Highland Park Tower

Built in 1928. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

From the record

“The Highland Park Water Tower is a water tower in the Highland Park area of Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Wigington, the nation's first African-American municipal architect.”
Wikipedia article Highland Park Tower, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 134 National Register listings published here for Ramsey County · listed in 1986 · category: Structure · built in 1928, by Clarence W. Wigington.

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. 1570 Highland Pkwy., St. Paul, 55116
When was it listed? July 1986
Category. structure
City. St. Paul city
When was it built? 1928
Architect. Clarence W. Wigington
National Register reference number. 86001670 - 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

9 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 9 fires within 5 miles of Highland Park Tower between 1999 and 2020, burning about 210 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
Railroad operations and maintenance	3
Recreation and ceremony	3
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2
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
20 July 2011	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge	LML
14 April 2004	Railroad operations and maintenance	1.0 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
14 April 2004	Railroad operations and maintenance	1.0 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
14 April 2004	Railroad operations and maintenance	1.0 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
1 April 2020	Arson/incendiarism	1.2 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	SAND DUNES
30 March 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	200 acres	Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge	EAGAN ASSIST
30 March 1999	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5.0 acres	Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge	L MEADOW 1
27 March 2004	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge	BIG TREE

Every fire recorded in Ramsey County

Mines and quarries near this property

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Highland Park Tower: 1 occurrence, 1 producer, 1 past producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Clay, Kaolin. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Twin City Brick Co. Clay Pit	Kaolin	Producer	Kaolinite
Dakota County Clay Deposit	Clay	Occurrence
Twin City Brick Co Pit	Clay	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
Fire Station No. 19	under 500 feet	2023
William and Catherine Davern Farm House	1.0 miles	1983
Derham Hall and Our Lady of Victory Chapel, College of St. Catherine	1.0 miles	1985
Old Main, Macalester College	1.4 miles	1977
West Summit Avenue Historic District	1.6 miles	1993
Frederick Spangenberg House	1.6 miles	1976

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 86001670 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.