Assignment #3 Field Trip Blog

Feild trip summary-
On the field trip, the first place we went to was the James J Hill House on summit ave. We talked about when it was built and who built it. We went on the tour for 90 minutes and stopped and talked about each house. Then we ate on the bus. We went to the International Market Square and walked around. We looked at all the different rooms and all the stuff.


Summary of James J Hill House
The owner was James J Hill. The James J Hill House was designed in 1887 and completed in 1891.James J. Hill lost the vision in one eye in a childhood bow-and-arrow game. His formal education ended at age 14 when his father died and he took various clerk jobs to help his family.The huge basement of the Hill House contained servants' quarters, a kitchen featuring a dumb-waiter (to bring food to the dining room above it), laundry, boiler room, and hand-pumped bellows for the 1,006-pipe organ in the skylit gallery above. The floor is inlaid marble.The two-story gallery was built for Hill's magnificent art collection, consisting mainly of Barbizon School of mid-19th century landscape papers. Retractable iron grilles on the windows and doors provided security for the collection and the family's other valuable possessions. Much of the art collection was later given to the Minneapolis Institute of Art, which Hill helped found in 1915.

 

Summit Aves Summary-

Rich people lived on Summit Ave. Queen Anne and Greek Revival were the most common house styles on Summit Ave Summit Avenue is a street in Saint Paul, MN United States, known for having a number of historic houses, churches, synagogues, and schools. The street starts just west of downtown Saint Paul and continues four and a half miles west to the Mississippi River where Saint Paul meets Minneapolis. Other cities have similar streets, such as Prairie Avenue in Chicago, Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, and Fifth Avenue in New York City. Summit Avenue is notable for having preserved its historic character and mix of buildings, as compared to these other examples, and it remains a well-preserved example of a Victorian residential boulevard.^[2]
Summit Avenue is part of two National Historic Districts and two City of Saint Paul Heritage Preservation Districts. The National Historic Districts are the Historic Hill District, The history of Summit Avenue dates back to the early 1850s, when Saint Paul was in its infancy. Mansions were starting to appear on top of the hill in the earliest days of the city. An 1859 photograph by Joel Whitney shows six houses on the hill. Edward Duffield Neill owned the first house on Summit Avenue, in a location now occupied by the James J. Hill House. My favorite house was this queen Anne on the left.

 

International Market Square-

 The historic building of IMS has been home to several innovative and creative pioneers of Minneapolis design.Built in 1905, the IMS building was modeled after the San Francisco Design Center. Initially, the structure served as the manufacturing facility for Northwestern Knitting. It later housed the headquarters for Munsingwear Inc., a business that transformed the garment industry with its union suit. In 1985, International Market Square became Minnesota’s largest renovated building and our home, providing the most innovative and celebrated interior design resources. Whether you need help with your office, kitchen, bathroom, lighting, windows, or fabric/textiles, we’ve got you covered. IMS is proud to be part of this enduring landmark of design. In the International Market Square there is show rooms for the public and some show rooms, you have to be an interior designer or have an interior designer with you when you look at the show rooms. They have kitchens, bathrooms, living rooms, and bedroom show rooms. They have decor and art galleries also.