265 Exchange St S
St Paul, MN 55102, USA

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Apr 20, 2023

Charmaine Bantugan

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Ramsey House, St. Paul.

265 S Exchange Street, Saint Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota, United States

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Ramsey House, St. Paul.

265 S Exchange Street, Saint Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota, United States

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Apr 20, 2023

Charmaine Bantugan

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Ramsey House, St. Paul.

265 S Exchange Street, Saint Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota, United States

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Ramsey House, St. Paul.

265 S Exchange Street, Saint Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota, United States

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Oct 01, 2010

Dave D

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Architecture Rendering and Floor Plans

The picture shows the original architectural plans and renderings of the house.

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Architecture Rendering and Floor Plans

The picture shows the original architectural plans and renderings of the house.

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Oct 01, 2010

Sep 10, 2010

Dave D

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Historic Photos of the Alexander Ramsey House

Significance: The Alexander Ramsey "Mansion House" is an excellent example of the large private residence being built in St. Paul during the latter half of the 19th century, and is a symbol of the rapid economic and cultural development of the northwest after 1850. The house is of particular interest because it has been altered only slightly from its original condition, and has retained almost all of the original furnishings.

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Historic Photos of the Alexander Ramsey House

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1978

Marley Zielike

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Architecture Place

Color slide of Ramsey House. Date stamped on slide mount indicates 1978.

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Architecture Place

Color slide of Ramsey House. Date stamped on slide mount indicates 1978.

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1978

1976

Marley Zielike

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Architecture Place

Color slide of west side of the Ramsey House. Date stamped on slide mount indicates 1976.

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Architecture Place

Color slide of west side of the Ramsey House. Date stamped on slide mount indicates 1976.

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1974

Marley Zielike

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Architecture Place

Color slide of Ramsey House dining room. Date stamped on slide mount indicates 1974.

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Architecture Place

Color slide of Ramsey House dining room. Date stamped on slide mount indicates 1974.

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1974

Marley Zielike

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Architecture Place

Color slide of Ramsey House parlor room. Date stamped on slide mount indicates 1974.

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Architecture Place

Color slide of Ramsey House parlor room. Date stamped on slide mount indicates 1974.

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Nov 27, 1973

Dave D

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National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance: Alexander Ramsey held a greater number of important local and federal offices than any other Minnesotan. From the time he arrived, in 1849, until his death in 1903, he devoted himself to the public and private welfare of Minnesota and its citizens. He established the administrative machinery of the territory and guided the territory and state through difficult early years. He represented the State in the United States Senate for twelve years. Before he returned to his adopted home, he served in the administrative branch of the federal government for seven years. This Victorian mansion reflects the life of a man of public affairs and as such provides a contrast to the log cabin and frame house of the homesteader and the immigrant. Alexander Ramsey, ex-Congressman from Pennsylvania, was appointed governor of Minnesota Territory because of his successful campaign for Zachary Taylor in the election of 1848. When he arrived in the spring of 1849 with his wife and small son, the governor’s house was not yet ready. They stayed with Henry H. Sibley at Mendota, beginning a friendship that lasted nearly half a century. Ramsey’s first message to the Legislature showed his broad interest in the settlement and development of the territory. He organized the government, ordered a census, and set a date for the elections. His greatest accomplishment was his negotiation of the treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota in the summer of 1851, by which the Sioux tribes ceded twenty-four million acres to the United States. When a Democratic governor was appointed in 1852, Ramsey stayed in St. Paul; he was elected mayor in 1855. In the first election for the State of Minnesota, 1857, Ramsey was the new Republican party’s nominee for Governor. He was defeated by his friend and political rival, Henry H. Sibley, but won office in the election of 1859. He was the first governor to offer the War Department troops after the firing on Fort Sumpter in April, 186I. In August 1863, while many Minnesota men were fighting in the South, the Sioux rose in a desperate effort to reclaim their lost domain from the swelling numbers of small farms and villages. As they swept down the Minnesota valley, burning out farmers and villagers. Governor Ramsey raised a force of militia and paroled soldiers and commissioned Sibley as their commander. By late fall, the uprising was defeated, and the tribes were driven from the State or penned in prison camps. Later that year. Governor Ramsey was elected United States Senator by the state legislature. He was serving in that office while he built this mansion. After retiring from the Senate, he entertained President Rutherford B. Hayes in his new home in 1878. The next year, President Hayes asked Ramsey to be his Secretary of War; he accepted and returned to Washington until 1886, serving as Minnesota’s first cabinet member and later active on two special commissions. When he returned, he devoted his last years to his friends, family, and public welfare activities. Each year, Sibley called on May 27 to observe with his old friend, the anniversary of Ramsey’s arrival in Minnesota. At the age of eighty-eight. Alexander Ramsey died on April 23, 1903. This house remained the family home, essentially the same as when he lived there for another sixty-one years.

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National Register of Historic Places

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Nov 27, 1973

Oct 01, 1972

Marley Zielike

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Ramsey House Project, 1972

Photo 1: Color photograph of people working in the side yard of Alexander Ramsey House. Rugs and pillows hang from a clothesline in the back. Caption on reverse: "Ramsey House Project, 1972." Photo 2: Black and white photograph of two women working in the front yard of the Alexander Ramsey House in Saint Paul. Caption on reverse: "Ramsey House Project, 1972. Betty Slade, D. Fobes." Photo 3: Black and white photograph of Betty Slade and an unidentified woman laying hose and garden stakes. Caption on reverse: "Ramsey House Project, 1972." Photo 4: Black and white photograph of Betty Slade and an unidentified woman trimming shrubs at the front steps of the Alexander Ramsey House in Saint Paul. Caption on reverse: "Ramsey House Project, 1972." Photo 5: Color photograph of women digging dirt and laying paving stones at the Alexander Ramsey House in Saint Paul, as a group of children look on. Caption on reverse: "Ramsey House Project, 1972." Photo 6: Color photograph of a woman digging dirt and laying paving stones at the Alexander Ramsey House in Saint Paul. Caption on reverse: "Ramsey House Project, 1972. Anita Morgan." Photo 7: Color photograph of a woman digging dirt and laying paving stones at the Alexander Ramsey House in Saint Paul. Caption on reverse: "Ramsey House Project, 1972. Alice Need." Photo 8: Color photograph of two women digging dirt and laying paving stones at the Alexander Ramsey House in Saint Paul. Caption on reverse: "Ramsey House Project, 1972. Betty Slade (L), Mary Hammer (R)." Photo 9: Color photograph of two women digging in the yard at the Alexander Ramsey House in Saint Paul. Caption on reverse: "Ramsey House Project, 1972. Miriam Messing (L), B. Biorn (R)."

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Ramsey House Project, 1972

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Jun 01, 1880

Marley Zielike

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Alexander Ramsey House - 1880

Historic American Buildings Survey Photocopy of c. 1880 View, Courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society VIEW LOOKING NORTH - Alexander Ramsey House, 265 South Exchange Street, Saint Paul, Ramsey County, MN Photos from Survey HABS MN-48

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Alexander Ramsey House - 1880

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Jun 01, 1880

1872

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265 Exchange St S St Paul, MN 55102, USA

Property Story Timeline

Preserving home history starts with you.

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Apr 20, 2023

Ramsey House, St. Paul.

Ramsey House, St. Paul.

Apr 20, 2023

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Apr 20, 2023

Apr 20, 2023

Ramsey House, St. Paul.

Ramsey House, St. Paul.

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Oct 01, 2010

Architecture Rendering and Floor Plans

Architecture Rendering and Floor Plans

Oct 01, 2010

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Sep 10, 2010

Sep 10, 2010

Historic Photos of the Alexander Ramsey House

Historic Photos of the Alexander Ramsey House

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1978

Architecture Place

Architecture Place

1978

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1976

1976

Architecture Place

Architecture Place

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1974

Architecture Place

Architecture Place

1974

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1974

1974

Architecture Place

Architecture Place

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Nov 27, 1973

National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

Nov 27, 1973

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Oct 01, 1972

Oct 01, 1972

Ramsey House Project, 1972

Ramsey House Project, 1972

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Jun 01, 1880

Alexander Ramsey House - 1880

Alexander Ramsey House - 1880

Jun 01, 1880

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Property Story Timeline

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265 Exchange St S
St Paul, MN 55102, USA

Preserving home history
starts with you.

Share what you know,
and discover more.

Share what you know,
and discover more.

288 Walnut St288 Walnut St
Saint Paul, MN, USA

301 Walnut Street301 Walnut Street
St Paul, MN, USA

270 Exchange Street South270 Exchange Street South
Saint Paul, MN, USA

307 Walnut St307 Walnut St
Saint Paul, MN, USA

311 Walnut St311 Walnut St
Saint Paul, MN, USA

287 S Exchange St287 Exchange St S
St Paul, MN 55102, USA

276 Exchange St S276 Exchange Street South
Saint Paul, MN, USA

280 Sherman St280 Sherman St
St Paul, MN 55102, USA

288 S Exchange St288 Exchange St S
St Paul, MN 55102, USA