Golden Jubilee: hotel upgrade, St Paul

Housed in the old post office/customs house, the Hyatt Place was the most luxurious hotel room of the trip. The property is huge. I received an upgrade (probably because it was empty). Best of all, I stayed there at an extremely affordable price. I thought how ironic it was that the best hotel of the trip was not expensive and some of the very mid-range ones had been exorbitant. Prices in the pandemic often made no sense.

The additional appropriation for an 11 story building went through, and construction was finally begun in the Spring of 1934. The post office was built in two halves: the west half first and the east half last. This was done because Commercial Station had to be used while the new facility was being built. When the west half was completed, Commercial Station was razed in a record twelve and a half days. The wrecking company alone hired 200 men and worked around the clock to raze Commercial Station. The post office was a P.W.A. project and provided many construction jobs as well as work for the quarries in southern Minnesota because of the decision to use local Minnesota stone. The building also received a five-story addition: floors 12—15 plus a penthouse in 1939, placing that construction as a New Deal-era project. The building has been further expanded in the subsequent decades. The post office occupied the first five floors of the building, while other federal agencies occupied higher floors.

https://livingnewdeal.org/sites/old-post-office-st-paul-mn/

July 2021

I wished I could have stayed longer in St Paul to explore the area deeply, but due to limitations of seat availability on the train with my pass, I had to leave soon. I arrived late and slept immediately, toured the city for a full day and slept early, and caught an early morning train the final day. Such the shame - I really loved the room.