and gyros joints. The streetcar garage that used to anchor the intersection’s southeast corner has become a mall that stretches across two blocks, where locals can have their nails done, buy groceries, bowl, and play bingo.

But one thing remains stubbornly the same. The Midway still bleeds blue-collar frugality: Whatever is here must be cheap and it must be good. The Turf Club’s prices, for example, have hardly risen in six decades. A person can still get a pint for little more than bus fare, though it’s always wise to have both, lest you be forced to beg from old locals leaning on canes.—Brian Voerding


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