Earl St.
In The Dayton's Bluff Neighborhood of
St. Paul, Minnesota
Last Update: January 25, 2008
 
Earl St. is one of the main roads on the East Side of St. Paul..  It runs North-South  all the way from Phalen Park (north) to Indian Mounds Park (south).  According to the book "The Street Where You Live - a guide to the street names of st. paul" by Donald Empson (Witsend Press, 1975), the street was first platted in 1857 as East Street because it was on the eastern edge of the city.   The name was changed in 1872 to Earl Street.  Mr. Empson said it was a personal name but he didn't know whose. 
 
It is often thought that Earl St. was named after someone in the Earl family, possibly Peter Earl,  or after one or both of his sons,  George and Robert, two well known doctors.   However it has been pointed out by local historian Steve Trimble that this scenario is unlikely as the street was named long before these Earls came on the scene. 

So it was probably just a coincidence that George and Robert Earl were surgeons at the Mounds Park Sanitarium, built in 1906 at 200 Earl St. near Indian Mounds Park.  It  later became Mounds Park Hospital and  was replaced by a new Mounds Park Hospital just to the east of the old one in the 1960s. The site of the old one became a parking lot for the new one. The new Mounds Park Hospital was closed in the late 1980s or early 1990s and has since become the Marian Center of Saint Paul.  

 
 
Two postcard views of the Mounds Park Sanitarium circa 1910.

The Earl brothers, Dr. George Earl and Dr. Robert Earl,  were featured in the book "Men of Minnesota" (c. 1915 by R. L. Polk & Co. of St. Paul). This book contains the photographs of 2048 important Minnesotans (all of the male variety) from almost all walks of life.  There was very little information about either of them, only the captions under their pictures.  Here are the good Doctors Earl (for which Earl Street was not named): 
 
The good Doctors Earl, George and Robert

There is also no known connection between Earl St. and the popular oldies song "The Duke of Earl".  And more than likely the Earl of Sandwich never made his home, or his sandwiches, on this street. And  former Minnesota Twins catcher Earl Batty never played ball there.  In fact, there are an incredible number of Earl related names that have absolutely nothing to do with the naming of this street.

Submitted by Greg Cosimini. 
 
 
 
 

 
 

 

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