Bremer Arcade

419 Robert Street, St. Paul, MN (1885-1997)

The Bremer Arcade in its early years, 1917. Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society.

An anchor in downtown St. Paul for 112 years, the Bremer Arcade was part of the capital city’s bustling downtown core. It shared the intersection of Robert Street and Seventh with three department stores (including the The Golden Rule/Emporium Department Stores) and the Ryan Hotel—St. Paul’s grandest. The structure was once a common component of American urban life—shopping arcades we precursors to contemporary shopping malls.(1) The building offered several stories of professional offices, cafes, haberdashers, tailors, hairdressers, cigar stores, and small-scale medical offices.(2) As a nexus of downtown St. Paul’s commercial activity, the Bremer Arcade provided all of the necessary conditions for queer sexual activity among men.

Like the surrounding department stores, the building was open for most of the day, it was a place of constant turnover, and it provided a small space for men in the know to clandestinely meet one another.

Ricardo J. Brown recalled the Bremer Arcade as a part of St. Paul’s sexual underground in his book, The Evening Crowd at Kirmser’s: A Gay Life in the 1940s. He noted his “territory” as “some of the toilets in St. Paul,” including “the second-floor toilet in the Bremer Arcade across the street [from the Golden Rule], its massive, old, porcelain, floor-length urinals big enough to stand in.”(3) The building’s plumbing fixtures added an interesting element of ease to cruising—without partitions, men could exhibit themselves with little fear of getting into trouble.

The arcade lasted longer than its neighbors and attracted business through the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. However, in 1992, the structure faced an unassailable opponent—The Mall of America, largest in the United States.(4) The competition spelled doom for the Bremer and other shopping arcades in the Twin Cities. In 1997, the City of St. Paul demolished the building to make way for the Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance company’s 13-story headquarters.(5)

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(1) Upton, Dale. Archutecture in the United States. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Page 195.

(2) Boxmeyer, Don "Tenant Says Farewell to Fabled Building: Old Bremer Arcade to Fall, But Electrologist Still Has 48 Years of Memories." The St. Paul Pioneer Press, Metro Section, Page 1C. 10/2/1997.

(3) Brown, Ricardo J. The Evening Crowd at Kirmser's: A gay Life in the 1940s. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 2001. Page 8.

(4) Boxmeyer, Ibid.

(5) Boxmeyer, Ibid.

Part of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN: 100 Queer Places in Minnesota History, (1860-1969), (1969-2010)