Need History on Lowertown Depot in St.Paul (St. Paul, Mound: warehouse, rail)

[ogichida]

Hello,
I am an architecture student at the UofM and am studying the abandon industrial building in St. Paul called the Lowertown Depot. If you have any information about the building such as its use, ownership, history or have any websites, please list it on this post.
Also if anyone can tell me what the purpose of the metal box hanging on the back was for.

[ogichida]

Does anyone know of this particular building? it's use when it was still operating.

[ogichida]

Anyone?

[Ben Around]

Suggestion: Find out the street address, then check it out in a St. Paul City Directory (available at the Central Library). I'd start at about the 1950 edition.

The lettering on the building looks fairly recent. I'm guessing it is some sort of failed mini-mall that had been converted from a 30s/40s era warehouse in the 1970s. Looks like the Lafayette Bridge in the background. That area was once covered with rail yards.

[JenLee]

Sorry, I've never seen that building before (at least not from that angle, anyway). Having an address might help other posters figure out where it is and may help identify the building too.

That tin little bump-out IS intriguing, isn't it?

Is it near the railroad tracks?

[santos]

Is this building down the street from the Depot Bar? In the 60s I worked at the nearby Gillette Company and, if we had a hangout, the Depot Bar was it.

There was an abandoned building like this near the Depot. You can see the docks in your photo making this a freight depot for the railroad commerce. That building is by the tracks and the river.

Ben Arnold tells us about a failed attempt for a mall-type, or tourist something and I remember that too. It never took off, not even initially and this was in the early 70s, I think. St. Paul is wonderful.

[Icarus1990xx]

I went inside the left-most building, but not the main one, because it's all welded shut. Inside the smaller one, it looks like...a boat making place, if you look inside there, there are rows of concrete cradles in there. next time I go, I'm going to try to get into the main one. word of advice, though: Don't use your phone unless you are OUTSIDE of the buildings or have EVP equipment nearby. seriously.
The Lowertown Depot was supposedly bought by Bruce Vento and turned into a nature center, or at least that's what he attempted.

PM me when you want to go down; last adventure I had was Basic Training.

[ogichida]

Thanks for the reply everyone. The project was done and over with but great conversation everyone.

I do not have the address but it is located on the lower banks of the Mississippi below Mounds Park.

It is slowly turning into a Nature Center.

Icarus1990xx, what was the training for? Are you a ghost hunter?