The Frogtown and Rondo community that surround Victoria Street Station are rich in history and culture, elements of which live on today.
The historic Rondo neighborhood was heavily influenced by the railroad industry. There was a time when a quarter of all African American men in the neighborhood worked for the railroads as sleeping car porters, Red Cap porters, dining car waiters and cooks. Throughout the 20th Century, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters occupied a central place in both African American politics and community building, helping lay the groundwork for the Civil Rights movement.
East of the station, at 825 W. University Ave., is the Victoria Theater, which opened in 1916 as a neighborhood silent movie house. The theater was later reborn as a cabaret-style nightclub with a live jazz dance band, singing comedians and a chorus line. In 1927, the house band recorded a version of "Moonshiner's Dane - Part One" that is included in the Smithsonian Anthology of American Folk Music. The theater building was closed during prohibition and served as a lighting fixture store through the 1990s. Today, the Victoria Theater Arts Initiative is working to restore Victoria Theater as a venue for arts and community building.
Frogtown and Rondo residents appreciate and celebrate their community history and invite you to do the same.
[Photo captions, from top to bottom, read]
Many African American men who lived in St. Paul's Frogtown and Rondo neighborhoods worked in the railroad industry as porters, waiters or cooks.
(Photo credit: Minnesota Historical Society)
————————
In 1927, the Victoria Theater house band recorded "Moonshiner's Dane - Part One," included in the Smithsonian Anthology of American Folk Music.
(Photo credit: Kurt Gegenhuber)
Comments 0 comments