On This Date In Twin Cities History - November 1, 1841

On this date in 1841, Father Lucien Galtier dedicates a log church in the area that was known then as Pig’s Eye. Located on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River between what are now Minnesota and Cedar streets, the log structure was built in just a few days by eight French Canadian settlers using logs cut on the spot and secured by wooden pins. The roof was constructed of steeply slanting bark-covered slabs, donated by a mill owner in Stillwater. At the church’s dedication, Galtier declared: “Pig’s Eye, converted thou shalt be, like Saul; Arise, and be, henceforth, Saint Paul!” The town would eventually take the name St. Paul as well and was incorporated in 1849. Over the years, the log church was expanded, and by 1851, the area’s first bishop, Joseph Cretin, formally named the log church “the Cathedral of Saint Paul”. Eventually outliving its usefulness as a church, the structure later served as the first school of the Sisters of St. Joseph. In 1856, its logs were dismantled, numbered, and hauled up to the new location for St. Joseph’s Academy on St. Anthony Hill (now Cathedral Hill). Unfortunately, the plan to rebuild the chapel as a historic site were never realized and the logs were burned for heat.

Chapel of St. Paul circa 1855 (MHS)