Photograph of Luther Seminary — Photograph by McGhiever, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

United Church Seminary

Built in 1869. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

From the record

“Luther Seminary is a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It also accepts and educates students of 41 other denominations and traditions.”
Wikipedia article Luther Seminary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 134 National Register listings published here for Ramsey County · listed in 1985 · category: Building · built in 1869.

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 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 2481 Como Ave., St. Paul, 55108
When was it listed? October 1985
Category. building
City. St. Paul city
When was it built? 1869
National Register reference number. 85003437 - 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

1 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of United Church Seminary in 2000, burning about 9 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 was 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	1

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
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

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of United Church Seminary: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Silica. 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
	Minn Silica Sand Pit	Silica	Past Producer

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
Norway Lutheran Church	under 500 feet	1975
Norway Lutheran Church	under 500 feet	1975
St. Anthony Park Branch Library	0.4 miles	1984
Andrew R. McGill House	0.5 miles	1974
Heman Gibbs Farmstead	0.7 miles	1975
Farmers Union Grain Terminal Association Headquarters	1.4 miles	2020

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 85003437 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.