Mary Petrie

“History dead-ends Holly Avenue,” says Michael Koop. The preservation specialist at the Minnesota Historical Society is talking about the way in which a neoclassical giant, complete with Ionic columns and a massive pediment, rears up in the middle of the avenue, disrupting the neat street grid characteristic of St. Paul’s tony Historic Hill District. Location … Read more

A Rebours is the St. Paul hot spot for A-list eaters, attracting the heavyweights of St. Paul politics, out-of-town talent like the cast of the Prairie Home Companion movie, and the usual crowd of the upwardly mobile and beautiful. The restaurant has every last sparkle you’d expect: tiled floors, high ceilings, gleaming wood, linen, and … Read more

The past few years have seen an outpouring of books that deconstruct, describe, and frequently denounce contemporary maternity. Recent celebrated titles reveal much of the genre’s slant: Faulkner Fox’s Dispatches from a Not-So-Perfect Life: Or How I Learned to Love the House, the Man, the Child and the ever-quotable The Bitch in The House: 26 … Read more