HOME | DD
Grace-Dupre — Swede Hollow
Published: 2010-10-28 19:33:30 +0000 UTC; Views: 1174; Favourites: 51; Downloads: 30
Redirect to original
Description
Acrylic on Canvas.Swede Hollow was a little village in a gorge around what is now the East Side of St. Paul, and it was home to the city's immigrant population since the mid 1840s. It was initially settled by Swedish immigrants, but it changed over to Italians, and then Mexicans.
It was literally a slum.
Overlooking this village was Dayton's Bluff, boasting the biggest, richest houses in the neighborhood.
The rich people up on the bluff used Swede Hollow as their dump. The people in the Hollow used scrap materials to build their houses. There was never any electricity, and never any plumbing. Their water was drawn from the springs and the creek that ran through the middle of the gorge. They also used it as their sewer.
It remained exactly like this until the 1950s, when Saint Paul realized that there were people down there, living in ridiculously hazardous health conditions. So they torched the place.
Today, it's a park.
While walking through the park, I found these. I don't know what they are - if they're an art thing, or bits of leftover foundation. Either way, aside from a somewhat hidden entrance tunnel on one end of the park, and the improvement arches on the other, they're the only indication that people once lived here in this park.
So it goes.
Wikipedia Entry: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swede_Ho…
I found a photo of the rock in the middle. I still don't know what on earth it could have been, or what it is. Any ideas? www.flickr.com/photos/naturegi…
(Photo from this Tumblr: naturegirlx.com/ )
This has become an inevitable series (with the first one being the Selby Tunnel: scribblerrigby.deviantart.com/… )
I've been going on excursions, finding those odd and junky places in St. Paul that for one reason or another have never been eradicated completely. They usually have the best history, and I've been finding that fascinating to paint, lately.
I'm not exactly happy with it, but I also can't stand working on it, anymore. I hope you guys like it, though!
grace dupre || website ☀ tumblr ☀ instagram ☀ mnartists.org ☀ twitter ☀ NEW! artstation ☀ NEWER! PATREON!
Related content
Comments: 20
I'm living close to this..I generally pass over it most everyday
on the way to Metro U!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Wow, really nice , you really got some talent
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
And by "some talent", I of course mean "a lot of talent"
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Woohoo, thank you so much!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
There's something hysterically bad about the reasoning behind how this place met its end as a place of residence. "Oh wow this is an incredibly unsanitary place to live WE NEED TO BURN IT DOWN."
The red in the branches and blue in the rocks is a great effect to help them stand out, and really helps make them separate from the smudged colors of the grass. This is a pretty challenging landscape to paint, and the outcome is great!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
HAHA, I know. I just kept thinking "...seriously?" when I heard that on a St. Paul crime tour I had taken a few years ago (a brewery tycoon had been kidnapped by the Ma Barker gang on the ridge up top).
It's even worse when you think that the same people were probably thinking- OH CRAP RIGHT, we forgot to help these people out and just dumped our garbage into their ravine, instead and now it's unlivable. WHOOPS.
I'm glad that you (and other people) like the blue paint! 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
you'd probably enjoy some of the crazy stories about Savannah, there is all sorts of craziness you get to hear about on the ghost tours. Apparently both James Oglethorpe and Casmir Pulaski were buried and then dug up and paraded thought the city and then buried again at least three times each. COME TO SAVANNAH, WE WILL PARADE YOUR CORPSE WHEN WE LIKE YOU A LOT.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This is so pretty! I love the way you've rendered the rocks. That blue makes it really pop.
It's super fun going on explorations and finding things like this! It makes me miss doing it in my old hometown.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Oh, I KNOW! It's actually what I've been doing for about a year now, weather permitting - it's pretty fun! And St. Paul's been pretty cool (or pretty forgetful) when it comes to leaving old hidden, historical, or run-down things around town
(Where were you before, if you don't mind my asking?)
Also, thank you!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Aaah, so amazing!
I used to live out in the boonies of Indiana. I'd follow the river for miles or explore around abandoned farmhouses and such. It was good times!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thank you very much - on all counts! 
I plan to do more of these landscapes with odd history, too!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
The one stone there, the one you had no idea what it was, it looks like it use to be part of a house, or at least that hole looks like a window.
p.s.
Tell me about these places, I would love to take pictures!
Where are they and how do you find them?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I thought that was what it was - the first time I went down there, I was actually going out of my way to see if any old ruins were left over. I'm not going to jump up and go - YEAH, look at the old foundations! Especially because I've been fooled before...but I really, really hope that's what they are.
There are a whole bunch of janky old places around here! The East Side is particularly nice about it (crappy neighborhood = more surviving history, it seems. Especially because it used to be the super-swank side of town!). There's the old Hamm Brewery, which I still plan on exploring on the inside. I've found a couple ways in already - but there's also a police station across the street. The people who have managed to get in have gotten some FANTASTIC pictures, though, and the inside must have been very beautiful in its heyday.
But yeah, there are plenty of old places with goofy history around! Start by looking for a book called "The Street Where You Live," which lists all of our streets, and whatever tidbits each street holds. It's fun, and great for the "intrepid urban traipser."
Geocaching is also a weird, roundabout way to find these - a lot of the ones around the city are in some great places!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
As far as the brewery goes, I'll wager there's more than a few ways in, here, ask around on this site, or I can ask my buddy :[link]
that sight will give you all there is to know, you just have to figure out how to ask people about stuff.
Just make sure you NEVER show your face in any photos taken during explorations. This is not exactly legal.
I've heard of Geocoaching, don't know much about it. What can you tell me?
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
