Who We Are

Save Historic St. Andrew’s (SHSA) is a neighborhood group composed of friends and community-members living in and around the Warrendale neighborhood where the former St. Andrew’s church had been a fixture for nearly a century. Our group formed in April 2018 when the current owner of the building, the public charter school, the Twin Cities German Immersion School (TCGIS), publicly announced plans to raze St. Andrew’s and erect a new school building in its place to meet the needs of their growing enrollment, with marginal input from the Warrendale community. 

None of us imagined that this iconic, historic building would be threatened with demolition.  At the very least, we assumed that any plans to alter the landscape where many of us live, work, teach, preach, learn, worship, or play would involve a robust public process in which the neighborhood was fully engaged. Unfortunately, this did not happen and TCGIS demolished St. Andrew’s in August of 2019.

Our goal was clear: Stop the demolition and collaborate to find alternatives, before demolition. We were informed citizens who sought a sensible, well-reasoned approach to the management of historic resources and to maintain the residential and historic character of the Warrendale neighborhood. St. Andrew’s is of immense historic and cultural value and we followed all legal avenues to ensure that The former Church of St. Andrew received a proper assessment and protection, as allowed under city, state, and federal law.

Saint Paul’s Comprehensive Plan clearly urges the exploration of alternatives to demolition of historic resources, particularly a culturally historic site such as St. Andrew’s. We believed that taxpayer-funded public institutions—which include charter schools like TCGIS—have a responsibility to explore alternative designs that will allow historic buildings like Saint Andrew’s to be re-purposed to meet current needs, not destroyed.

Saint Andrews was historic, it was a cultural landmark and a mainstay of the Warrendale neighborhood.  Despite all efforts, we were not able to prevent demolition of this beautiful building and community anchor due to politics and the aggressive charter school consulting firm tactics, TenSquare who had a monetary interest.  The courage, sacrifice and hope of immigrants built this landmark. Their values and lessons endure and have been a part of this Como-Warrendale neighborhood landmark for nearly a century.

We called upon our public officials to help find a solution that did not involve destruction of historic St. Andrew’s, but as a whole, failed. 

The legacy of the TCGIS will be the ones responsible for destroying a historic landmark, designed by a German architect, whose father immigrated to the US from German at the age of 19, whose family spoke German, ironic.

Saint Paul is watching 

There was only one landmark in Warrendale, it was irreplaceable-not disposable.  Now is the time to revisit decisions it made and re-evaluate the unfortunate path of demolition endorsed by Saint Paul, to save future historic buildings from demolition.

• St. Andrew’s was the link from the past to the present, to respect the humble history of the immigrants who helped build Warrendale a century ago now gone.

• Our goals are to become leaders and set an example in collaboration, unity, preservation, design, education, and sustainability

• In times like today, opposite sides should have been able to come together and solve problems together - this did not happen.

• We endured TCGIS’s school board siege mentality, false accusations, pretend indignation, and knee-jerk responses, defined us as ‘selfish, privilege, NINBY mob that threated kids”?  This kind of rhetoric should not have been allowed by the City.

• We encouraged TCGIS to broaden their options rather than bet their future on a singular insular, expensive, divisive plan, to no avail.

• Fact checking is needed when potentially questionable information or rumor is spread via letters sent to the city committees, commissions, the Mayor, and City Council.

• The Church of St. Andrew’s was never ‘abandoned by the community’ as TCGIS claimed, and its historic value did not evaporate when sold by the archdiocese.

• The Heritage Preservation Commission ruled that St. Andrew’s is historic and should be saved

• Should we continue to reach out to TCGIS, even when they deny us and declare they will not meet again with neighbors, nor communicate, nor collaborate on mutually beneficial solutions?

• TCGIS elected the most difficult, controversial, risky, expensive strategic road possible, alienating a segment of the community forever

• The October surprise attempt at partial demolition by TCGIS was a last-ditch underhanded attempt to undermine historic designation by the city of St. Paul scheduled in November was not only dangerous but lacked any respect for due process and was unethical at best.

• Misinformation was spread to further the goals of people who would had no problems destroying a recognized historic landmark.  We pushed back on false claims, often repeated, that they considered all possible options and that destruction was the only path.  The judge in our MERA lawsuit found that TCGIS did not explore all options, and that demolition was not the only option.

We are no longer able to see the same impressive façade and touch the same bricks and stones that Warrendale neighbors and immigrants did nearly a century ago.

Your voice will make a difference for future generations. Please call and write to your elected officials! Let them know you support preservation of our community history and heritage, not its destruction. Let them know you demand a model of real community engagement, not more developer tactics to brush aside the community. Let them know you support a reasonable compromise as a solution. Let them know that destruction is not the only solution; there are better alternatives. We are stewards of our history.

Email the St. Paul City Council: Contact-Council@ci.stpaul.mn.us

Email Mayor Carter: mayor@ci.stpaul.mn.us