Summit Hill- Historically Home to Saint Paul’s Wealthiest Citizens and Retains one of the Largest Collections of Victorian Homes in America

Summit Hill developed in the late 19th century and early 20th century and is best known for having one of the best preserved collections of old, Victorian homes in the United States concentrated along Summit Avenue and the eastern edge of the neighborhood. Summit Hill also hosts one of the best and intact urban business districts running along many blocks of Grand Avenue. Thanks to the high incomes of the neighborhood there are many great shops, restaurants, and bars along Grand. Plenty of early 3-story brick apartments and condo mixed into much of the neighborhood too.

Unlike Summit-University to the north, Summit Hill never experienced any major urban renewal or disruptive highway projects and was able to retain its wealthy and Caucasian populations. Thanks to this, most of Summit Hill is in tact from its pre-WWII days and Grand Avenue has seen limited autocentric infill.  I would certainly like to more racial and economic diversity in Summit Hill with a focus of targeted densification along Grand Ave and affordable housing contraction. Summit Hill could use more dedicated bike lanes and more schools and park amenities.

Click here to view my University Hill album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

• Decent public transit, especially the northern half of the district.
• Center of the Summit Hill is only 2.5 Miles from Dwtn St. Paul. Only a 20 minute bus/bike ride or 10 minute drive. However other than by Car, its pretty difficult to get to Central Minneapolis.
• Good ADA curbs along the Grand Ave (the biz district). More hit or miss on residential streets but good sidewalks are throughout all the district.
• Pretty consistent high quality of historic homes. Homes are a bit more most along Summit Hill western edge but still nice. Nothing specially about the commercial architecture along Grand.
• Solid tree canopy throughout.
• Some urban infill along Grand mixed of urban and autocentric form.
• Very safe neighborhood. One of the safest in Saint Paul.
• Pretty good for sale diversity. Some 1-bed condos that sell btwn 150K-350K, 2-beds are mostly condos/townhomes and sell anywhere from 200K-1M, 3 & 4 beds sell 200K-1 M. Plenty of SF homes selling in the western edge of the neighborhood.
• A good # of rentals with studios & 1-beds leasing btwn 900K-2K, 2-beds in the 1Ks. 3-bed rentals are limited.
• Decent Cultural amenities include a good number of restaurants, bars, & cafes, a dance club, a couple historic houses, including good access to Dwtn’s cultural amenities.
• Great retail amenities mostly focused on Grand St. Plenty of boutiques and gift shops, a couple book stores, a couple toy stores a hardware store, plenty of bakeries & dessert joints, several gyms, a major hospital just southeast of Summit Hill. One supermarket on the western edge of the district and a couple drug stores

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

• So so bike access. Nice east-west bike lane along Summit. But not north-south route.
• Decent but not great urban density.
• Generally a White and affluent neighborhood. Not great diversity indicators in Summit Hill.
• Only a handful of schools in Summit Hill with mixed ratings.
• Linwood is a nice park and has a recreation center but only a handful of other small parks throughout.
• Missing churches, a post office, public library, and only a handful of doctor offices.”