Summit-University: Home to Saint Paul’s Historic African American Community “Rondo”

Summit-University was settled in the 1880s and 1890s with a nice mixed single family houses, duplexes,  apartment building mansions concentrated along Summit Avenue and the southern half of Cathedral Hill just north of Summitt Avenue. Further west are more modest-larger single family homes mixed in duplexes, triplexes, and quads. Closer to University Avenue housing is more working class. The wealthiest families started to leave the neighborhood in the 1920s with the advent of the automobile. The great mansions along Summit  declined somewhat but were fortunately subdivided and mostly remain to this day. In the 1950s-1960s Summit-University experienced several disruptive highway and urban renewal projects greatly disrupting the urban form of the neighborhood and leading to thousands of displaced African-Americans from the Rondo enclave. The highway in fact obliterated the Rondo Avenue business district, a once vibrant African American center in Saint Paul.  These projects also accelerated White Flight from Summit-University and led to decline in many parts of the neighborhood especially the western and northern areas.  But because of the White Flight of the western and north edges of the neighborhood Summit-University became Saint Paul’s most diverse neighborhood welcoming a large Hmong community, other Asian groups, and Hispanics. Many African American families have also remained in the neighborhood and all in all areas affected by White Flight and Urban Renewal are in decent condition and starting to benefit from the gentrification of Summit Hill and Catedral Hill. ReConnect Rondo, a neighborhood CDC, has also done a great job keeping this historic Black Neighborhood in tact and helping local residents open up businesses along Shelby Ave.

For Summit-University to be a top tear urban district it needs to re-urbanize its northern edge most affected by Urban Renewal along University Avenue and abutting Capitol District. Just to the northeast of the neighborhood is an nearly abandonded Mall that marks a great opportunity for quality urban in-fill and a way to better connect the neighborhood to Dwtn. Summit-University could also use more bike lanes, much more urban-infill along University Ave, and better schools. 

Click here to view my Summit-University Album on my Flickr page

URBAN STRENGTHS:

• Excellent access to Dwtn St. Paul only 1.5 Miles away. Only a 20-15 minute bus/bike ride or 8 minute drive. Central Minneapolis is 45 minutes by transit & 15-20 minute drive.
• Solid Urban Density.
• Solid public transit access throughout all of the district.
• Generally consistent sidewalks by ADA curb cuts are hit or miss.
• Generally good urban form along Shelby and for most of the district.
• Some incredible historic homes especially with the large mansions in the Cathedral Hill section of the neighborhood. Some excellent historic buildings along the main portion of Shelby Ave. More modest historic homes along the eastern half of Summit-University in the Rondo portion of the neighborhood.
• Solid tree canopy in most of the district.
• Generally a pretty safe area. Safety has appeared to improve the past decade in some of the historically rougher patches of the neighborhood (Rondo and along University Ave).
• Good for sale housing diversity. Lots of 1-bed condo options selling btwn 100K & 200Ks, tons of 2-bed options including condos, townhouses, and SF homes selling btwn 150K-700K, 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 200K-1 M . A good amount of 3-beds are condos and town homes and plenty of single family homes selling in the 300KS in the western edge of the neighborhood.
• Tons of rentals with studios & 1-beds leasing btwn 800K-1.6K, 2-beds btwn 1.5K-3K. Decent number of 3-bed rentals too. Lots of affordable housing options.
• Lots of small & medium parks well distributed throughout the neighborhood. Also two recreational centers and an indoor pool.
• Good Cultural amenities include a good number of restaurants, bars, & cafes, a community performing arts theater, a couple art galleries, a couple historic houses and museums, and good access to Dwtn’s cultural amenities and Grand Ave in Summit Hill.
• Good retail amenities including tons of ethnic groceries along University Ave, an Aldi’s, a Co-op, a couple drug stores, a couple boutiques & gift shops, a couple bookstores, plenty of bakeries & dessert joints, tons of salons, several gyms, tons of churches, a couple public libraries.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

• Large autocentric stretches along University Ave. Slowly this is getting better with mixed-use infill but new development is slow to this stretch of University.
• So so bike access. Nice east-west bike lane along Summit. But not north-south route.
• The Northeaster corner of the neighborhood has seen a lot of urban renewal resulting in bland mid-century buildings, Saint Paul College (commuter school). project housing, and lots of autocentric uses.
• Some good urban in-fill along Shelby but lots of autocentric infill along University Ave.
• Excellent racial and economic diversity with both large minority white and black populations. Decent Asian and Hispanic populations too.
• Okay access to schools. Several private schools but they are small. Some public schools but generally not rated well except Central Senior High School.
• Missing a local post office, major supermarket, only a handful of doctor offices”