Photograph of Como Park Zoo and Conservatory — Photograph by RxS at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Como Park Conservatory

Built in 1873. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

From the record

“The Como Park Zoo and Marjorie McNeely Conservatory are located in Como Park at 1225 Estabrook Drive in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The park, zoo and conservatory are owned by the City of Saint Paul and are a division of Saint Paul Parks and Recreation.”
Wikipedia article Como Park Zoo and Conservatory, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 134 National Register listings published here for Ramsey County · listed in 1974 · category: Structure · built in 1873.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Address. Como Park, St. Paul, 55108
When was it listed? November 1974
Category. structure
City. St. Paul city
When was it built? 1873
National Register reference number. 74001033 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

The ground it stands on

13,839 words

The chapter on St. Paul City in HIstory of Ramsey County and the CIty of St. Paul, published 1881 names St. Paul. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

May 18th, 1869. a formal call was extended to Rey. George A. Howard of Catskill, New York. which was declined by him after a visit to St. Paul. January 28th. 1869, the corner stone of the new chureh building was laid with appropriate ceremonies. and in December, the basement was ready for occupancy. the first public service held in it being the Christmas anniversary of the Sunday school. The next day, Sabbath, the first regular church service was held in the basement.

Passage source: HIstory of Ramsey County and the CIty of St. Paul, published 1881.

The necessity of choosing a pastor was apparent. and a call to the Rey. David R. Breed was | ordered. IIe soon after accepted, and in May, 1870, began his duties. In October, 1870, Mr. Breed was formally ordained to the ministry and installed as pastor of the church by the Presbytery of St. Paul.

Passage source: HIstory of Ramsey County and the CIty of St. Paul, published 1881.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on St. Paul City - 13,839 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

3 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Como Park Conservatory between 1994 and 2020, burning about 30 acres in total. None started naturally. 3 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Arson/incendiarism	3

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
23 April 1994	Arson/incendiarism	20 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
1 April 2020	Arson/incendiarism	1.2 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	SAND DUNES
4 March 2000	Arson/incendiarism	9.0 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Ramsey County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Como Park Conservatory: 1 producer, 1 past producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Kaolin, Clay. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Twin City Brick Co Pit	Clay	Past Producer
	Twin City Brick Co. Clay Pit	Kaolin	Producer	Kaolinite

Every working recorded in Ramsey County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Bridges No. L-5853 and 92247	0.3 miles	1989
Salvation Army Women's Home and Hospital	0.6 miles	1983
Northern Pacific Railway Company Como Shops Historic District	0.7 miles	1983
Henry Hale Memorial Library, Hamline Branch	0.8 miles	2023
Casiville Bullard House	0.9 miles	1997
Roselawn Chapel and Administration Building	1.0 miles	2021

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 74001033 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Ramsey County	All 134 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.