PiPress Archives

08/07/2025

Nine-year-old Robert Kennedy and his 11-year-old sister Kathy try out a family fallout shelter on display at American National Bank at Seventh and Robert streets in St. Paul on Aug. 31, 1961.

Fallout shelters were big business at that time, as the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union began to heat up.

Can you guess what it would have cost to install one in your backyard? Find out in the latest installment of our photo gallery here: https://twincities.com/throwback

📸: Former Pioneer Press photographer Roy Derickson

08/04/2025

Long before she played receptionist Jennifer Marlowe on “WKRP in Cincinnati,” Anderson won the title of “Miss Thermo-Jac” at the Emporium in downtown St. Paul.

Anderson, who died Sunday at 79, was just 14 when she won a contest to model outfits for a clothing company at the Emporium.

08/03/2025

Highland Park opened 100 years ago this week. It was the biggest party St. Paul had ever seen, outdrawing opening day of that year's State Fair.

The 7-hour celebration, which boasted free barbecue and band concerts, drew more people than opening day at the State Fair a month later.

08/01/2025

It was 18 years ago today that the I-35W bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River in Minneapolis during the evening rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring 145.

Pioneer Press photographers took hundreds of photos that day. You can see a few of them here: https://www.twincities.com/2025/07/23/the-i-35w-bridge-collapse-in-pictures/

07/31/2025

The Cathedral of St. Paul rises out of an early morning fog bank on Sept. 16, 1999.

The striking green patina of its 70-ton copper dome was once an iconic feature of the Saintly City's skyline, but it was replaced in 2002 with the muted cladding seen today. The dome is expected to regain its green hue over time as the copper of the replacement roof oxidizes.

View a gallery of our images at twincities.com/throwback

📸: Former Pioneer Press photographer Joe Oden

07/01/2025

A private investigator hired by the St. Paul Daily News tapped the department's phone lines and bugged its offices in 1935, capturing evidence of rampant corruption within its ranks.

Conversations captured by a private investigator on the payroll of the St. Paul Daily News led to the ouster or suspension of more than a dozen police officers in 1935.

06/26/2025

Pioneer Press reporter Bill Martin interviews a seemingly talkative hippopotamus named Miss Oklahoma in the basement of St. Paul Auditorium, where she was performing as part of the Shrine Circus on March 19, 1952.

The 3,500-pound hippo was chauffeured to St. Paul in her own truck for the weeklong engagement.

📸: Pioneer Press file photo

To see more archival photos of the Saintly City, visit our gallery at twincities.com/throwback

06/20/2025

"Jaws" premiered 50 years ago today at a pair of local movie theaters that had won a bidding war to screen the original summer blockbuster.

Local moviegoers mobbed the two metro theaters that had won exclusive rights to screen that summer’s hottest blockbuster: the Gopher Theater in Minneapolis and — somehow — the tin…

06/19/2025

It began with a complaint about a broken furnace, but 27-year-old Melissa Hortman recognized that there was more to a North Minneapolis woman's story.

“She picked up on the fact that there were these larger issues," a former colleague said. "Not every lawyer would pick up on that.”

As a young attorney working for a legal aid organization, Hortman took up the housing discrimination case of a Minneapolis woman.

06/19/2025

Barge-mounted cranes raise a 108-foot, 61-ton steel arch beam into place in the center span of the new High Bridge some 140 feet above the Mississippi River on March 10, 1987. Downtown St. Paul is in the background.

The new Smith Avenue span replaced a truss bridge dating to 1889. That century-old bridge, the highest in St. Paul, was deemed structurally deficient in the late 1970s. Weight restrictions were imposed and the bridge was demolished in 1985 ahead of the replacement project.

📸: Former Pioneer Press photographer Rich Marshall

For more photos from St. Paul's past, visit our gallery at twincities.com/throwback.

06/12/2025

This early downtown St. Paul street scene was captured in 1906 at the corner of East 7th and Robert streets looking northeast.

The Emporium department store is under construction in the center. Now covered by a glass facade, the building still exists as Metro Square.

To view a gallery of our previous images, visit twincities.com/throwback

📸: Pioneer Press file photo

04/28/2024

The debut issue of the Minnesota Pioneer – the state's first newspaper and the earliest ancestor of the Pioneer Press – hit the streets of St. Paul 175 years ago today.